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A Roman Bestiary
By M.J. Cryan
Most
visitors to Rome recognize the she-wolf and twins: the
mother-substitute who suckled the city’s founders, Romulus
and Remus. This is only one of the animals that make up a
medium-sized menagerie sculpted as symbols in noble
families’ coats-of-arms or emerging from the waters of a
Roman fountain.
Some are mythological beasts while others
are real animals that over the centuries have found their
way into the city’s history and transitions.
In St. Peter’s Basilica alone one can
count a rooster, an owl, a hedgehog ,
several lions, doves and dragons but how many of us notice
them, know why they are there and what they signify?
Here is a guide to spotting some of
these furry, slimy, ferocious and tame creatures that make
up Rome’s Bestiary.
Aesculapius –The Tiber Island
has always been the site of an important medical center
since the early days of Rome when a serpent, said to be the
incarnation of Aesculapius, the god of healing, swam ashore
there prompting the Romans to build a temple in his honor.
The Fatebenefratelli Hospital now takes the place of the
pagan temple. The next time you enter a Roman pharmacy look
for the snake motif in the décor. 
Bee-
The symbol of the Barberini family, three bees, can be seen
in the coat-or-arms of Pope Urban VIII Barberini (1623-44)
and therefore on any of the buildings constructed by this
important Papal family. Especially noteworthy is the
baldaquin or baldacchino which rises high over the
main altar in St. Peter’s. Urban VIII as a “thank you” for
the survival of a favourite niece during a difficult birth,
had faces –first of a woman in pain then of a smiling baby-
carved along with the family bees on the marble pedestals
that support the huge bronze baldacchini.
On a
delightful fountain at the corner of Via Veneto and Piazza
Barberini, other gian stone bees are sculpted on the basin’s
rim as if they were drinking.
Bear-The
symbol of the Orsini family (orso=bear) . A standing bear
holding a shield can be seen at the entrance of the palace
built into the back of the Theatre of Marcellus reminding us
that the Orsini were once its proprietors. A shield-bearing
bear also greets visitors at the Odescalchi Castle in
nearby Bracciano, a lakeside town perched above the deep
lake of the same name.
 Cat-The
Roman street cats are a breed apart for they have
proliferated among the ruins of the Colosseum, Largo
Argentina, the Theatre of Marcello and the Pyramid of Caio
Cestio since the time of the emperors. Romans treat them
well, protecting and feeding them, perhaps in memory of how
their presence helped stave off starvation in the darkest
days of the last war. Via della Gatta (gatta=cat), instead,
is a testimony of the temple dedicated to Isis, the Egyptian
deity, which once stood on this site near Palazzo Doria
Pamphili. A small cat of white marble peers down from a
ledge where Via della Gatta meets Piazza Grazioli.
 Dragon-
A symbol of the Boncompagni family that gave Pope Gregory
XIII (1572-85) to the church. He in turn had several
monuments and side altars built in St. Peter’s. Note the
huge dragon, now without its claws, crawling out from under
his funerary monument and a smaller dragon which decorates a
fountain placed in the wall of the Palazzo dei Penitenziari
(now Hotel Columbus) just down Via della Conciliazione from
the Basilica.
 Elephant
–“ La Pulcin della Minerva “, a corrupted form of
“little pig of Minerva” is the nickname given to the statue
of an elephant balancing an obelisk on its back which stando
in front of the S. Maria sopra Minerva church near the
Pantheon. The statue, a work of Bernini, was inspired by the
15th century story Hypnerotomachia, about a
journey through a sort of fantasyland. The inscription on
the base reads to the effect that it takes a robust
intelligence to uphold solid wisdom.
Fish-
Portico dì Ottavia in the Ghetto area was the city’s fish
market for many centuries as the plaque picturing the once
common sturgeon shows. Its Latin inscription, applied to the
Portico’s wall, announces that of any fish over one meter
in length, the head was to become the property of the
Conservators of the city, proof that the Romans considered
fish heads a great delicacy.
Horse-
Horses are everywhere in Rome: real ones ridden by smartly
uniformed pairs of Carabinieri, bronze ones of equestrian
statues. Thje largest of the latter is certainly that on
which King Victor Emanuel sits overlooking the white marble
Altar of the Fatherland monument in Piazza Venezia. Before
the final fusion of the bronze horse’s parts and dedication
in 1911, the architects and their assistants, about 20 men
in all, enjoyed a celebration dinner sitting comfortably at
a trestle table inside the horse’s belly.
 Lion
–Lions also abound in Rome,
from those with crossed paws that spit water in the Moses
fountain in Largo S. Susanna to those almost identical ones
at th4e four corners of Piazza del Popolo’s obelisk. In St.
Peter’s, Canova sculpted two giant lions to guard the
funerary monument of Pope Clement XIII (1758-69), in memory
of his Venetian origin. Winged lions symbolizing Venice and
St. Mark appear in the coat-of-.arms of two other popes:
Pius X (1903-14) and John XXIII (1958-63), since both had
been Patriarchs of Venice.
