Rome 2026 – Capitoline Museums – Marforio

“This huge statue has been known as Marforio since the twelfth century. The name probably derives from its original location, which in medieval times was thought to have been a "Forum of Mars" (Martis
Forum), in the area between the Roman Forum and the Imperial Forums.
The statue is more than six meters (nearly twenty feet) long.
It probably represents the personification of
Ocean, the god who reigned over all the world's wa-ters, and dates from the second or third century A.D.
The statue was moved to Piazza del Campidoglio in
1592. Here it was given a new function as part of a fountain in anarchitectural setting designed by
Giacomo Della Porta.
For centuries, Marforio was a "talking statue," like
Pasquino, Madama Lucrezia and Abate Luigi, ancient scultures on which discontented citizens used to postanonymous complaints or invectives against the authorities. (Pasquino was the most famous of the lot.)
When the Palazzo Nuovo was built, the Marforio Fountain became a feature of the courtyard of the newest palace on the Capitoline Hill (1644). When this building was transformed into the Capitoline Museum (1733), the fountain and the architectural perspective were revised by architect Filippo Barigioni, and the statue of Marforio was restored once again, this time by the Roman scultor Carlo Antonio Napolioni.”