Rome has a new statue, and a pretty big one: it has been rebuilt for a few months Colossus of Constantine took place on the Capitoline Hill. If his appearance at the exhibition Recycling Beauty of the Prada Foundation in Milan, between November 2022 and February 2023, had aroused enthusiasm, either for the novelty of the thing, or for the surprise effect and the sudden change of scale in an exhibition itinerary characterized above all by small pieces, or because although the vast environment of the Cistern seemed to barely contain it, Constantine’s welcome on the Capitoline Hill was more lukewarm, on the one hand because it was no longer a novelty, on the other because inserting a reconstruction among so many authentic ancient monuments for many smacks of Disneyland, or at most Cinecittà. Or again because the external placement of the copy of a giant born to be in a grandiose internal environment (that of the Basilica of Maxentius) is not convincing.
The future of the Colossus of Constantine and the talking statues
In any case, when evaluating the initiative, its apparently temporary nature must be kept in mind: the emperor will not sit on the Capitoline Hill forever, but, once the jubilee year 2025 has passed, he will be transferred elsewhere, perhaps to the Museum of Roman Civilization ( and this would be excellent news, because it would mean that the museum, closed since time immemorial, is preparing to reopen its doors).
Who knows if the newcomer will join the chosen and famous group of talking statues of Rome: it would certainly be disturbing, not so much for the Milanese accent that would characterize his speech, but for the terrifying voice that, from his thirteen meters in height, could unsheath. A company, that of the chatty Roman statues, which is not doing well: Madama Lucrezia is almost forgotten in a corner of Piazza San Marco, a stone’s throw from the shocking metro construction site in Piazza Venezia; Abbot Luigi, surrounded by cars, looks like an illegal parking attendant.
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Rome and its statues: a protection problem for the statue of Pasquino
The most famous and talkative of all, Pasquino, is now silent: not only because of communication social has long taken on much more ethereal forms, but above all because the distorted application of the concept of protection it led to the end of a centuries-old tradition, of a value at least equal to that of the ancient sculptural fragment. The fate of the work was marked by the restoration of 2009-2010, when it was considered that the base of the statue (old, and perhaps even ancient, but certainly not as much as the Pasquino group) could no longer bear the onslaught of sheets and leaflets with polemical compositions. On that occasion, a very sad plexiglass substitute was installed next to the sculpture on which to post the pasquinades, which fortunately later disappeared. Since then the illustrious satirical tradition has been repeatedly opposed and denounced as an example of degradation, according to a perspective that dangerously brings the idea of ”protection” to that of “decency”. Result: the base of the statue is almost always bare.
“For many, inserting a reconstruction among so many authentic ancient monuments smacks of Disneyland, or at most Cinecittà”
Prospects for a better Rome
If Pasquino remains silent, perhaps, as was said, Costantino will open his mouth. From up there he can see many things and, if he will not fail to complain and tease Rome for its infinite unresolved problems, perhaps he will also have words of praise for some timid positive signs. One comes to him from a few meters away: with the use of the spaces of Villa Caffarelli, where the exhibition on Phidias is underway, the scandalous use of the historic rooms of the Palazzo dei Conservatori for temporary exhibitions has drastically decreased, each time subject to revolutions and the invasion of external works and panels. A little further away, on the Celio, the Forma Urbis Museum has recently opened to the public, housed inside the former GIL gym.
The Archaeological Park of Celio
Next to the museum lies the Celio Archaeological Park: an expanse of ancient stone fragments, accompanied by essential information, among which you can (freely) walk, almost like new milords of the Grand Tour. The Casina del Salvi stands out above the ‘serci’, a beautiful building from the 1830s which should soon regain its original function as coffee house: such a beautiful café in the middle of an archaeological area would be a dream, and the sign of aturnaround compared to that punitive concept of visiting sites still so widespread in the Peninsula.
Fabrizio Federici
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