The Rediscovery of a Talking Statue: Marforio. History and Events surrounding its Conservation

The statue of  "Marforio" (an attribution that philologists and scholars of antiquities still debate) was most certainly a grand statue intended for worship although a number of hypotheses exist as to who it depicts (the personification of a river or the God Oceanus) and the identification of which monument it was originally part.

Already known in the 12th century, the statue was inserted into the containment wall of the Ara Coeli before the museum was built.  The exedra of the current courtyard from the 1700’s not only shows the tastes and the inscriptions of the Papal patrons but it is truly a masterpiece. Here this grand Roman statue (from the end of the Republican era or the beginning of the Imperial period) with a basin in front of it stands as a fountain and as an inviting and pleasurable stop within the museum.  Guided tour led in Italian by Marina Mattei.