COVE

The Quirinal (sometimes referred to as Monte Cavallo or ’Horse Mountain”’/“Horse Hill”) is the highest of Rome’s seven hills and home to Qiurinal Palace, the seat of the papal government in the mid-19th century. The 4th century BCE Roman copies of the 5th century BCE Greek original colossal marble statues of the "Horse Tamers”—identified as Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri )—were discovered at the nearby Baths of Constantine and were restored and installed in their current location in the eponymous square by Sixtus V in 1588. In a letter of March 1819 to Thomas Love Peacock, Shelley wrote: “These figures combine the irresistible energy with the sublime and the perfect loveliness supposed to have belonged to their divine nature. The reins no longer exist, but the position of their hands and the sustained and  calm command of their regard  seem to require no mechanical aid to enforce obedience…the sublime and living majesty of their limbs and mien, the nervous and fiery animation of the horses they restrain.”