The Musei Capitolini and the Palazzo dei Conservatori

The Musei Capitolini, a peerless and precious ancient-art collection, are traditionally viewed as the world’s oldest public museum.
In 1471 pope Sixtus IV ‘donated’ to the Roman People a group of ancient artefacts that had previously been housed in the Lateran, amongst which are the She-Wolf, the city’s own symbol, the colossal head of Constantine with hand and globe, the Spinarius and the Camillus.
This first nucleus of artefacts was displayed at the Palazzo dei Conservatori, the original headquarters of the homonymous Roman legal-bench, with the precise goal of allowing everyone to enjoy these ancient bronzes, following a revolutionary concept aimed at providing the Roman People and visitors to the Eternal City with the pleasure deriving from the ancient artefacts enshrined in private collections and palaces and destined to the admiration of an extremely narrow elite of high-lineage people.
Since this first acquisition, the Capitoline collection obtained a clear and peculiar definition of connection to the prerogatives granted by the city’s charters to the Conservatori, regarding the conservation of antiques: everything they safeguard is indeed from Rome or from its outskirts, and relates to Rome’s ancient history.
The relocation of artefacts to the Capitoline, ordered by popes and cardinals, continued throughout the end of the 15th and the 16th centuries, with a marked intent of emulating predecessors or of explicit appropriation of the Roman hill’s symbolic value.
The positioning of ancient sculptures in the Museum reflects a change in concept which intervened during the 16th century. From an initial exhibition underneath the porch in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, the artefacts were moved inside the building, in a balanced distribution along the route to the Piano Nobile, up to the Apartment halls destined to public and secret counsel reunions, where Lux in Arcana will be held.
This new concept of an open museum, originated from a regained awareness of the ancient grandeur of Rome, accrued together with the building’s renewal.
In 1568 a reconstruction was started of the facade and the inner and outer porches; subsequently the halls on the first level were reorganised, and the furnishing and frescoes were completely remade: the Conservators decided for an iconographic programme derived from the tales of ancient Roman history, with the explicit aim of celebrating the virtues of the magistrates by commemorating ancient exemplary episodes.
During the 17th century a second twin-building was commenced; it was subsequently destined to housing a museum of ancient sculpture, called Palazzo Nuovo.
During this period the Conservators made every effort to build, at their own expense, the bases and pedestals for sculptures who had already got to the Capitol, with a twofold outcome: that of offering a correct exhibition of the artefacts and that of perpetually binding their name to them by means of inscriptions.
The exhibition route proceeds inside the halls of the Conservators’ Apartment, the magnificent boardrooms where the Roman court met and exercised the duties linked to its public role. All the rooms are decorated with important frescoes dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries that are characterised by iconographic programmes which exalt ancient civic values and the best-known and most significant examples from Roman history.
The exhibition starts at the monumental staircase to the Palazzo’s Piano Nobile, whose walls are decorated with important figure-like Roman friezes; subsequently, the route proceeds towards the magnificent Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii, painted between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the following century by Cavalier d’Arpino. Following is the Hall of the Captains, frescoed by Tommaso Laureti between 1587 and 1594, where the Conservatori’s tribunal sat.
Next is the Hall of the Triumphs, so-called due to the 1569 fresco by Michele Alberti and Iacopo Rocchetti representing the triumph of consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus over Perseus; the renowned “Sala della Lupa” and, not far, the Hall of Hannibal, the only one in the Apartament to preserve all of its original frescoes. Carried out by Iacopo Ripanda’s circle, the episodes are inspired by the Punic wars. Even the wooden roof is one of the oldest in the building, dating back to a period between 1516 and 1519.
From this latter room the visitor reaches the 16th century Palatine Chapel, where one can easily see the grid that allowed the Conservatori to attend Mass directly from the Hall of the Captains.
Lastly, the Hall of the Tapestries owes its name to the precious tapestries reproducing pictures of Roman history preserved in the Capitoline picture gallery. In 1770 the hall was renewed in order to house the papal throne’s imposing canopy.

http://www.museicapitolini.org