Arcadia Italy

written by jared renzi, babson college, ARCADIA IN ROME, MUSEUM PRACTICES - FALL 2018

Among all the museums I’ve been to over the years, across the states and now a few in Italy, the Capitoline Museum was easily one of the most interesting and powerful visits of them all. The museum is rich with some of the most unique and substantial works one can find, from the colossal statue of Constantine to the original artifact of Marcus Aurelius, Medusa, the She-Wolf, Hercules – the list goes on. First glance at any one of these alone is enough to take your breath away, but it was the design and architecture in how the museum situated these objects that I found most impactful.

Before entering the museum, you find the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius on a base designed by Michelangelo in the piazza just outside; however, it is only a copy. The face of Marcus Aurelius was once mistaken for that of Constantine’s, the first Christian Emperor, and due to Constantine’s notably strong adherence to Christianity, the statue was spared during the Middle Ages when most bronze was being melted for materials. Later however, it then began to be wear down with the weather so a copy was made as a replacement and the original statue was moved inside the museum, where it can now be found along with the real parts of the colossal Constantine sculpture. I found this story and the relationship between the two pieces of work to be fascinating, especially how the museum reacted to it all. As you can see in the picture to the left, the Capitoline took a very intentional and well-thought-out approach to the way they situated the two together. Staged in one of the more modern-styled rooms of the museum, the exedra, their placement greets one another rather than fighting for the space, which I thought was brilliant. This way, visitors are drawn to the curiosity of why that might be and think deeper into the two with less distraction from different objects. If you consider this alternative rooms surrounded by paintings and other forms of art, and maybe dimmed by a darker shade of color on the walls, but the effect would have been lost. Here however, in a big, open room full of light and simplicity in color, Constantine and Marcus Aurelius inevitably become the only focus. Looking closer, I also noticed that the base of the Marcus Aurelius statue is the same contrasting blue as the pillars, drawing further attention up against to the statue in the class hall. Elsewhere throughout the museum, lighting, color, and museological design was much different. One of the designs that struck me most was just a couple of flights up the stairs when we’d first begun our walk through. Although we stopped at this point to talk, this staircase was not the topic of the conversation and yet I was immediately fixed on it, finding it difficult to bring myself back to the attention of our class and the notes I ought to have been taking at the moment.