"Praxitèle avait dit à Phryné de choisir entre ses ouvrages celui qu'elle aimerait le mieux. Pour savoir lequel de ses chefs-d'oeuvre l'artiste préférait, elle lui fit annoncer que le feu avait pris à son atelier. 'Sauvez, s'écria-t-il, mon Satyre et mon Amour!'"--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 309.
The west or right side of the Capitoline Piazza is occupied by _the Palace of the Conservators_, which contains the Protomoteca, the Picture Gallery, and various other treasures.
The little court at the entrance is full of historical relics, including remains of two gigantic statues of Apollo; a colossal head of Domitian; and the marble pedestal, which once in the mausoleum of Augustus supported the cinerary urn of Agrippina, wife of Germanicus, with a very perfect inscription. In the opposite loggia are a statue of Rome Triumphant, and a group of a lion attacking a horse, found in the bed of the Almo. In the portico on the right is the only authentic statue of Julius Cæsar; on the left, a statue of Augustus, leaning against the rostrum of a galley, in allusion to the battle of Actium.
_The Protomoteca_, a suite of eight rooms on the ground floor, contains a collection of busts of eminent Italians, with a few foreigners considered as naturalised by a long residence in Rome. Those in the second room, representing artists of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, were entirely executed at the expense of Canova.
At the foot of the staircase is a restoration by Michael Angelo of the column of Caius Duilius. On the upper flight of the staircase is a bas-relief of Curtius leaping into the gulf, here represented as a marsh.
"Un bas-relief d'un travail ancien, dont le style ressemble à celui des figures peintes sur les vases dits archaïques, représente Curtius engagé dans son marais; le cheval baisse la tête et flaire le marécage, qui est indiqué par des roseaux. Le guerrier penché en avant, presse sa monture. On a vivement, en présence de cette curieuse sculpture, le sentiment d'un incident héroïque probablement réel, et en même temps de l'aspect primitif du lieu qui en fut témoin."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 321._
On the first and second landings are magnificent reliefs, representing events in the life of Marcus Aurelius, Imp., belonging to the arch dedicated to him, which was wantonly destroyed, in order to widen the Corso, by Alexander VII.