The headquarters town of the judiciary, headed by city statutes to be kept at least since 1363 with the task to assist the Senator in city government, there arose at the hands of Pope Nicholas V, in the mid-fifteenth century (“Summus pontifex is [ ...] aliud (palatium) Conservatorum to fjundamentis comtrui [...] torches “). The site was previously (at least the fourteenth century) occupied by the seat of Banderesi, captains of the militia in the town organized “happy company of archers and Pavia.
The images that illustrate the Capitoline palaces before the conversion of Michelangelo shows a building with a long porch with arches and columns, which opened on the premises of the areas of arts and crafts guilds. The upper part of facade was characterized by a continuous series of cross windows that gave light to the rooms of the main floor, while the ends were two lodges with openings to the square mullioned windows, a loggia with three arches also marked the facade that gave on the Campus Martius.
The courtyard, which was reached from the porch on the square, the current was smaller (a document testifies to the expansion in 1522) and was characterized, on the right side by a series of pointed arches, which put him in communication with a side room, the first seat of the “statues” Capitoline. A single flight staircase leading upstairs.
The intervention of Michelangelo, which began in 1563, transformed the old building, yet a medieval ¬ tion in a classical building from the nobility, according to a long speech prepared during his long Roman architectural experience. The front was then completely overhauled, aground in a geometric pattern in two or ¬ zens: the giant Corinthian pilasters that run the scan and the whole structure, and the Ionic columns supporting the vaulted porch. In the courtyard in front of the corresponding input, Michelangelo revisited the same pattern of the facade, however, more sub ¬ phasizing the division into two orders, and settled on the bottom, if ¬ a condo scheme handed down by an ancient design, the Consular and Triumphal Fasti found in 1546 in the Roman Forum. Transformations were also positioned in the internal pa ¬ palace, with the construction of the monumental staircase, and the arrangement of the rooms of the Conservatives, so that this opportunity was lost in the early sixteenth century frescoes that decorated the halls overlooking the square. One last speech in the courtyard, which was built under Pope Clement XI (1720) by Alexander Mirrors, involved the installation of the back side, from which they had been removed long ago (1586) fragments of the Fasti old to be transferred an upstairs room. Mirrors, according to the architectural design of Michelangelo, deepened the porch, creating a monumental space for the accommodation of the prestigious ancient sculptures from the newly purchased Cesi Collection: the goddess Roma and the colossal seated figures of barbarians in gray marble Morato.
Conservators’ Apartment
The rooms of the Palazzo of the Conservatories, the so-called “apartment” of a special nature linked to the function of the environments that the Conservatives welcomed the judiciary, that since the mid-fourteenth century played a central role in the municipal structure. The judiciary – the expression of a class consisting of the municipal urban nobility who had land holdings in areas surrounding the city and the “bovattieri” enriched by the trade in foodstuffs – had proudly claimed its autonomy, at least administrative action against the central power linked to the papal Curia. The Statutes of Rome published in 1363 had recognized the power of the Conservatives not only in financial and economic (they in fact, chairing the House Urbis, administration and control customs and taxes in the city), but also exercises control over ‘work of the Senator who was resident in the Palazzo Pitti. These states had also given them the power to appoint magistrates and other offices of the municipal structure, such as the leaders and judges viarum, which were assigned important tasks such as, respectively, maintaining the quiet town and the provisions regarding the planning activities. The central role played by the Conservatives is evidenced by the meetings of other public and Consilio Consilio Secret – meetings attended by representatives of the class Capitoline magistrates and municipal – which were held in the rooms of their apartment building.
However, the history and importance of the role of Roman municipalities include fully only in light of the relationship with the papal Curia, which was part of the Governor of Rome. This last charge, under Pope Eugenius IV created as a direct offshoot of the papal power, eventually deprive the Capitoline magistrates that, in the following decades, lost their real power and, while continuing to exist, came to play for many centuries a purely formal.
However, starting from the last decades of the fifteenth century, with the donation of the Sistine bronzes in the 471 and with the commission of the first major fresco cycle in the boardrooms, dating from the first decade of the sixteenth century, the palace where the Conservatives had headquarters underwent a renovation and decorative art culminated in the restoration of Michelangelo.
The rooms of the Conservatives, not only for the important fresco cycles, but also for the richness of each particular decorative element – from the ceilings, carved or decorated with carved doors, stucco from eighteenth-century tapestries to the Chapel of the Throne Room and the priceless ancient bronzes that are kept there – witness the reference to the ancient grandeur of Rome, whose memory is enhanced by the representation of examples of civil virtue. In commissioning the most ancient frescoes, which was performed in the rooms of the first decade of the sixteenth century and which remains the only evidence of the Hall of Hannibal and frescoes of the Sala della Lupa, the stories you chose as the subject of the birth of city and the exempla of courage and virtue in the history of republican Rome. The choice of subjects remained unchanged even when the salt knew that new decorative cycles, after long years, were performed in a historical and cultural context certainly different. This helps to give a unitary character of the decoration of the rooms of the long-term and bears witness to the symbolic significance of the events narrated.
