The Capitoline Museum
The
great square features an elegant black and white design around a star,
centered on the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius (a reproduction; the original
is inside). Roman legend says that the statue is marble covered with bronze, and
that if the bronze wears through, so that the marble appears, then Rome
will fall and the world will end.
The original statue from the square is housed in a special exhibit space in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, near the entry into the museum.
The museum is filled with wonderful sculpture, such as the "Spinario" (1st century BC), or the Etruscan she-wolf, nursing Romulus and Remus (a Renaissance addition).
The Dying Gaul, a Roman copy of a Greek original from the 3rd century BC.
