The talking statues of Rome

The talking statues of Rome (Italian: statue parlanti di Roma) or the Congregation of Wits (Congrega degli arguti) provided an outlet for a form of anonymous political expression in Rome.[1] Criticisms in the form of poems or witticisms were posted on well-known statues in Rome, as an early instance of bulletin board. It began in the 16th century and continues to the present day.

Mappa celebre statue parlante di Roma | Enlarge map

Pasquino

The Pasquino Group (also known as Menelaus Carrying the Body of Patroclus or Ajax Carrying the Body of Achilles) is a group of marble sculptures that copy a Hellenistic bronze original, dating to ca. 200–150 BCE.[3] At least fifteen Roman marble copies of this sculpture are known.[3] One of the most famous versions of the composition, though so dismembered and battered that the relationship is scarcely recognizable at first glance,[4] is the so-called Pasquin, one of the talking statues of Rome. It was set up on a pedestal in 1501 and remains unrestored.[5]

The first talking statue of Rome

The first talking statue was that of Pasquino, a damaged piece of sculpture on a small piazza. In modern times the weathered fragment has been identified as representing the mythical king of Sparta, Menelaus, husband of Helen of Troy, and a major character in the Iliad, holding the body of Patroclus. In 1501, the statue was found during road construction and set up in the piazza; soon after small poems or epigrams critical of religious and civil authorities began to be posted on it. One story of the origin of the statue's name, and of its witticisms, is that it was named to honor a local resident named Pasquino. A tailor by trade (in some versions of the story he is a barber or schoolmaster), this man's career took him into the Vatican, where he would learn behind-the-scenes gossip.[7][8] He would then spread this gossip, with acerbic commentary, for the entertainment of friends and neighbors. Upon his death, the statue was named in his honor, and people began posting commentary similar to Pasquino's on the statue.[7] The statue seems to have been a local institution; it was also dressed up as a pagan god on the feast day of Saint Mark.[8]

La statua di Pasquino, III secolo a.C., Piazza Pasquino, Roma

Detail of modern pasquinades glued to the base of Pasquino, the first talking statue of Rome [1]

Some sources suggest that the first postings were little more than schoolboys taunting their teachers, but the statues quickly became a major outlet for critiquing government and religious leaders.[9] Pasquino became so famous that his name was turned into an English word, pasquinade, which means a satirical protest in poetry.[8]

A number of popes, who were often the butt of criticism from the statues, sought to limit the posting of commentary on Pasquino. Adrian VI planned to have it thrown into the Tiber River, and was only dissuaded when told that, like a frog, the statue would only croak louder in water.[7] Another potentially apocryphal story has a reward being offered to the anonymous writers if they came forward. According to the tale, one man responded, and his hands were cut off.[4] Eventually, the authorities settled for posting guards by the statue to prevent the posting of more commentary. As a result, the public turned to other statues, who joined Pasquino as talking statues.[6]

These other statues included Marforio, which was sometimes used to post responses to writings posted on Pasquino, creating a repartee between the two statues.[7][9]

Marforio

Pasquinades glued to the base of Pasquino, the first talking statue of Rome[10]

Marforio maintained a friendly rivalry with his most prominent rival, Pasquin. As at the other five "talking statues", pasquinades — irreverent satires poking fun at public figures — were posted beside Marforio in the 16th and 17th centuries.[1]
Marforio maintained a friendly rivalry with his most prominent rival, Pasquin. As at the other five "talking statues", pasquinades — irreverent satires poking fun at public figures — were posted beside Marforio in the 16th and 17th centuries.[1]

The statue and its location

Marforio is a large 1st century Roman marble sculpture of a reclining bearded river god or Oceanus,[4] which in the past has been variously identified as a depiction of Jupiter, Neptune, or the Tiber. It was the humanist and antiquarian Andrea Fulvio who first identified it as a river god, in 1527.[5] The Marfoi was a landmark in Rome from the late 12th century.[6] Poggio Bracciolini wrote of it as one of the sculptures surviving from Antiquity,[7] and in the early 16th century it was still near the Arch of Septimius Severus, where the various authors reported it.[8]

The origin of its name is a matter of some debate. It was discovered with a granite basin bearing the inscription "mare in foro",[9] but may take its name from the Latin name for the area in which it was discovered (Martis Forum), or from the Marioli (or Marfuoli) family who owned property near the Mamertine Prison, also near the forum, where the statue was sat until 1588.

