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Lot Essay
PUBLISHED:
R. Cidoncha (ed.), La Donación de Claudio Bravo, veint esculturas Grecorromanas, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2000, p. 56, no. 19.
The nude youthful male statue type, so masterfully rendered by the Greek sculptors including Polykleitos, Pheidias and Lysippos, was ubiquitous in the Roman world. Such figures were copied and adopted by the Romans for multiple purposes, the identification of the subject depending on the addition of any associated attributes - from athletes to ephebes, and gods to heroes. Besides their popularity as decoration in the homes of the Roman nobiles (aristocracy), theatres, bath complexes and public spaces throughout the Empire were ornamented with niches filled with marble and bronze sculpture. One possible attribution for the above figure could be Meleager, one of the Greek heroes who searched for the Golden Fleece and who hunted the Caledonian Boar. The original statue was produced by the Late Classical sculptor Skopas, circa 340 B.C., and was an extremely popular subject matter in Roman times, with the youth usually shown with a chlamys draped over his shoulders, and with a hunting dog and the boar head by his side.
R. Cidoncha (ed.), La Donación de Claudio Bravo, veint esculturas Grecorromanas, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2000, p. 56, no. 19.
The nude youthful male statue type, so masterfully rendered by the Greek sculptors including Polykleitos, Pheidias and Lysippos, was ubiquitous in the Roman world. Such figures were copied and adopted by the Romans for multiple purposes, the identification of the subject depending on the addition of any associated attributes - from athletes to ephebes, and gods to heroes. Besides their popularity as decoration in the homes of the Roman nobiles (aristocracy), theatres, bath complexes and public spaces throughout the Empire were ornamented with niches filled with marble and bronze sculpture. One possible attribution for the above figure could be Meleager, one of the Greek heroes who searched for the Golden Fleece and who hunted the Caledonian Boar. The original statue was produced by the Late Classical sculptor Skopas, circa 340 B.C., and was an extremely popular subject matter in Roman times, with the youth usually shown with a chlamys draped over his shoulders, and with a hunting dog and the boar head by his side.
