A building on Rome's
Capitoline hill, dating back to the middle of the 15th century A.D. The Palazzo dei Conservatori was originally the seat of a magistrate that administered the city during the late
Middle Ages, and its halls are still occasionally used for political meetings. Its chief function today is as a museum; part of a trio of buildings known as the
Capitoline Museums.
Both the Palazzo dei Conservatori and it’s neighbour, the
Palazzo Nuovo have grand facades designed by
Michelangelo in the 1530's. The building originally featured a portico on the ground floor and
Guelf-cross shaped windows. Michelangelo removed these features and added gigantic
Corinthian pilasters and
pillars on high
pedestals, and crowned the building with a
balustrade and statues.
Giacomo della Porta redesigned the interior of the Palazzo dei Conservatori in 1563, changing the first floor and altering Michelangelo's plan by enlarging the central front window.
In a courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori resides the great head and a few of the enormous limbs of the
Colossus of Constantine. On the first floor are many statues, and four notable reliefs taken from a monument to
Marcus Aurelius, which show scenes of the emperor offering a sacrifice, driving a chariot, granting mercy to captives and receiving the mysterious "
orb of power". The tomb of child prodigy
Q. Sulpicius Maximus was moved here upon it's discovery beneath the
Porta Salaria. On the second floor is a large main room called the
Sale dei Conservatori, where
Giuseppe Cesari frescoed episodes from the reigns of the early kings and the mythological origins of
Rome. Also housed here is the famous
Capitoline She-Wolf, a 6th or 5th century B.C. Etruscan bronze. The She-Wolf herself is thought to be the work of
Vulca of Veii, while the suckling figures of
Romulus and
Remus were likely added later by
Antonio Pollaiuolo. The third floor contains a large collection of oil paintings. Chief among the paintings that have been displayed are
Giovanni Bellini's
Portrait of a Young Man and
Titian's
Baptism of Christ.