We all know that the symbol of Rome is the Capitoline She-Wolf. What is it? You have to visit the Capitoline Museums in order to appreciate the scope of the work of art that stands out in a room that basically is completely dedicated to it. A work of art that more than others is able to show us the soul of the ancient roman civilization. Follow me in order to discover more about it, hoping to see you in the Capitoline Museums visiting them. 

Come closer to this bronze she-wolf, which you can see in the picture. Notice the detail of certain areas of the body of the animal, noticing the hair, the breasts and each single detail. Then your attention will be captured  by the two babies who are trying to take milk from the she-wolf. Do you understand, now, what I am talking about? You're simply seeing the bronze version of the myth of the foundation of Rome. You are looking at the episode in which there are two main protagonists: the twins, Romulus and Remus, and a she-wolf. According to tradition, the twins, just born, were abandoned by their mother Rea, who left them inside of a basket, abandoned then in the waters of the river Tiber. Where now stands Rome the basket came stopped somewhere along the bend of the rive. So the twins were out crossing their paths with a wolf in the wild. Logic says that, in theory, the animal would have had to take a gulp of the two poor children, but it didn't happen! Almost with the ardor of a mother, the she-wolf began to pamper and nourish the two twins with their own milk. Subsequently found by a shepherd, named Faustolo, Romulus and Remus grew up. becoming strong boys who fought each other in order to found the new city. If you want to discover more about this mythologycal episode you have to click here. 

Try to understand how the she-wolf itself became a symbol of the city: an animal sacred to Mars at the time, that went against all his instincts to feed the kids. Rome was to be born, had to grow and thrive, as designated by the Gods themselves! Then it is not a coincidence that, according to tradition, the twins were the children's Mars... But now let's see again this masterpiece with its mysteries! First of all let me tell you how maybe this bronze work of art is an etruscan masterpiece, but we do not know if the workers were 100% etruscan, or if the Romans asked to an etruscan artisan, definitely an expert, to forge the she-wolf for them. What we know is that, following this tradition, this magnificent work of art would be dated even to the fifth century b.C.! However, recently, it is espousing the hypothesis that the Capitoline She-wolf is of the III century b.C. (however ancient, no?), and that it should be the same she-wolf that was mentioned by some historical sources, including Cicero, who claimed that this bronze masterpiece was located within the Lupercal, a cave on the Palatine hill (there was also another bronze roman she-wolf that is located at the Capitoline Hill). There is much more to say about the Lupercal, and here you can find other answers. 

Moreover only a few years later the fusion of the bronze, then, the two twins were added. In this way we understand how originally there was just the animal and not the twins. But the problems do not end here, because we are certain that the two twins in the bronze, admired today by thousands of tourists that annually visit the Capitoline Museums, would have been added by the Pollaiolo only at the end of the ’400! What is the truth? As it often happens with works so ancient, in the course of the centuries, the captain of the moments of total darkness. After some sources, the roman era, this statue almost disappears from history only to reappear in a document of the X century a.D.. Then, we know with certainty that the Capitoline she-wolf will be donated to the city of Rome, in the 1471 from Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere, in any way ushering in the Capitoline Museums themselves. In short, regardless of the issues that we face still today, in the outline at the bottom of the history, origin and changes received by the bronze work, what we do know is that the Capitoline She-wolf from the century now is one of the key points of Rome...