Bocca della Verità
The Mouth of Truth is an ancient mask in marble, walled in the wall of the vestibule of the St. Mary in Cosmedin's Church, in Rome, from 1632. The mask is a male face with eyes, nose and mouth pierced and cables, interpreted over time as representation of various parties (Jupiter Ammon, Ocean, an oracle or a Faun). In fact, at the time of ancient Rome, the Mouth of Truth was a manhole, therefore effigy of a deity rain swallowing water. The mask has ancient and legendary fame, giving it the power to pronounce oracles. In the Middle Ages made his way to legend Virgil Grammarian, a scholar of the sixth century, it was built to use the Mouth of husbands and wives who had doubted the fidelity of the spouse. In a German legend of the fifteenth century, we find the image of the Mouth that bites the hand of the one who deceives her husband. The name "Mouth of Truth" appeared, in fact, in 1485 and since then the sculpture was mentioned among the curious of Rome, frequently reproduced in drawings and prints.
