The She Wolf as Shape of Time
The She Wolf as Shape of Time

Photography: Marcello Melis

The She Wolf as Shape of Time

Photography: Marcello Melis

The She Wolf as Shape of Time

Photography: Marcello Melis

The She Wolf as Shape of Time

Photography: Marcello Melis

The She Wolf as Shape of Time

Photography: Marcello Melis

The She Wolf as Shape of Time

Photography: Marcello Melis

The She Wolf as Shape of Time

Photography: Marcello Melis

Adapted from: Capitoline Wolf, 1021-1153 CE

Adapted from: Funerary stone with lioness or she-wolf, 5th century BCE

Adapted from: P. Satrienus, Ancient Roman Denarius, c. 77 BCE

Adapted from: L. Papius Celsus, Ancient Roman Denarius, c. 45 BCE

Adapted from: Altar at Ostia Antica, 1st century CE

Adapted from: Constantine the Great, Bronze Follis, 330-333 CE

Adapted from: Gem with wolf suckling Twins and Persian inscription

Adapted from: Diptych of Rambona, c. 900 CE

Adapted from: September Fresco; Detail from the Triumph of Vulcan, c. 1470 CE

Adapted from: She-Wolf in red marble suckling the Twins, 1567-1612 CE

Adapted from: Jean Jacques Boissard, 1528-1602

Adapted from: Jean Jacques Boissard, 1528-1602

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She Wolf as Shape of Time Prints

SHE WOLF AS SHAPE OF TIME

Trilogy: The She Wolf as Shape of Time

Dimensions:
14-7/8″ x 22-1/4” (37.8 cm x 56.52 cm)

Medium: Letterpress from photopolymer on Somerset paper (Textured White 250 gram, deckle and hand-torn edge) using Vandercook Proof Press 219

Printers: Peter Kruty and Ian Jackson

Edition: Edition of 35 (10 AP, 2 HC, 2 PP, and 1 BAT)

The archetypal symbol of Rome for millennia, the She-Wolf is the icon of the mythological beginnings of the City, embodying the dichotomy between nature and culture.

She Wolf as Shape of Time is a series of twelve exquisitely detailed letterpress prints marking the transformative visual and cultural evolution of the She-Wolf across history. The hand-printed series documents 2100 years of the fabled figure’s imagery.

Fascinated by the way stories, images and icons evolve over time, Kristin Jones initially conceived of the She Wolf images becoming a filmic metamorphosis of the icon through time. Jones worked closely with archaeologist and historian Claudio Parisi Presicce, Director of the Capitoline Museum, who generously offered access to his research and an archive of more than three hundred images. Under his guidance, eighty images were faithfully redrawn from the nearly 2100-year history of the She-Wolf icon from archives in museums around the world. Jones collaborated with Roman illustrator Francesca Fini to produce renderings of the historical images in classic Etruscan vase-painting style.

Twelve of these images became the figures in Jones’ She Wolves (2005), a 560-meter-long, eight-meter-high frieze that was power-washed from the darkened travertine embankment walls of Piazza Tevere, a river piazza between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini. The unveiling of this frieze was the inaugural event for the newly founded TEVERETERNO, a multidisciplinary project aimed at the establishment and stewardship of Piazza Tevere as the largest open-air site for contemporary public art in the heart of Rome. These twelve figures were printed in collaboration with Peter Kruty Editions (Brooklyn, New York), and are a record of this monumental, ephemeral work, now-vanished.

The She Wolf as Shape of Time was presented in the Capitoline Museum’s Sala della Lupa as part of a 3-part installation titled Trilogy: The She Wolf as Shape of Time, April 21-July 5, 2009.