Happy Birthday, Rome! Legend has it that Rome was founded by Romulus (one of these two cute twins) on the 21st of April in 753 B.C. The origin of the little twins in this sculpture is indisputed: they were added in the Renaissance. The origin of the wolf is another story...More......
It traditionally was dated to the Etruscan period (some Etruscans perhaps were the last kings of Rome before the Republic was founded in 510 B.C.), but long boiling disputes burst into fairly recent carbon-dating (probably on remnants of the sculpture's core left after the bronze was poured into the mold) that seems to date it to the Middle Ages, perhaps from the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. (that's the Carolingian period, she said ponderously). Interested in the diatribe? You can see a few words from 2008 (!) about the dating of the sculpture on: http://english.sina.com/technology/1/2008/0711/171023.html.
Just who were Romulus and Remus? For starters, here's a snippet from the Encyclopedia Britannica online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/509038/Romulus-and-Remus.
Why did I say "Carolingian" so ponderously? For more info about the importance of ancient Rome to Charlemagne, try http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03610c.htm. (Though dating to the beginning of the 20th century, this encyclopedia is considered by many scholars to be more thorough and accurate than the more recent version. Though its Catholic origins tend to peep through, forewarned is forearmed.)
For the rest of us, it's just an occasion to celebrate Rome and to share a fun needlepoint design, which I created uploading a freely available Wikipedia image into my StitchPainter program, then turning it into a BMP for your personal non-commercial pleasure on my blog.
If the design is too complicated for you, just simplify it by picking out at least three major groups (dark, medium, light) for the shapes and proportions. Print out the design, and have at it with a felt-tipped pen! You'll do just fine!
Enjoy!
