Sculpture Codexery

Capitoline Wolf

Bronze she-wolf from Rome's founding legend, dating disputed.

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The Capitoline Wolf is a bronze statue of a she-wolf suckling the twins Romulus and Remus, long used as a symbol of Rome.[1][2] It has been housed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill since 1471.[1] The sculpture stands 75 cm high and 114 cm long, somewhat larger than life-size.[3]

Key facts and history

Livy reports that a statue of the she-wolf was erected at the foot of the Palatine Hill in 295 BC.[4] Cicero mentions a gilt statue of a baby suckling from a wolf on the Capitol that was struck by lightning in 65 BC.[5][6] The 18th-century art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann attributed the wolf to an Etruscan maker of the fifth century BC and correctly identified a Renaissance origin for the twins.[7] The wolf's pose is tense and watchful, with ears pricked and eyes glaring, while the twins, rendered in a contrasting style, are focused on nursing and unaware of their surroundings.[3]

Radiocarbon dating performed in February 2007 at the University of Salento indicated the wolf was created between 1021 and 1153 AD, and a 2021 thermoluminescence analysis of the clay core placed its creation between the 8th and 14th centuries.[8] Scholars such as Andrea Carandini and Lellia Cracco Ruggini have challenged the revised dating.[9]

What the cited sources add

The Musei Capitolini website states that the statue was donated to the Romans in 1471 and became the symbol of Rome when the twins were added.[10] A 2024 article notes that a replica was gifted to Prime Minister Edward Heath by the Mayor of Rome in 1972.[11] The same article reports that Carruba was entrusted with restoring the sculpture in 1997, which allowed her to investigate the casting technique.[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Capitoline Wolf" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wiseman, "Remus. Un mito di Roma", Quasar, 1999, p. xiii; "Hall of the She-wolf", Musei Capitolini; Futcher, "One of Many: Arundells’ Capitoline Wolf - Arundells", Arundells, 9 August 2024 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Laskow, "Neither Rome, GA, Nor Rome, NY, Could Handle a Statue with Wolf Teats", Atlas Obscura, 16 October 2015. facts only, no text reused. atlasobscura.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Capitoline Wolf" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Helen Gardner, Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J. Mamiya. Gardner's Art Through the Ages, p. 241. Wadsworth, 2004. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Capitoline Wolf" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Livy Ab Urbe Condita Book X ch.23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Capitoline Wolf" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: In Catilinam 3.19.; (L. Richardson Jr., "Ficus Navia"). (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. In Catilinam 3.19.. facts only, no text reused. dlib.etc.ucla.edu
  7. Wikipedia, "Capitoline Wolf" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Francis Haskell, Nicholas Penny. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900, p. 241. Yale University Press, 1981.; Adriano La Regina, "Roma, l'inganno della Lupa è "nata" nel Medioevo. La Repubblica. 17 November 2006 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Capitoline Wolf" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Calcagnile, "Solving an historical puzzle: Radiocarbon dating the Capitoline she wolf", Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 15 September 2019, p. 209 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Capitoline Wolf" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lupa capitolina: nuove prospettive di studio", L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2010, p. 175–198 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. "Hall of the She-wolf", Musei Capitolini. facts only, no text reused. museicapitolini.org
  11. Futcher, "One of Many: Arundells’ Capitoline Wolf - Arundells", Arundells, 9 August 2024. facts only, no text reused. arundells.org
  12. Adriano La Regina, "Roma, l'inganno della Lupa è "nata" nel Medioevo. La Repubblica. 17 November 2006. facts only, no text reused. repubblica.it

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Capitoline Wolf (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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