The Mouth of Truth ( ) is an ancient Roman marble mask in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, which stands against the left wall of the portico of the

Santa Maria in Cosmedin The Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin (; Latin: Santa Maria ''de Schola Graeca'') is a minor basilica, minor basilican churches of Rome, church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the Mary, mother of Jesus, Virgin Mary. It is located in the rione (neig ...

church, at the Piazza della Bocca della Verità, the site of the ancient

Forum Boarium The Forum Boarium (, ) was the cattle market or '' forum venalium'' of ancient Rome. It was located on a level piece of land near the Tiber between the Capitoline, the Palatine and Aventine hills. As the site of the original docks of Rome () ...

(the ancient cattle market). According to an enduring medieval legend, it will bite off the hand of any liar who places their hand in its mouth, or, alternatively, any who utters a lie while their hand is in the mouth. It still attracts many visitors who insert their hands. Temple of Hercules Victor Rome April 2019

Temple of Hercules Victor Rome April 2019

The massive marble mask weighs about and probably depicts the face of the sea titan god

Oceanus In Greek mythology, Oceanus ( ; , also , , or ) was a Titans, Titan son of Uranus (mythology), Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys (mythology), Tethys, and the father of the River gods (Greek mythology), river gods ...

. The eyes, nostrils and mouth are open. Historians are not quite certain what the original purpose of the disc was. It was possibly used as a drain cover in the nearby Temple of Hercules Victor, which had an oculus (a round open space in the middle of the roof) similar to that of the Pantheon. Hence, it could rain inside. It is also thought that cattle merchants used it to drain the blood of cattle sacrificed to the demi-god Hercules. In the 13th century the disc was probably removed from the temple and placed against the wall of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin. In the 17th century it eventually moved to its current location inside the

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

of the church.

Cultural references and derivative works

The Mouth of Truth has been featured as a theme in historical European art.

Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder ( ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of German ...

, a German painter during the Renaissance period, created two paintings depicting a woman placing her hand in the mouth of a statue of a lion while onlookers watched, a subject which was drawn by

Albrecht Altdorfer Albrecht Altdorfer ( – 12 February 1538) was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg, Bavaria. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main representative of the Da ...

and made into a woodcut by the Dutch printmaker Lucas van Leyden. The Mouth of Truth appears in the 1953 film '' Roman Holiday'' as a storytelling device as Hepburn's and Peck's characters are not truthful with each other. In by Dutch writer Rindert Kromhout, the fingers of lying children are cut off with a

scythe A scythe (, rhyming with ''writhe'') is an agriculture, agricultural hand-tool for mowing grass or Harvest, harvesting Crop, crops. It was historically used to cut down or reaping, reap edible grain, grains before they underwent the process of ...

by a skeleton who lives in the Capuchin Crypt in the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. Additionally, it was featured in episode 14 of the first season of the anime '' JoJo's Bizarre Adventure''. There are a number of replicas and derivative works. A full-size reproduction sits in the Alta Vista Gardens in California and one of Jules Blanchard's sculptures in the Luxembourg Garden in Paris depicts a woman with her hand in the sculpture's mouth. Coin-operated fortune teller machines have been developed and installed in different parts of the world, including one on display in the Musée Mécanique in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Gallery

File:Bocca della Verità from side.jpg, Side view of the File:Blanchard.jpg, , statue by Jules Blanchard, in the Luxembourg Garden,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. File:Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck at the Mouth of Truth Roman Holiday trailer.jpg, Scene from '' Roman Holiday'' with

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...

and

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...

File:Germania, bocca della verità, 1550 ca..JPG, The empress and the Mouth, here shown as a statue of a lion, in a German

plaquette A plaquette (; "small plaque") is a small low relief sculpture in bronze or other materials. These were popular in the Italian Renaissance and later. They may be commemorative, but especially in the Renaissance and Mannerist periods were often ...

of . File:Bocca Della Verita.jpg, fortune teller machine at the Musée Mécanique in San Francisco.

Notes

References

* Snyder, James. ''Northern Renaissance Art'', 1985, Harry N. Abrams,

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bocca Della Verita, La Mascarons 1st-century Roman sculptures Tourist attractions in Rome Rome R. XII Ripa Truth Reliefs in Italy