Lot Essay
The original, now in the Belvedere Courtyard, Musei Vaticani, Rome, had most probably been discovered at Anzio, in the late fiftteenth Century. It is recorded in the Vatican by 1509 and in the Belvedere by 1511, where it remained until ceded by Pope Pius VI to the French under the terms of the Treaty of Tolentino in February 1797. After being displayed in Paris at the Muse Central des Arts, it was then returned to the Belvedere courtyard in 1816.