Pope Sixtus V had the statue moved to the Piazza San Marco, (in Rome) in 1588, and then to the piazza del Campidoglio in 1592, where it decorates a fountain designed by Giacomo Della Porta on a wall of the Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, facing the Palazzo dei Conservatori. Part of the face, the right foot, and the left hand holding a shell were restored in 1594. In 1645, the building of the Palazzo Nuovo enclosed the fountain in its courtyard.

Marforio, Roman, 1st century AD, marble - Musei Capitolini - Rome (one of the talking statues of Rome [11]

In addition to Pasquino and Marforio, the talking statues include: Madama Lucrezia, Abbot Luigi, Il Babuino, and Il Facchino.[6]

Madama Lucrezia

Madama Lucrezia was the only female talking statue, and was the subject of competing verses by Pasquino and Marforio.
Madama Lucrezia is a colossal Roman bust, about 3 metres high, sited on a plinth in the corner of a piazza between the Palazzo Venezia and the basilica of St. Mark. The statue is badly disfigured, and the original subject cannot be identified with certainty, but may represent the Egyptian goddess Isis (or of a priestess of Isis), or perhaps a portrait of the Roman empress Faustina. The bust was given to Lucrezia d'Alagno, the lover of Alfonso d'Aragona, King of Naples; she moved to Rome after Alfonso's death in 1458 [13].

Madama lucrezia [12]

Abate Luigi

Like the other five "talking statues", pasquinades - irreverent satires poking fun at public figures - were posted beside Abate Luigi in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The statue is a late Roman sculpture of a standing man in a toga, probably a senior magistrate. It was found during the excavations for the foundations of the Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli, near the Theatre of Pompey. After being moved to various locations in Rome, the statue has been situated in the piazza Vidoni since 1924, near its place of discovery, on a side wall of the Basilica di Sant'Andrea della Valle. Its head has been removed in jest several times.

The original identity of the person depicted has not been determined, and it was named after a clergyman from the nearby chiesa del Sudario.

An inscription on its plinth testifies to Abate Luigi's loquacity:

FUI DELL’ANTICA ROMA UN CITTADINO
ORA ABATE LUIGI OGNUN MI CHIAMA
CONQUISTAI CON MARFORIO E CON PASQUINO
NELLE SATIRE URBANE ETERNA FAMA
EBBI OFFESE, DISGRAZIE E SEPOLTURA
MA QUI VITA NOVELLA E ALFIN SICURA

I was a citizen of Ancient Rome
Now all call me Abbot Louis
Along with Marforio and Pasquino I conquer
Eternal fame for Urban Satire
I received offences, disgrace, and burial,
till here I found new life and finally safety

Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Roma, 1979) - BEIC 6353634.jpg

Abate Luigi, Piazza Vidoni [14]

Il Babuino

Il Babuino, one of the talking statues of Rome and a fountain, is situated in front of the Canova Tadolini Museum, in via del Babuino.

The statue is an ancient depiction of a reclining Silenus: a character in Roman mythology, half man, half goat. In 1581, Patrizio Grandi, a rich merchant, built a public fountain in the former via Paolina, which he had decorated with this statue. According to the custom established by Pope Pius IV he obtained free water for his house and fields in exchange for donating the fountain to the city.[1] The people of Rome christened the figure "babuino" because they considered it ugly and deformed, like a baboon, and the street was nicknamed the "via del Babuino" as a result, the name eventually becoming the official one. After being moved to various other locations in Rome, the statue was returned to the street in 1957.

Political comment and graffiti

Pasquinades are the irreverent satirical inscriptions poking fun at public figures posted beside the "talking statues" of Rome in the 16th century. The pasquinades of Il Babuino are more properly called babuinate, but the principle of satirical criticism is the same.

The tradition of political comment continued as graffiti in modern times, to the extent that the fountain was considered an eyesore rather than an asset to this upmarket street. As seen in the 2002 photograph, the wall behind the statue was covered in graffiti, although not on Il Babuino itself. Recently, the wall has been painted with an anti-vandal paint, to prevent the graffiti reappearing.

