The Sculpture Museum - Catalog - Page 12
french, 18th century
2
The Borghese Gladiator
After the Antique
Bronze, upon a Rouge Griotte marble base with gilt mouldings
63.5 cm (25 in.) high overall
51.5 cm (20¼ in.) high, the bronze
55 cm (21½ in.) wide overall
fig. 1
Roman, The Borghese Gladiator, signed by
“Agasias of Ephesus, son of Dositheus”,
c. 100 bc, marble, 199 cm high
Paris, Musée du Louvre
The famed ancient marble prototype for this figure, known as the Borghese
Gladiator, was discovered a short time before 11 June 1611 in Anzio, on the west
coast of Italy (fig. 1). It was removed to the estate of the Cardinal Borghese by 1613
and on 27 September 1807 was purchased by Napoleon and sent to Paris in 1808.
The ancient model has been particularly admired for the veracious rendering of
the Gladiator’s anatomy. It was thought to represent the most ideal masculine form
of all the classical prototypes – exhibiting considerably stronger musculature than
the Belvedere Antinoüs yet carrying less bulk than the Farnese Hercules. Within 20
years of its discovery, a bronze version of the work had been cast by Hubert Le
Sueur for Charles I. Other famous casts of the Borghese Gladiator were made for
the 4th Earl of Pembroke at Wilton (which was later moved to the iconic stairwell
at Houghton Hall in Norfolk), the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey and the
Duke of Dorset at Knole, in Kent.
In the second half of the eighteenth century the production of bronze
statuettes after the Antique reached the height of its popularity. In Rome, Righetti
and Zoffoli’s small bronzes were generally purchased in sets and made a suitable
size to sit comfortably atop a chimneypiece. A fascinating record of such a display
is provided by Zoffany’s portrait of c. 1770 depicting Sir Lawrence Dundas and his
grandson. Here a bronze Borghese Gladiator model by Zoffoli is accompanied by
a group of bronze statuettes that include the Faun in Rosso Antico, the Capitoline
Antinoüs, the Apollo Belvedere, the Furietti Centaurs and a Mercury by Giambologna
(whose work was considered equal to that of the ancients). Similar sets survive at
Alnwick in Northumberland and Saltram in Devon.
A French origin, or at least provenance, for the present bronze is supported by
the fact of its accompanying Griotte marble base. This stone was mainly quarried
in the Haute Pyrénées from the 1st century ad through to medieval times and was
used extensively in the interior decoration of the Palace of Versailles.
related literature
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900,
New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 221–24
