Statua "parlante" di Pasquino, Rome

Pasquino is the battered marble fragment set into the corner of Palazzo Braschi, in the piazza that bears its name. Its broken surface preserves a male figure supporting another, almost erased body. The sculpture is understood as Menelaus carrying the dying Patroclus, a scene repeated in ancient works and represented here in a damaged Roman or Hellenistic version.

It was found during building work in 1501, close to the place where it remains today. Cardinal Oliviero Carafa rescued it from disposal, dressed the torso for the Feast of Saint Mark, and placed Latin verses on it. That gesture helped turn the statue into Rome's first talking statue: people began attaching anonymous satirical poems to it at night, aimed especially at popes and other powerful figures.

The papers were removed each morning, but not before passers-by had read them. Those attacks gave the word pasquinade to a form of anonymous lampooning. Today, a dedicated noticeboard at the statue's feet carries the messages instead of the sculpture itself. The damaged figure remains a remarkable meeting point between ancient myth and public dissent.