Relief of Remus and Romulus

Roman art

This relief was recorded in 1700 as a pendant to a modern relief of Apollo and Marsyas walled into either side of the door to the Casino del Graziano, in the Villa’s park. In 1832, it was among the sculptures on display in the Portico.

The panel depicts the myth of the foundation of Rome, with the twins Remus and Romulus nursed by the She-Wolf while Faustolus and Acca Larentia look on. The scene takes place on the banks of the Tiber. There is a fragment of the personification of the river in the left corner. The ficus ruminalis, the tree at the foot of the Palatine Hill described in ancient sources as where the she-wolf nursed the two infants, is seen in the background.

Although some scholars have doubted its authenticity and the relief is in any case heavily restored, it seems to be datable to the second century CE.

Object details

Commentary

In the foreground of this relief, we find the she-wolf lying on her side, facing left and nursing the twins, Remus and Romulus. The infants are sitting before the animal, which affectionately turns its head towards them. In the background, the ficus ruminalis, the legendary tree described by Pliny at the foot of the Palatine Hill where the she-wolf nursed the infants, lends a rural feel to the setting. There are two figures next to the three that probably represent Faustolus and his wife, Acca Larentia, the shepherds who, according to tradition, raised the twins. The woman is wearing a long high-girdled, sleeved chiton with a fold of fabric called an apoptygma near her hips. The male figure next to her is wearing a short tunic knotted at the waist that reveals part of the legs. He wears tall leather boots turned over at the top. He is leaning on a staff that he holds with his right hand. There is a figure in the background wearing an exomis tunic and tall boots, running while looking at the scene. It is impossible to work out what he is doing, since the panel is broken off just to the figure’s left. It is similarly difficult to analyse the personification of the Tiber in the left corner of the relief; the vase from which the river flows is only partially preserved.

The panel, complete with a plaster frame, was recorded by Montelatici in the Villa’s park in 1700 walled into the side of the entrance to the Casino del Graziano, as a pendant to a modern relief of Apollo and Marysas (pp. 104–105). In 1832, Nibby recorded it in the Portico, describing it as ‘one of the finest examples of Roman art … due to its elegant, expert workmanship’. Presuming that the relief was a fragment of a larger monument, the scholar interpreted the subject in the background as ‘Cacus trying to drag the cattle away by the tail, to indicate the Aventine Hill (p. 24, no. 11). Reinach also considered it to be ancient (1912, p. 170), while Venturi and Moreno doubted its authenticity, the latter believing that it was a modern assemblage of unrelated ancient fragments (1893, p. 11; Moreno, Viacava 2003, pp. 93–94, no. 51). Duliere considered it a Renaissance creation, based on the unusual aspects of the compositions, the quality of the marble and the handling of the small figures (1979, no. F12, fig. 324). Lastly, Calza dated it to the second century CE, dating that seems to be likely (1957, p. 16, no. 169). After the end of the Roman Republic, the representation of the she-wolf nursing the twins as a stand-alone subject began to spread in art. It is even found on the west face of the Ara Pacis, dedicated in 9 BCE, to the side of the entrance to the enclosure. During the early imperial period, the motif turned into a universal symbol of romanitas, entering the artistic repertoire for monuments in the private, and especially funerary, sphere (Schauenbur 1966, pp. 261–309).  The composition of the Borghese relief is also found on one side of an altar in the Museo Nazionale Mecenate di Arezzo, dated to the first century CE (Bocci Pacini, S. Nocentini Sbolci 1983, pp. 31–33, no. 42).

There is a copy of the relief in the Museo della Civiltà Romana, Rome (inv. 70: 1982, p. 17, no. 2).

Giulia Ciccarello