Lupa Capitolina Italian Tapestry

Lupa Capitolina, or The Capitoline Wolf, is an Italian jacquard wall tapestry. The image is of the bronze sculpture of a she-wolf suckling twin infants, inspired by the legend of the founding of Rome.

According to the legend, when Numitor, grandfather of the twins Romulus and Remus, was overthrown by his brother Amulius, the usurper ordered the twins to be cast into the Tiber River. They were rescued by a she-wolf who cared for them until a herdsman found and raised them.

The age and origin of the Capitoline Wolf is a subject of controversy. The statue was long thought to be an Etruscan work of the 5th century BC, with the twins added in the late 15th century AD, probably by the sculptor Antonio Pollaiolo.However, radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating has found that the wolf portion of the statue was likely cast between 1021 and 1153. The Capitoline Wolf has been housed since 1471 in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Campidoglio, Rome, Italy.