Capitoline Wolf is not only the symbol of Rome / Prophylactic self-isolation series. Day 318th.

In autumn 2019, walking down the street in Brașov (Romania) I saw the monument. I stand in front of it and start asking with myself: “Wait a minute. Am I in Rome???”

Capitoline Wolf (replica) in Brașov, Romania, November 2019

Capitoline Wolf (replica) in Rome, Italy, February 2016

The original wolf statue is kept in the Capitoline museum, Rome, Italy

Lupa Capitolina – the symbol of Rome

Capitoline wolf (Italian Lupa Capitolina) is a symbol of Rome, Italy. Twins, drinking milk from she-wolf, Romulus and Remus are the founders of Rome. This is according to Wikipedia.

Other info sources provide similar version of the origin

The legend says that Amulius had usurped the throne of his brother Numitor and to prevent his daughter, Rhea Silvia, from having children, he made her vestal. The God of Mars did not hear this, and visiting Rhea in the course of a dream, he gave him two twins, Romulus and Remus. Placed in a basket by the sinister Amulius and abandoned on the Tiber, they were fed by a wolf and then collected by the shepherd Faustulus and his wife Acca Larentia (1).

Maybe it is all for the tourists???

Official historical version of the origin

If taking the research a bit deeply, one could visit the website of Musei Capitolini in Rome and make a translation from Italian to know the origin and meaning of the statue:

The she-wolf, with its extraordinary evocative force, represents the symbol of the city (Rome).

Arrived in the Campidoglio with the donation of Sixtus IV, it was initially placed on the fifteenth-century facade of the building and then moved inside on the occasion of Michelangelo’s renovation: at that time the two twins were added, some attributed to Pollaiolo, which transformed the ancient symbol of justice of the Lateran in Mater Romanorum “.
The creation of the work, which originally had probably nothing to do with the legend of the origins of Rome, can be traced back to Etruscan or Magna Graecia workshops of the 5th century BC. Recently, based on the analysis of the lands of casting, a medieval dating has been hypothesized.
Musei Capitolini (2)

Capitoline Wolf around the world

The she-wolf is popular around the world. One could find the adapted versions in in Eden Park, Cincinnati, Ohio; in Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton, New Zealand; in Siena Duomo, Siena, Italy; Bucharest, Romania, and other places.

Why in Brasov, Romania?

The replicas of the Capitoline Wolf are used in Romania and Moldova to remain the Latin origin of its inhabitants. These replicas of the original statue were given as a gift from Italy at the beginning of the 20th century. To celebrate Romania’s Latin origin, the replica was given as a gift to Bucharest, Romania, in 1906 and to Chişinău, Moldovia, in 1923.

The story of Capitoline Wolf in Moldova

Anyway, we need to confirm, some stories could be found only in Wikipedia (3), if you personally have not faced with the topic. However, as I searched for Capitoline Wolf story in Moldova, the English version appeared to be very short. So, I have made a translation (using google translate) here for the reader.

The story

In Chişinău, the statue was trapped into political manipulations.

It was believed that in 1940, at the beginning of the operation to annex Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to Soviet Union, the monument was destroyed and melted down by Soviet troops – driven by ideological motives (4), but there is a lot of evidence and photographs of the opposite, in particular, a snapshot, on which Italian journalists are posing at the monument (was published in the newspaper “Basarabia”, No. 329 of August 3, 1942). Moreover, the Capitoline Wolf became one of the central elements of the “Liberation Exhibition” organized by the Romanian authorities and opened at the end of October 1942 in the Chisinau City Garden. A monument on a new high pedestal in the form of a column was erected at the main entrance to the exhibition in the park (5).

On August 24, 1944, during the Jassy-Chisinau operation, the Red Army liberated Chisinau, after which traces of the monument are lost, where the monument is located and what happened to it is still unknown.

In 1990, Romania donated a new copy of the Capitoline Wolf to Moldova. The statue was installed on December 1, 1990 in a new place – in front of the entrance to the building, which now houses the National Museum of the History of Moldova.

In April 2005, shortly after the elections, the bronze statue of a she-wolf was removed from the pedestal (due to serious cracks, according to official statements from the authorities) and sent for restoration. Subsequently, after many examinations and several years during which the statue was at the tractor plant, it was transferred to the basement of the National Museum of History for preservation.

The restoration and reopening had a clear political implication: the monument was reopened only on December 1, 2009 (the new monument was donated by the League of Culture of Romanian Unity Abroad), a few months after the July elections, in which the Alliance for European Integration noticeably shaken the position of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (6).

For me – THIS is not an art

Nowadays art critics are ready to attack the pieces of art of XV-XIX centuries, as it happened for Hylas and the Nymphs (described in my previous post), but have you looked at the modern “creators”?

What kind of beauty do they present? Oh, yes, this is “an expression”, “deep look into a matter”, “the world without pink glasses”, “reality in its true colors”, etc. In other words, no skills found.

Many, many of nowadays artists would rather recognize – they missed a major part of classes at a university and did not gain the basic skills of making art.

What kind of present and future (and in some context, the past) do you create by showing publicly your incompetence? More so, referring to THE ART???

Look at Me (new Capitoline Wolf) is a 2011 art installation by Paweł Wocial

The installation is 210 centimetres (6 ft 11 in) tall and made of acrylic, polyester, fabric, jewelry, hair, plastic bottles and rubber teats (7).

For those who missed the previous post, you may find more about the same kind of “art” in my previous post Sculpture Art which made an impression for me / Prophylactic self-isolation series. Day 310th.

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