The bronzes of Pergola

Pergola is a town in the Marche region in the province of Pesaro and Urbino; rises 265 meters above sea level and has 6,000 inhabitants. Its museum houses the gilded bronzes from Cartoceto di Pergola, dating back to between 50 BC. C. and 30 d. C, extraordinary spectacle of Roman power. The bronze complex is unique in the world for the triumphal composition of the Roman era and for the choice of materials used, as many as 9 quintals of bronze, copper, lead and gold leaf. It was found by a farmer in a field in 1946 in the hamlet of Santa Lucia di Calamello in the territory of Cartoceto, a hamlet of Pergola. After various ups and downs and attempts to sell on the black market, the masterpiece was placed under the definitive protection of the state for the appropriate restoration, carried out in Florence. Hundreds of scattered fragments were assembled and the two statues of the small procession were reconstructed, as well as the knights, while only fragments of the other figures remain. The most accredited hypothesis identifies the knight placed at the top in the emperor Octavian Augustus with Julius Caesar beside him in a military dress with his hand extended in a gesture of peace. The two women at the extremes could identify one with Livia Drusilla, wife of the emperor, perfectly preserved, in a pensive attitude, while the other is perhaps the sister of Caesar, Julia Minor of which only the lower part remains. The composition is completed by two very lively richly adorned horses. One theory has it that the bronze complex was located above the magnificent arch of Augustus in Rimini.