Marforio

The Marforio is one of the six so-called "talking" statues of Rome. As with the other were at it in the 15th and 16th centuries Pasquinaden, abusive or lampoons published. Mostly, the mocking, written in dialogue form verses directed against unaktzeptabel behaviors of the rulers: so the statues communicated to some extent with each other.

When Marforio is the ancient marble statue of a reclining bearded river god. The absence of any attributes was also frequently identified as a representation of Jupiter, Neptune, the River Tiber or the Rhine him in the past. Already in the Antiquarie prospettiche novels ( 1496-98 ) of the " Prospettivo Milanesi " (presumably the Milanese painter Bramantino is the statue called the river god, this took the humanist and antiquarian Andrea Fulvio on in 1527. In the dedication of his book to Pope Leo X. he describes the image work as a river god, which rests on a rock. sculptor Roger Bescapè completed the statue in 1594 to the figure of Oceanus.

The origin of its name is uncertain. When he was discovered, he still possessed a granite basin with the inscription mare in foro. The name could also come from the area where he was found, the forum Martis. Also, a designation by the family Marioli (also Marfuoli ) is possible; the family owned property Mamertine prison, stood the Marforio to 1588 before. Moreover, we find in Andrea Fulvio an explanation for the name Marforio: In his opinion, it is a corruption of the word " Nar Fluvius ". As the largest tributary of the Tiber river Nera today was wearing this name. ( Antiquitates Urbis, Rome 1527).

The Marforio belonged since the 12th century landmarks in Rome. Poggio Bracciolini described him as a surviving statue of antiquity. In the early 16th century he stood on the forum in the vicinity of Septimius Severus arch, where the above-mentioned authors have experienced him. At this location the image work by Marten van Heemskerck was studied and drawn ( Berlin Sketchbook II, Table 125, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Prints and Drawings - Collection of Prints and Drawings, Inventory No. 79 D 2. ). Pope Sixtus V had the statue in 1588 put on the Piazza di San Marco and 1594 Piazza del Campidoglio. There she decorated a performed by Giacomo della Porta and designed by Michelangelo fountain on the wall of the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli overlooking the Palazzo dei Conservatori. The last time the Marforio 1644 at the direction of Pope Innocent X was again added as a fountain sculpture in the courtyard of the Palazzo Nuovo on the Campidoglio ( the Capitoline Museum ), where he still is today.

In his " function" as "talking statue " shows him an engraving by Antonio Lafrery of 1550 ( in the print collection Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae ): Here is the stored statue added a poem, which provides information about the legend of the " Marforius "

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