Il Babuino, Fontana del Babuino, Sant'Atanasio dei Greci [15]

Il Facchino

Il Facchino (The Porter) was originally sited on the via del Corso, on the main facade of the Palazzo De Carolis Simonetti, near the piazza Venezia. In 1874, it was moved to its current position, to the side of the same building, now the Banco di Roma, on the Via Lata.

Unlike the other talking statues, which are all dated to Ancient Rome, Il Facchino is relatively modern. The statue was created in around 1580, to a design by Jacopo del Conte for the Corporazione degli Aquaroli . It depicts a man wearing a cap and a sleeved shirt, carrying a barrel - an "acquarolo", who would take water from the Tiber to sell on the streets of Rome during the period before the Roman aqueducts were repaired at the orders of the Popes and the public fountains played again. Somewhat incongruously, water spouts from the centre of the barrel, creating a fountain. The man's face is badly damaged, the result of paving stones thrown at it over the years, in the popular misapprehension because of the soft cap, that it portrayed Martin Luther [13].

Roma, fontana del facchino (con botticella), realizzata al tempo di gregorio XIII, 1580.jpg

Fontana del Facchino, Via Lata [16]

Further reading: Pasquino, the first talking statue of Rome



Art in Tuscany \| The Loggia della Signoria \| The Loggia dei Lanzi "The Statue of Pasquino" \| www.museodiroma.comune.roma.it The Talking Statues of Rome \| JSTOR Daily
BibliograPHY Andreae, Bernard, review of Sperlonga und Vergil by Roland Hampe, Gnomon, Vol. 45, Issue 1 (February 1973), pp. 84–88, Verlag C.H.Beck, JSTOR Blanckenhagen, Peter H. von, review of Die Skulpturen von Sperlonga by Baldassare Conticello and Bernard Andreae, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 80, No. 1 (Winter, 1976), pp. 99–104, JSTOR Herrmann, Ariel, review of Sperlonga und Vergil by Roland Hampe, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 56, No. 2, Medieval Issue (Jun. 1974), pp. 275–277, JSTOR Weiss, H. Anne, "Odysseus at Sperlonga: Hellenistic Hero or Roman Foil?", in From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context, Editors: Nancy Thomson De Grummond, Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, 2000, University of California Press, ISBN 0520223276, 9780520223271, google books

[1] This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Pippo-b. [2] Photo by Carlomorino, released into the public domain. [3] Stewart, Andrew (2017). Art in the Hellenistic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 118. [4] It was remarked upon as a matter of fact by Flaminio Vacca, Memorie... 1594, quoted in note 4, below; the identification as Menelaus with the dying Patroclus was made by Francesco Cancellieri, Notizie delle due famose statue di un fiume et di Patroclo dette volgarmente di Marforio et di Pasquino (Rome 1789), noted in Haskell and Penny 1981:291 note 2. [5] Epic Visions: Visuality in Greek and Latin Epic and Its Reception. Lovatt, Helen, 1974–, Vout, Caroline. Cambridge. 2013. p. 203 [6] Piperno, Roberto. "The Talking Statues of Rome". Retrieved 2009-10-20. [7] Sullivan, George H. (2006). Not built in a day: exploring the architecture of Rome. Carroll & Graf Publishers. pp. 117. [8] Claridge, Amanda; Toms, Judith & Cubberley, Tony (1998). Rome: An Oxford archaeological guide. Oxford University Press. pp. 211. [9] Varriano, John L. (1995). A literary companion to Rome. Macmillan. p. 167. [10] Photo byWarburg, released into the public domain. [11] Foto di Erik Drost, licenziato in base ai termini della licenza Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. [12] Foto di Rita batacchi, licenziato in base ai termini della licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 Internazionale. [13] Rendina, C., "Pasquino statua parlante”, ROMA ieri, oggi, domani, n. 20 – febbraio 1990 [14] Foto di Paolo Monti. Fonte: Monografia di Fumagalli, Alberto: Mirabilia Romae: il centro storico nell'arte attraverso i secoli, Milano, Cariplo (1979, licenziato in base ai termini della licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 Internazionale. [15] Photo byCroberto68 , released into the public domain. [16] Foto di Sailko, licenziato in base ai termini della licenza Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.
° This article incorporates material from the Wikipedia articles Pasquino Group and Talking statues of Rome, published under the GNU Free Documentation License.