URBAN SATIRE: ROME’S TALKING STATUES

THE STORY OF ROME’S CONGREGATION OF WITS AND PASQUINADES

The tradition of Rome’s talking statues dates back to the early 16th century when the city’s residents vented their discontent against the oppressive power of the papacy with anonymous epigrams and satirical verses poking fun at religious and civil authorities. These irreverent notes, affixed to statues at night to avoid the authors getting caught, were read with hilarity by passersby the next morning before being removed.

Stendhal noted on his visit to Rome in 1816: “what the people of Rome desire above all else is a chance to show their strong contempt for the powers that control their destiny, and to laugh at their expense.” The best known of Rome’s talking statues is Pasquino, near Piazza Navona, which remains in use to this day and is regularly plastered with political messages and even small advertisements. However there are five other statue parlanti among the so-called “Congregation of Wits”.

Pasquino

Located in the piazza of the same name since 1501, this damaged statue is part of a marble group representing Menaleus with the body of Patroclus, a copy of a Hellenistic work. The statue fragment dates to the third century BC and probably came from the Stadium of Domitian in what is today Piazza Navona. The tradition of using the statue as a noticeboard dates back to 1508 when church officials draped it in a toga and covered it with Latin epigrams to mark the feast of S. Marco on 25 April.

The statue’s name can be traced to a local tailor called Pasquino who is credited with starting the irreverent custom. Roman poets and thinkers soon began to use Pasquino to publish their own caustic verses which were hugely popular and led to the term “pasquinade”.

Andy Devane

Pasquino, still in use, can be found near Piazza Navona. Photo credit: NoyanYalcin / Shutterstock.com.

Marforio. Photo credit: Paolo Gallo / Shutterstock.com.

The popes of the day were irritated at being the frequent butt of criticism, with Adrian VI (who reigned from 1522-23) allegedly being talked out of his plan to have the statue thrown into the river Tiber, while Pope Benedict XIII took a harder line in 1728 by issuing an edict condemning to death anyone caught posting pasquinades. Eventually Pasquino was put under surveillance at night to stop the practice, prompting Romans to seek other statues on which to express their frustration and sarcasm.

Marforio

This colossal statue dating from the first century AD can be found today in the courtyard of Palazzo Nuovo in the Capitoline Museums. Representing a male divinity or river god – Identified variously as Neptune, Jupiter or the Tiber – the bearded Marforio was originally sited near the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum. Its name may derive from “Mare in Foro” or from the Marfuoli family which owned land in the area around the statue’s original location. In 1588 Pope Sixtus V had it moved to Piazza S. Marco and then to its current site in Piazza del Campidoglio in 1592. Marforio was known to engage in back-and-forth mocking debates with Pasquino.

Madama Lucrezia

Rome’s only female talking statue, Madama Lucrezia is a large Roman bust, probably representing a priestess of Isis or maybe even the goddess herself. The three-metre high statue sits on a plinth in a corner of Piazza S. Marco, just off the central Piazza Venezia. With its worn-away face,

Madama Lucrezia. Photo: marcovarro / Shutterstock.com.

the statue’s popular nickname may have been a reference to the 15th-century noblewoman Lucrezia D’Alagno, the mistress of Alfonso d’Aragona, King of Naples. She moved to Rome after the king’s death in 1458 and lived in the present-day Palazzo Venezia outside which the statue is located today.

Abbot Luigi

This headless statue of a man in a toga dates from the late imperial era and can be found in Piazza Vidoni, next to the church of S. Andrea della Valle. The statue probably represents a magistrate or an orator and was named popularly after the sacristan of the nearby church of SS. Sudario. Discovered during excavations near the Theatre of Pompey, the statue was moved to various locations around Rome and has been at its current site since 1924. An inscription on its pedestal reads: “Along with Marforio and Pasquino, I conquer eternal fame for urban satire.”

Il Facchino

This statue of man wearing a cap and carrying an “acquarolo” barrel of water was created in around 1580, to a design by Jacopo del Conte. At the time water-sellers resold water from the river Tiber or the Trevi Fountain. The facchino or porter was originally sited on Via del Corso, on the main facade of the Palazzo De Carolis Simonetti, but in 1874 it was moved to its current position on Via Lata, to the side of the same building, now the Banco di Roma. With its flat beret hat, the statue’s face is badly damaged due to vandalism as it was once thought to be a caricature of Martin Luther, the German theologian who rebelled against the Catholic church and initiated the Protestant Reformation in 1517.

Babuino

Located beside the Chiesa di S. Atanasio dei Greci, the statue depicts a reclining Silenus, the halfman, half-goat from ancient Greek mythology. The monument was built in the late 16th century for the wealthy merchant Patrizio Grandi who, according to the then custom, obtained free water for personal use in exchange for donating the fountain to the city. Romans considered the representation of Silenus ugly, resembling more a baboon, or “babbuino”, than a satyr. The name stuck and the street – originally named Via Clementina in honour of Pope Clement VII Medici (1523-1534) – became known as Via del Babuino.

Abate Luigi. Photo credit: Google Arts & Culture.

Il Facchino.