Sala degli Orazi e Curiazi
In the great hall, which assumed its present size following the restoration of Michelangelo’s palace, met the Public Council, it is still a venue for important ceremonies: remember here the signing of the Treaty of Rome of 1956, the first and fundamental act of the Union European Union.
In 1595 he was commissioned to the painter Giuseppe Cesari, called the Cavalier d’Arpino, the implementation of the new cycle of frescoes in place of the previous year, mostly now lost. The Caesars, who worked with the help of his shop, he conceived the cycle as tapestries hanging on the walls: in the short sides of a heavy red curtain, held by Telamoni falls on the stage, the different episodes in the long sides are divided by age vertical decorated with beautiful garlands of fruit and flowers, trophies of arms and lustral vases, a frieze at the base running faux marble with monochrome medallions depicting episodes from Roman history in connection with the theme of the fresco above. The Cavalier D’Arpino, referring to the stories of the birth of the first king of Rome and told by the Roman historian Livy in his Ab urbe seasoned books, performed at different times of the episodes of the Discovery of the Wolf (1595-1596), the battle against Veii and Fiden (1598-1601), the Battle of the Orazi and Curiazi (1612-1613). On completion of the work of these early paintings knew a long
break and were only adopted in 1636 and ended in 1640, with the execution of the last three episodes: the Rape of the Sabine, Numa Pompilius establishing the cult of the Vestal Virgins and the groove track Romulus city square. In the room, since the second decade of the sixteenth century, were statues of Popes, clear sign of recognition of papal authority. Some of these have been removed for various events stories. Still there are two magnificent sculptures, a marble depicting Urban VIII Barberini (1623-1644), the work performed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and aid between 1635 and 1640, the other cast in bronze by Alessandro Algardi in honor of Pope Innocent X Pamphili (1644-1655) between 1646 and 1650. In 1643, the last year of the pontificate of Pope Barberini, the room was completed with three doors in carved walnut, with arms and large rectangular panels depicting allegorical scenes and episodes of the legendary founding of Rome and early director, attributed to the sculptors and carvers Giovan Olivieri Giovanni Battista and Maria Giorgetti.
The Exedra of Marcus Aurelius
The new large glass-walled room was built inside what was called the “Giardino Romano” Palace of the Conservatives is, chronologically, the last, a prestigious architectural achievement in the Capitoline museum complex. The aim of the project, designed by Charles Aymonino, was to create a large and bright space, which constitutes the heart of the museum appreciates the extraordinary emergencies of the monumental temple of Jupiter and are the core exhibition of the historical part of the Palace of Conservatives, with salt and noble fresco of representation, and the areas of the museum are of recent origin, housed inside the historic property Caffarelli. For the preparation of the project, it took several years, there have been various solutions that have gradually taken into account, as well as the improvement of the aesthetic and architectural value of the action, also new and discoveries have occurred in this decade. The project then, in his capacity as architectural and development of exhibition content, it was “historically” evolved, while maintaining the original instance, but shaped in relation to new demands and exhibition of “function” as valuable container to preserve and enhance the impressive ruins of the Temple of Jupiter. The architectural design was created in an open area that historically marked the boundary between the properties of the Conservatives and the Caffarelli family: the first news archive mentioning this area date from the early sixteenth century during the same period in which this family began to consolidate its presence in the Capitol through the construction of the first wing of his palace. The plants and the views of Rome allow us to follow the architectural evolution of the property whose history is intertwined in almost inextricably with that of the Palace of the Conservatives. In 1876, in the same space (called the “kitchen garden” of the Palace of the Conservatives) had built an octagonal pavilion, with an elegant floral design, designed by Virgil Vespignani, to accommodate the great harvest of sculptures from the excavations related to urbanization of new districts after the proclamation of Rome as capital. The large, bright classroom looking hyper, heir to the old creation, is now home to the great equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. After restoration work, completed in the nineties, the engineers have strongly recommended it to experiment outdoors, in its original position, just to preserve them. It was therefore decided to make a faithful copy of the sculpture for years placed at the center of the square and the original shelter indoors in an area “protected”.
Marcus Aurelius, Capitoline symbol par excellence, is therefore the focus of new exhibition around which gravitate the most significant archaeological finds on the old Capitol, and some of the bronzes, generic “primordial” Capitoline collections of antiquities in a particularly evocative and suggestive exposition .
Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius
The equestrian monument dedicated to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD) we find no mention in ancient literary sources, but it is likely that it was erected in 176 AD, along with many other honors bestowed on the occasion of the triumph over the Germanic, or in 180 AD, shortly after his death. At that time the equestrian statues in Rome were very numerous: the descriptions of the regions of the late imperial city enumerates twenty-two magnificent set fair, that’s more true, like the monument of Marcus Aurelius. The latter, however, is the only come down to us by virtue of his integrity and he soon took a symbolic value for all those who intended to act as heirs of the ancient imperial Rome. The place of the original location is unknown. However already Carlo Fea, who first attributed the salvation of the monument to the misidentification of the rider with the Emperor Constantine, disproved the hypothesis advanced by Nardini and accepted by Winckelmann that the statue had been raised from the beginning to the Lateran, where he mentioned in medieval sources. In fact we can say only that the statue was erected for a public dedication and that, therefore, the place of original location was more likely the Roman Forum or the square with the dynastic temple that surrounded the Antonine column. The presence of bronze sculpture in the Lateran is remembered since the tenth century, but it is likely that there is at least the end of the eighth century when Charlemagne wanted to duplicate the layout of the campus Lateranenis, passing in front of his palace at Aachen (Aachen) a similar equestrian statue taken away from Ravenna. In January 1538, by order of Pope Paul III Farnese family, the statue was moved on the Capitoline Hill, which by 1143 had become the seat of city authorities. A year after his arrival, the Roman Senate gave Michelangelo the task of rearranging the statue of Marcus Aurelius. The great Florentine artist, rather than simply designing a suitable housing for the monument, made it the pivot of that magnificent architectural complex that is the Piazza del Campidoglio. The investigations ordered by the Town Council following the terrorist at the Palace of the Senators April 19, 1979 revealed that the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius had severe corrosion processes in place and a disturbing static situation, in particular because of the slots located in the legs .
On January 8, 1981, the rider was removed from the base of Michelangelo and 17 the monument was transferred to the laboratory of the Central Institute for Restoration. The conservation work, in the absence of established normal procedures, has allowed a great development of techniques of investigation and technological innovation of the available instrumentation. After a long and careful phase of preliminary studies, aimed to define the condition and mode of operation on the bronze artifact, the restoration works were completed at the end of 1988, opening a new phase in the life of the equestrian statue. The structural fragility of the material surface and brought to the attention of all the issue of protection of works not kept in museums. It soon became clear that adequate protection of the Bronze Age have been possible only if they were excluded from all thermal and mechanical stress resulting from exposure to air. The desire to see the bronze statue in the square of the Capitol was unanimous, of course, but responsibility was chosen the lesser evil.
The temporary location in an enclosed space under controlled environmental conditions was the only choice that can adequately satisfy the need to preserve and make accessible the same time a product unique and precious as the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. On 11 April 1990, the monument is back on Capitol Hill and was placed in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museum, in a specially air-conditioned enclosed by a glass wall. Recovery Unit of Michelangelo’s monumental project was a primary concern from the outset. It was decided therefore to make a copy of the original. It was not possible for reasons other than adopt the two traditional techniques of direct kick or play for points by the compass or the pantograph In the first case to the fragility of gilding remaining together with its poor adhesion to the bronze in the second case the difficulty to faithfully reproduce all the characteristics of the molded plastic sommatesi as a schedule during the long history of the monument. To play the bronze statue has been used, therefore, the indirect process, which involves the reconstruction of the geometry according to a numerical model obtained by the survey ‘photogrammetry’ and the manual integration of the “skin” using traditional techniques. In 1997, engineers completed the Mint bronze copy of that April 19 of that year was built on the base at the center of the square Capitolina. In parallel with the implementation of the copy, we tackled the problem of the original musealization in an environment more suitable than the provisional finding a suitable place of size and dignity in the Capitoline Museum, whose renovation was launched in 1997 . To this end provision was made for the design of a new pavilion in the Roman Garden on the first floor of the Palace of the Conservatory, where at the end of the nineteenth century after the unification of Italy was hosted most of the sculptures which emerged from the excavations carried out for the construction of the new districts. The project will cover a window of the garden, given to the architect Carlo Aymonino, was the most appropriate solution in order to host the equestrian monument along with other important works of bronze Capitoline collection, also forming part of foreclosures since imperii stored in Laterano Medieval and transferred to the Capitol in the late fifteenth century with the aim of returning to the Roman people the tangible evidence of the ancient dignity of the hill.
The new stand, designed by Francesco Stefanori and created, together with the anchoring devices of the statue, by the Centre for Research Science and Technology for Conservation of historical and architectural heritage of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (CISTeC) is designed in the sign of discontinuity with respect to the pedestal of Michelangelo, it is impossible to avoid a confrontation is to emphasize the difference between the original outdoor location of the equestrian monument and its present museum. It goes without saying that the implementation of the new pavilion, which took into account the presence of the monumental remains of the Temple of Jupiter, not only offers a specific solution to the problem and the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, but it is the crown jewel – comparable museological interventions of other major European capitals – the program of reorganization of the Capitoline Museums and the entire Capitol.
Colossal bronze statue of Constantine
The precious remains of the statue of the first Christian emperor – the head, hand, and the globe – were part of the Middle Ages, the assets of the Lateran Patriarchate and arrived at the Capitol with the donation of the People of Rome Sixtus IV in 1471. The large head, a masterpiece of ancient bronzes, impressive for both measures is huge for the intensity of features, was associated with portraits of Constantine the last period of his life.
Is traditionally attributed to the statue’s hand is intended to support the globe, a symbol of power over the world.
