Exhibitions | ||
Collection | ||
Education | ||
Research and Conservation | ||
Publications | ||
Games | ||
Public Programs | ||
About the J. Paul Getty Museum | ||
Museum Home Current Exhibitions |
from the Capitoline Museums, Rome
August 10, 2012–May 6, 2013 at the Getty Villa
On view outside Rome for the first time in over two millennia, the sublime Lion Attacking a Horse is one of the most storied works of art to survive from antiquity. One of the earliest recorded works of ancient art on the Capitoline Hill, the sculpture formed the nucleus of Europe's oldest public museum of antiquities. Presented in a special installation at the Getty Villa, the extraordinary loan of this recently conserved marble group signals a new partnership between the J. Paul Getty Museum and the civic museums of Rome. The display also features several related sixteenth- and seventeenth-century bronze statuettes and prints that illustrate the reception of the Capitoline sculpture in Renaissance Rome. |
||||||
From Greek Monument to Roman Trophy The Lion Attacking a Horse is a resilient emblem of triumph and defeat. Representing a terrified stallion mauled by a savage feline, the marble sculpture is dated to the early Hellenistic period (late fourth century B.C.), when Greek sculptors began to produce naturalistic portrayals of intense emotion and physical exertion.
|
||||||
An Icon of Rome It is not known when the Lion Attacking a Horse—reduced to a battered fragment with only the equine torso and feline foreparts—was brought up to the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Its presence in the Piazza del Campidoglio, the courtyard of Rome's municipal center, was noted in an archival document of 1300. By 1347 the sculpture was situated on the staircase of the Palazzo Senatorio, an area used for the administration of justice and capital punishment. Here the work symbolized Rome's citizen government and served as a direct link to the city's glorious classical past.
|
||||||
The Lion Attacking a Horse stood in different locations on the Capitoline after the bronze she-wolf replaced it as the icon of Rome. Since 1925 it has occupied a fountain in the Caffarelli Garden behind the Palazzo dei Conservatori. In 2012 the Capitoline Museums undertook an analysis of its ancient manufacture and modern interventions, repaired breaks, and cleaned the stone, as shown in this video. The inaugural presentation at the Getty Villa reveals the result of this conservation and marks the sculpture's sole journey outside Rome in more than two thousand years. |
||||||
About the Capitoline Museums The Capitoline Museums are a complex of buildings on the Capitoline Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome. Overlooking the Roman Forum, the Capitoline was the city's religious and political center in antiquity. During the medieval period, palaces were erected over the ruins: the Palazzo Senatorio (1200–1300s) and the Palazzo dei Conservatori (1400s). Michelangelo undertook a commission to renovate the Campidoglio and surrounding palaces.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||