It is considered to be the oldest national museum in the world; the return of these works – a sign of Rome’s former grandeur –
to the people of the city, therefore made it acquire a higher symbolic value, in so far as the Campidoglio had always been the centre of the religious life of ancient Rome and, after a long period of neglect, it became the seat of the civil courts in the Middle Ages.

These sculptures were at first placed on the façade and in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori and, subsequently, many works from excavation campaigns came to be part of the collection, including the statue of Hercules in gilded bronze found in the Foro Boario, fragments of the colossal statue of Constantine originally placed in the Basilica of Maxentius in the Roman Forum, the three panels in relief with the exploits of Marcus Aurelius which were moved in 1515 from the church of Saints Luca and Martina to the Forum and the so-called Bruto Capitolino.

The original historical nature of the Capitoline collection was interrupted, however, in 1566, when Pope Pius V, who wanted to remove all the images of pagan idols from the Vatican, donated over 140 ancient statues to the Campidoglio, transforming the museum into a large collection of classical sculpture.

In 1654 the construction of the Palazzo Nuovo - as part of Michelangelo’s brilliant plan for the restoration of the whole square - permitted the transfer of many statues.

In1733 other collections were added, these were, the collection of Cardinal Albani which included statues and portraits and this allowed Pope Clement XII to inaugurate the Capitoline Museum in 1734. During this period numerous other statues became part of the Capitoline collections including the Capitonline Venus, the Roman copy of the Hellenistic original based on the Venus of Cnodis (II century B.C.), the Faun in ancient red, the Centaurs and the mosaic of a dove from Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, as well as the statue of the Dying Gaul.

A large increase in the number of works came after 1870 with the finds from the excavations carried out for the creation of new
districts in the City of Rome, with the Castellani donation of Greek, Etruscan and Italic vases, the Cini donation of porcelain and the creation of the Capitoline collection of medals. It is possible to go from the Palazzo Nuovo to the Tabelurium through an underground tunnel which runs under the square.

The Tabularium is the ancient public archive of the people of Rome which, with its great monumental arches, overlooks the Roman Forum and here it is possible to visit the ruins of the temple of Veio which is part of the foundations of the Palazzo Senatorio.

Continuing on this tour, one reaches the Palazzo dei Conservatori, by crossing through a large courtyard that houses important ancient sculptures including fragments of the huge statue of the emperor Constantine described beforehand and reliefs representing arms and the conquered provinces which come from the Temple of the divine Hadrian in Piazza di Pietra; the grand staircase leads to the first floor where the original nucleus of the building is situated, here there are rooms decorated with frescoes like that of Orazi and Curiazi and this is where the series depicting the legendary origins of Rome painted by Cavalier D’Arpino and his pupils between 1595 and 1640 is located.

Besides the many statues present in the Palazzo dei Conservatori - apart from those already mentioned of the She-Wolf, the Spinario, the Camillo and the Bruto Capitolino – there is also the marble statue of Pope Urban VIII Barberini, sculpted according to Bernini’s design (1640), the bronze statue of Pope Innocent X Pamphili, sculpted by Algardi (1645-1650) and the bust of the emperor Commodo in an imitation of Hercules with his head covered by a lion’s skin, a club in his right hand and the pommels of the Hesperides in his left, placed between the busts of two Tritons; the group was found in the area of the Horti Lamiani on the Esquiline and dates from the end of II century A.D.

Pinacoteca

The first nucleus of the Capitoline Pinacoteca originated from the purchase of the collections of paintings of the Sacchetti (1748) and Pio of Savoia (1750) families during the papacy of Benedict XIV; it comprised about three hundred paintings which were collected for two reasons: to avoid the dispersion of the collections on the antiques market and to encourage the study of the works themselves by students of the “Scuola del Nudo” of the Academy of San Luca housed in a hall in the Palazzo dei Conservatori.

The Capitoline Pinacoteca, which was newly opened to the public in 1999, now offers a completely renewed tour in chronological order that goes from paintings from the late Middle Ages to those of the eighteenth-century: the main nucleus of the collection is composed of works from the Venetian and Ferrarese school, among which the Baptism of Christ by Tiziano, the Rape of Europe by Veronese, l’Annunciation of Garofalo and the Holy Family by Dosso Dossi stand.

Two masterpieces by Caravaggio stand out in the collection (San Giovannino and the Buona Ventura), as well as the mythological series (Rape of the Sabine Women, Sacrifice of Polissena, Triumph of Bacchus) painted by Pietro da Cortona for the Sacchetti family. There is also an interesting group of works by Guido Reni including the youthful portrait of San Sebastiano and the paintings of artistic maturity portraying Cleopatra, Lucrezia, the Fanciulla con Corona and the Anima Beata.

The monumental Pala di Santa Petronilla painted by Guercino between 1622 and 1623 for an altar at St. Peter’s, which was commissioned by Pope Gregory XV is placed in the hall built in 1752 which was part of the initial expansion of the Capitolina pinacoteca. Among the works by foreign artists, there are featured the painting of Romulus and Remus suckled by the she-wolf by Rubens and collaborators (1617- 1618), the allegories by Vouet, the portraits by Van Dyck (1627-1629) and Velazquez (1630).
Musei Capitolini

Address:
Piazza del Campidoglio

Visiting Hours:
http://en.museicapitolini.org/informazioni_pratiche/orari_e_indirizzi

Price:
http://en.museicapitolini.org/informazioni_pratiche/biglietti_e_prenotazioni

Telephone:
+39 060608 Fax 06 6785488

Internet: www.museicapitolini.org