The Sculpture Museum - Catalog - Page 54
roman, 18th century
12
Equestrian Monument of Emperor Marcus Aurelius
(121–180 ad)
After the Antique
Statuary marble
102 cm (40 in.) high
38 cm (15 in.) wide
80 cm (31½ in.) deep
inscribed
I POPOLI SARANNO FELICI QVANDO AVRANNO DEI FILOSOFI PER RE O CHE
I LORO RE SARANNO DEI FILOSOFI
provenance
Sandoz family collection
Private collection, Rome
The life-size portrait of Marcus Aurelius (121–180 ad) on horseback that our marble
draws upon is thought to have been cast between c. 161 and 180 ad, during the
Emperor’s reign or immediately after his death (Musei Capitolini, Rome; fig. 1). It
is one of the most extraordinary and treasured sculptures to have survived from
antiquity and has for centuries been considered as the highpoint of equestrian
portraiture. A potent visual embodiment of power, it soon came to represent the
model for rulers who wished to present themselves as heirs to imperial Rome.
Already in the eighth century, the great Charlemagne (742–814) had an equestrian
statue from Ravenna transferred to the heart of his empire in Aachen, where he
sought to emulate the layout of Rome’s Campus Lateranensis, the square outside
today’s Lateran Basilica in which the Marcus Aurelius then stood. In 1538, the
monument was moved to the Capitol – the seat of Rome’s civic government – and
the celebrated Michelangelo was commissioned to design its base, which supports
the statue to this day. Interestingly, the bronze model of the Capitoline Marcus
Aurelius made in 1465 by the illustrious Florentine master Filarete (dedicated to
Piero de’ Medici) is considered to be the first Renaissance bronze after the Antique
(now Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden).
Owing to its unique history, nature and, arguably, clear association to notions
of political power and splendour, the Capitoline Marcus Aurelius enjoyed
uninterrupted fame throughout the centuries. For example, “a very similar story
was repeated of Michelangelo, of Pietro da Cortona, of Bernini and of Carlo
Maratta, each of whom was supposed to have addressed the statue with the words
‘Move on, then; don’t you know that you are alive?’” (Haskell and Penny 1981, p.
254). In the eighteenth century, at the highpoint of Neoclassicism, models after
antique sculptures ranked amongst a collector’s most prized possessions, and the
Marcus Aurelius was no exception.
