Madam Lucretia and the Talking Statues

In the heart of the city lives one of the most ironic Roman women. We are writing about "Madama Lucrezia" (in English Madam Lucretia), a member of the urban Talking Statues, known as the Congragation of the Wits, which is a group of classical monuments where the Romans posted satirical verses against the politicians.
Lucrezia is a colossal Roman marble torso from the 2nd century A.D, about 3 meters high and settled near the Basilica of Saint Mark.
The work is disfigured but its clothes allow to identify it as Isis (in Italian: Iside), the Egyptian goodness of the fecundity, venerated also in Rome
Indeed the torso may be a part of a colossal statue dedicated to Isis settled in Campo Marzio and moved to the current location in 1500, thanks to cardinal Lorenzo Cybo.
According to the legend, the name Madama Lucrezia comes from "Lucrezia D'Alagno", the lover of Naples king Alfonso V d'Aragona; when the king died, she was forced to run away to Rome, due to Palace hostility.
Throughout the centuries the statue was the protagonist of a carnival ceremony, called "cerimonia dei guitti" (in English: mummer's ceremony). During the rite, every man (usually artists and odd men) chose a woman and showed her to the statue, which was decorated with a necklace made up of garlic and ribbons. The couples started to move around Madama Lucrezia, dancing the "saltarello", a medieval leaping dance coming its name from the Italian verb "saltare" (in English: to jump).
In the centuries the people attached only few satirical verses to the statue, one of them in 1799, when the torso was dropped and someone attached this sheet to her back: "I just can not stand it any longer, about the failed try to establish a Roman Republic.
A last curiosity about Lucrezia! According to a popular tradition, the enormous marble foot, which is located near Palazzo Grazioli, could be a part of the original Madama Lucrezia (goddness Isis) colossal statue. Cinderella lost her shoe?

 

Madama Lucrezia

The marble foot

Il saltarello (medieval dance)

 

Marforio: from the Roman Empire to the Oscar night

C'è Roma e Roma keeps on writing about the "City Talking statues" known as "The Congregation of Wits",classical monuments where the Romans posted satirical verses against  the politicians (such as nobles families).  

The best friend of Pasquino (C'è Roma e Roma wrote an article about it)  is "Marforio", a marble statue from the I B.C., today settled in the yard of  Palazzo Nuovo (in English: New Palace), a building which is part of Capitoline Museum.
The sculpture represents a reclining bearded man holding a shell on its hand; this iconography allows to identify it as a river god or the Tiber.  
According to the tradition, the name Marforio is a corruption of the Latin inscription "mare in foro" (in English: the sea in the Forum) which decorated a circular basin discovered in the Forum, near the statue.
Another theory explains that the term Marforio comes from the Marfuoli family that lived near the Forum.
In 1558 Pope Sixtus V ordered to move the sculpture to piazza San Marco, where Giacomo Della Porta planned a fountain using Marforio as a decoration; but in XVII century it was relocated in the yard of Palazzo Nuovo.
The basin was used as drinking trough until 1816 when became part of the Dioscuri Fountain, set opposite the Quirinal Palace.
One of the most famous dialogue between Marforio and Pasquino is an invective against Napoleon; indeed during the French invasion of Italy someone posted on the statue a satyric sheet about the French general, accusing him to steal Italian artworks.
(The Italian dialogue is hard to translate in English. It is a play on words in Roman dialect using the verb "steal" and the surname "Bonaparte").
Today Marforio is famed thanks to the Oscar Movie "The Great Beauty" by Paolo Sorrentino.
The international poster is a brilliant photomontage representing the colossal statue behind the main character Jep Gambardella, dressed like a perfect and bored dandy.

Marforio (Palazzo Nuovo)

International poster of "The Great Beauty"

The Roman talking statues: "Pasquino"

In a city as Rome every single stone hides a mystery to be discovered. Walking throughout the streets near piazza Navona is easy to chance upon Pasquino, a talking statue set in a little square of the same name. The Eternal City houses six talking statues, called also the "Congregation of Wits", and Pasquino is the most ancient of them. Indeed in the 16th century, during the Papal State,  anonymous writers started to post satirical verses against politicians (such as Popes, nobles) on these statues.
Pasquino is a torso of a Roman marble statue of the 1st AD (maybe a copy of a Greek bronze work of the 3rd BC) missing the most part of its body. The monument was found near piazza Navona in 1501 during an excavation ordered by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, who saved it from the destruction.
In the 18th century the antiquarian Ennio Quirino Visconti discovered that Pasquino was a part of a double monument  representing "Menelaus with the body of Patroclus", which probably decorated the Stadium of Domitium (Italian: stadio di Domiziano), a famous ancient Roman circus built in 80 AD in piazza Navona area.
The origin of  its name is a mystery. According to the legends it comes from a nearby artisan known for his ability to write satirical poems.
Many people wanted to destroy Pasquino, such as Pope Adriano VI who tried to throw it in the Tiber, or Pope Benedetto XIII, who issued an edict calling for the death penalty for the anonymous writers.
In 1870 Rome became part of the Reign of Italy and people was less interested in this tradition.
In 1938, when Hitler went to Rome, Pasquino talked again criticizing this event (C'è Roma e Roma tries to translate the satirical poem from Roman dialect):
"Poor Rome made up of travertine!/ They are dressing you with rags to be admired by a dauber who wants to be a ruler!"
Restored few years ago, today the monument does not talk a lot. Is it in order to protect the cultural heritage or something else?

Statue of Pasquino

An ancient etching about Pasquino

A poem about the famous Italian actor Alberto Sordi

 
Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

Way of the Cross at Colosseum

This Friday Pope Francis will lead the annual procession of the"Way of the Cross" at Colosseum.
The Flavian Amphitheatre is the symbol of Rome and its construction began under the emperor Vespasian in 70 AD. It hosted gladiators and many public shows, but in 1750 Pope Benedict XIV decided to commemorate the Passion on Good Friday with a procession. He ordered to place fourteen representations of the Stations of the "Way of the Cross"in the Colosseum, but they have been removed years later and today we can only see a cross in memory of it.
As Rome became part of the Italian Kingdom in 1870, people started to be less interested in this Catholic custom .
When in 1964 Pope Paul VI brought back the"Way of the Cross"in the Colosseum the procession was broadcast in Eurovision for the first time and later, in 1977, shown on tv worldwide too.
In 1984 Pope John Paul II composed the comments to the stations and thanks to him, since 1985, actors, authors and celebrities can write the texts of reflections.
Every year thousand of pilgrims and Romans see the rite outside the Amphitheatre praying all together. The procession starts at 9.10 p.m. and you can join the spiritual atmosphere going there today early or watching the event live on RaiUno.

Way of the Cross at Colosseum

Other view of Colosseum

Rome sweet Home!

Welcome to C’è Roma e Roma “English version”. This blog started as an Italian page about our city and its famous masterpieces as well as its lesser known attractions. Reading the posts you will find news on Roman’s cultural heritage, traditional stories and hidden places to discover.
Rome offers such a variety of artistic sites, traditions and events that many visitors leave thinking to come back and every single time they find something new.
Today we launch the English blog rewriting the article about The Mouth of Truth and its legend.
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Buon viaggio!