Capitoline Museums
The Piazza del Campidoglio is made up of three palaces that were renovated and designed by Michelangelo, and the Capitoline Museums occupy two of those palaces, the Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo. Standing in between those two palaces is a replica of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelous and you can enter the Palazzo dei Conservatori if you walk to the right of this statue. Once you enter, you see a courtyard with many sculptures, the most famous of them being the Head of the Colossal Statue of Emperor Constantine I and on the second floor of this Palazzo is the world-known emblem of Rome, the bronze sculpture of the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus. The museums are distinguished by their elaborate interior decorations, frescoes, theatrical masks, bronze statues, stuccos, tapestries, and carved ceilings and doors. The Capitoline Art Gallery is on the third floor while the collections of the marble sculptures, sarcophagi, and busts are housed in the gallery of the Palazzo Nuovo. Just the first floor of the Palazzo Nuovo includes more than 100 sculptures of mythical characters, heroes, and deities.
I do apologize for ranting about sculptures again but I can’t not talk about the Dying Gaul because, similar to the sculpture of Laocoön and His Sons, there is something about a Gladiator dying that just makes you hold your breath from how perfectly carved he is. He is weary and in pain and his facial expression makes you want to go up to him and support him until he dies but the way he rests his hand on his thighs while his back flexes the overused muscles is nothing short of beautiful. The details of his neck where you can see the clavicle jutting out from the marble confirms this dying (no pun intended) concept of death as beauty and not tragedy. The marble sculpture brilliantly sums up bravery and its consequences in one moment of this Gallic warrior’s life.
