Thursday, July 5th, we went to the
Capitoline Museum. It was pretty cool. And by pretty cool, I mean, it's probably my favorite museum ever! (At least right now.) It houses parts of the foundation of the
Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
The famous she-wolf who raised Romulus and Remus is there, and has only recently been discovered to be from the Renaissance instead of the Etruscan time period. So recent in fact, that my textbooks still say that it is Etruscan.
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| She-Wolf with Romulus and Remus. |
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| Marcus Aurelius Statue. |
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| Constantine. |
In the same room there is the Statue of Marcus Aurelius, which I now know entirely too much about. It was the subject of my speech which I think I did alright on. Back to the statue itself, it is the only surviving equestrian statue from antiquity (Roman times). It survived because people thought it was a statue dedicated to Constantine. This error likely began after it was placed in front of the Lateran Palace (former residence of the Pope). However a quick look at any pictures of Constantine will show that these two works are clearly both from different times, and of different people. Constantine is never shown with a beard, and his face is much more stylized. There are large bronze remnants of a statue that was dedicated to Constantine in the same room. So it's easy to make a quick comparison.
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Commodus (son of Constantine)
dressed as Hercules. |
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| A statue of Venus. |
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The dying Gaul.
Part of a collection made for Cesar. |
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| Not sure, but it's pretty. |
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An Amazon warrior. Her dress is
so dark because it was originally painted. |
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A fawn and a goat carved from red marble
from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. |
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Centaur, part of a Pair.
From Hadrian's Villa. |
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| Never more excited. |
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| Emperors and family members of Rome. |
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| Professor and tired classmates. |
There are so many fun statues in this museum! I absolutely love it! Everything from decorative statues, to sarcophagi, to portraits. Portraits are also currently my favorite works.
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| Marcus Aurelius 161-180AD. |
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| Hadrian 117-138AD. |
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| Trajan 98-117AD. |
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| Vespasian 69-79AD. |
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| Flavian Woman. - 69-98 AD |
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| Septimius Severus 193-211AD. |
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| Caracalla 198-217AD. |
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| Nero 54-68AD. |
Have I mentioned how much I love portraits? These are some of my favorite Emperors, and some of the most recognizable. (If you want more information on any of them or their portraits just ask. I didn't want to overwhelm this post with info and pictures.) These are so much fun because you can watch how styles change from naturalistic to more abstract and back again. Each emperor had something in mind when his portrait was carved. It's really cool to know the history and what was going on when these were made. I'm only a little obsessive. But really there are worse things for me to be fascinated by.
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| View of the Roman Forum. |
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| And another view. |
The museum also includes part of the Tabularium from the Roman Forum. It's pretty cool. It also connects the two sides of the museum. From here there is a beautiful view of the Forum. The Tabularium used to house the laws of the Roman Republic and Empire. Above it is now government buildings.
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| A bad picture of another Venus. |
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| Such a nice museum. |
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| A blurry picture of a Flavian woman. |
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| Mosaic from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. |
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| A soldier who has been mostly remade. |
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| A Pan/Fawn/Satyr. |
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| A river god. |
There are just so many statues that I absolutely love in this museum. It's amazing. And I can't rave about it enough. After this class we went to my food and wine class and had some Tortelloni in a saffron sauce and something like a pot roast. They were both interesting and from the Renaissance. They aren't my favorite, but they weren't bad either. We also tried a Cabernet and a Merlot. I liked those darker red wines much more than the white we had tried earlier.
