A grand tour of Rome’s iconic sculptures often includes a few staples: the Vatican Museums’ ; the Capitoline Museums’ , taking his last breath; and Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s , with those indelible fingerprints left on the goddess’s leg. But some statues that dot the Italian capital are lesser known. They may not offer much to look at, but they always have a lot to say.
Six sculptures in particular, each with its own personality and name, were installed in Rome’s center around the time of the Renaissance and quickly became sites to express political discontent. Locals tacked disgruntled but clever verses onto the busts, writing satires that bemoaned the pope, the city’s bourgeoisie and the corrupt nature of those who held power. As a group, Abate Luigi, Pasquino, Il Facchino, Madama Lucrezia, Marforio and Il Babuino earned the nickname of or talking statues, not because they actually spoke, but because they gave the people a physical way to have an anonymous voice.
Of the six, it is the alleged head and torso of a Greek hero—likely the Mycenaean king Menelaus, carrying the body of fallen warrior Patroclus—that rose to the forefront. Mounted just steps away from the Piazza Navona, the statue stands near the Via Papalis, a that was once “one of the most desirable and prestigious [Roman] streets on which to live or to have a business,” says , a former conservator at the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. It was in this area that Cardinal decided to build his e.