John
XXIII’s emblem is modernly interpreted using stainless steel
and inlaid marble on the floor of the entrance portico. A
dramatic marble sculpture of a lion attacking a deer is
inserted on a house front in Portico d’Ottavia along with
other bits of Roman statuary found by the 16th
century owner .
Monsters
–Walking down Via Gregoriana just at the top of the Spanish
Steps, one comes across a very unusal house built at the end
of the 16th century by Federico Zuccari. It is
number 30, now a part of the Hertziana Art Library, and is
reminiscent of the Park of the Monsters in Bomarzo about
100 kms. north of Rome, for its windows and doors are framed
by monster mouths and eyes.
 Naiads-
The frolicking ladies who wrtstle with marine monsters in
the large circular fountain in Piazza Esedra (also called
Piazza della Repubblica) made quite a stir when the fountain
was inaugurated in 1911. Among the stories told about this
fountain are that seminarians were forbidden to look at or
approach the provocative fountain and that every Sunday
evening two elderly ladies, the sisters who posed for the
naiads in their stormy youth, came to reminisce at “their”
fountain. The sculptor Rutelli, was an uncle of Rome’s
former mayor, Francesco Rutelli.
 Owl
– Symbol of wisdom and
therefore of Athena, a tiny owl peeps out from behind the
goddess’ flowing garb on the right-hand side of the funerary
monument of Pope Pius VII (1800-23). This is the only work
of art by a Protestant artist, the Dane Thorwaldsen, a sign
of the Pope’s ecumenical spirit.
 Ox-
The Borgia popes, Calixtus III (1455-58) and his nephew
Alexander VI (1492-1503) both had a red ox or bull in their
coat-of-arms which shows up often in the beautiful Borgia
apartments in the Vatican. Many frescoes by Pinturicchio
also decorated these cozy rooms showing us the members of
this extravagant family: Lucretia, the infamous Cesare or
Duke Valentino and the unfortunate Duke of Gandia.
 Porte
– The five huge doors
porte which open onto the portico of St. Peter’s
Basilica are a collection of symbolic and mythological
animals and their stories. The oldest porta is the
central bronze door by Filarete dating from the 1400’s and
besides the myriad of animals on its front, the back holds
what is perhaps the world’s first comic strip “signature”.
In the lower right-hand corner, Filarete pictured himself
and his workers, some carrying their tools, others astride
horses or camels.
Sculptor
Giacomo Manzù was the author of the last door to the left,
called the Door of Death which has many parallels with the
ancient Filarete door. Note the hedgehog, the turtle, the
bird and other mini-sculptures applied to the outside of the
door and the scene of the tall African cardinal greeting
Pope John XXIII on the door’s reverse side.
Rooster-
Another modern art ut 1450. A marble
relief of a scrofa is set into the wall of the
nearby Augustinian convent, S. Agostino.
work in
St. Peter’s , the pair of bronze candlesticks flanking
the 13th century statue of
St. Peter, narrates the apostle’s life. We can see the keys
of the kingdom being given to Peter, various miracles he
performed and the rooster that crowed thrice when Peter
denied Christ. Another bronze rooster which stood on the
bell tower during the Middle Ages is conserved in the
Sacristy.
 Salamander-
This mythical lizard which can live in fire without harm was
the personal badge or symbol of Francis I of France so it is
fitting that a salamander decorates the Renaissance façade
of S. Luigi dei Francesi, the French national church in Rome
famous for its Caravaggio paintings.
Sow –
Just down the stret from S.
Luigi dei Francesi we run into Via della Scrofa (scrofa=sow)
named after an inn that existed there abo
 Sphinx-
The side walls enclosing monumental Piazza del Popolo are
resting places for several haughty sphinxes designed by
architect Valadier.
Turtle-Piazza
Mattei’s delightful Fountain of the Turtles is a most
romantic spot to pause during an evening’s walk and even
more so when the origins of the fountain are known. When
young Duke
Mattei lost all his fortune gambling, his future
father-in-law backed out on the planned marriage; his
daughter would never go to such an irresponsible fellow. The
Duke was still powerful, however, and to prove it he had the
Turtle Fountain (designed by Giacomo della Porta and
executed by Taddeo Landini in 1585) set up overnight and
then invited his father-in-law and fiancée to view it from
a palace window. Of course they lived happily ever after and
in memory of the occurrence the window facing the fountain
was (and still is) walled up.
Wolf-The
original Etruscan statue in bronze dating from the 4th
or 5th century B.C. can be admired in the
Capitoline Museum. The twins were added by Antonio Pollaiolo
at the end of the 1400’s. The statue’s back legs were
corroded when lightning struck the Temple of Jove where the
statue stood in ancient Roman times. A copy of the famous
statue is set on a pedestal at the left-hand side of the
Campidoglio square and an actual she-wolf once lived in a
cage located between the two monumental stairways leading
up from Piazza Venezia.
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