About this piece
back to topA large-scale museum cast statue of the Capitoline Wolf circa 1900 after the antique in bronze thought to date from as early as the 11th century. Originally made by the Moulage Museum, Brussels, this plaster statue was sourced from a huge stately home. Known in Italian as ‘Lupa Capitolina’, the wolf is depicted as she is in the antique, suckling a young Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome according to mythology.
Romulus & Remus
According to legend, twin brothers Romulus and Remus were abandoned by their parents as babies. They were nestled in a basket and placed into the River Tiber. Later, when the basket ran aground, the twins were discovered by a female wolf who nursed the twins, before they were found by a shepherd who raised them.
As adults, Romulus and Remus wished to create a city where the she-wolf had discovered them as children. However, the brothers quarrelled over where the site should be and Remus was killed by his brother. This left Romulus to establish the new city alone, naming it after himself: Rome.
