Marforio
Rudolph Ruzicka American, born Czechoslovakia
Related author Fanny Davenport Rogers MacVeagh American
Not on view
This river god is housed in the entrance court of the Capitoline Museum in Rome. His name "Marforio" derives from the Martis Forum where he used to be sited, a small square that Augustus built to the left of the Senate. This is a proof of one of 43 wood engravings that Ruzicka made to illustrate "Fountains of Papal Rome," 1915; there it appears on page 51. Other images devoted to sculptural fountains on the Campidoglio are: A view of the Campidoglio Piazza (MMA proof, 18.24.10), The Senate Building with a fountain flanked by river gods (MMA proof, 18.24.41), and a Lion Attacking a Horse, in the upper garden of the Palazzo dei Conservatori (18.25.49).
Ruzicka went to Rome in 1913 with the manuscript of Mrs. Charles MacVeagh's "Fountains of Papal Rome" in hand as a guide. When published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York in 1915 the book contained fourteen full-page images and twenty-nine page headings and vignettes. The artist later described the book as a "quite remarkable work...still the most authoritative book there is on the subject in the English language."