Statua equestre di Marco Aurelio, Rome

This mounted emperor in Piazza del Campidoglio is a faithful outdoor copy, while the ancient original is kept in the Capitoline Museums. The sculpture presents Marcus Aurelius on horseback, cast in bronze and rising more than four metres. Notice the emperor’s extended hand: it uses the formal signal with which Roman rulers addressed their troops.

Yet he carries neither armour nor weapons, so the image frames him as a ruler bringing peace rather than merely a conqueror. The work was raised around the later part of the second century after Christ. It endured when so much ancient metal sculpture vanished because people mistook Marcus Aurelius for Constantine, the Christian emperor.

That mistaken identity spared it from the furnace. Its journey through Rome is remarkable. It stood near the Lateran from at least the early medieval era, then Pope Paul the Third brought it here during the remaking of the Capitoline in the sixteenth century.

Michelangelo designed its pedestal and made the horseman the focus of this grand civic space. Weather later threatened the surviving metal, so restoration led to the original’s museum home and this carefully made copy taking its place outdoors.