Object Description
This is a truly magnificent antique Italian Grand Tour figural golden patinated bronze sculpture depicting a wounded gladiator known as “The Dying Gaul”, and signed B Boschetti, Roma, circa 1830 in date.
This striking classical sculpture is after the original antique Roman marble sculpture found in the Capitoline Museum in the early 17th Century, which is itself a copy of an ancient Hellenistic bronze sculpture commissioned by Attalus of Pergamon in 230-220 BC to celebrate his victory over the Galatians.
This exquisitely executed bronze sculpture depicts the wounded naked dying gladiator with remarkable realism and pathos. He is beautifully featured as a Celtic warrior with curly hairstyle and has a characteristic band of twisted metal around his neck. He lies on his fallen shield while his sword lies beside him on the right-hand side and his head is looking downward in dignified sorrow.
He is raised on an antico rosso oval plinth on bun feet and is signed B Boschetti Roma, on one end of the bronze.
The attention to detail throughout this piece is second to none.
Add a classical dimension to your home with this captivating Italian Grand Tour sculpture.
Condition:
In really excellent condition, please see photos for confirmation..
Dimensions in cm:
Height 23 x Width 38 x Depth 20
Dimensions in inches:
Height 9 inches x Width 1 foot, 3 inches x Depth 8 inches
Benedetto Boschetti
In the early 19th Century Benedetto Boschetti fed the growing demand for high quality works of art with an antique theme created by an influx of grand tourists, many of whom were English. Little is known about his life, but he is known to have worked out of his workshops in the centre of Rome where he produced a large number of classically inspired objects ranging from bronzes to tabletops and mosaics. Active between 1820-1870, the Boschetti workshop exhibited at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. The workshop was renowned for the exceptional quality of its copies after the ‘Antique’, mainly in marble and bronze.
First recorded in the Ludovisi Collection in 1623, the antique marble known as ‘The Dying Gaul’ was acquired for the Capitoline Museums by Pope Clement XII, before being ceded to the French in 1797. The sculpture arrived in Paris in a triumphal procession and was housed in the Musée Central des Arts. After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, it was returned to the Capitoline Museums, where its fame was such that it was displayed in a dedicated room named after it. The subject was long interpreted as a Gladiator until late 19th-century scholarship identified the poignant figure as a wounded Galatian, whose army invaded the Hellenistic kingdom of Pergamon in the third century AD. Since the marble’s discovery, its popularity has spawned numerous reductions in bronze, marble and alabaster.
Our reference: A3133