Dying Gaul

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The dying Gaul
Detail of the head of the dying Gaul , highlighting the hair and beard and the twisted choker (torques) of the statue
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The Dying Gaul is an ancient marble - statue that now in the Capitoline Museums in Rome is located. The work is a Roman copy - probably from the early 2nd century - of an original dating from around 230/220 BC. BC, probably in bronze , was commissioned by Attalus I , the king of Pergamon , and was in the Athena sanctuary of Pergamon . This documented his victory over the Celts , who were known as the Galatians in Greco-Asia Minor . The name of the artist is unknown, but the work is sometimes ascribed to an Epigonus ( Pliny the Elder : Tubicen ) who was court sculptor in Pergamon at the time of Attalus.

The statue shows with remarkable realism a dying Celt who, barely seated, looks down at the ground. Especially the head with its Celtic hairstyle and typical Celtic mustache looks very realistic. Except for a neck ring ( torques ) the figure is bare. This also corresponds to the tradition by Julius Caesar , who reports of naked Gallic warriors. On the one hand, the statue was intended to document the victory of the Pergamener, but on the other hand, the strength of the opponent was also to be represented in order to make this victory all the more glamorous.

It is believed that the statue was found in the early 17th century during excavations during the construction of Villa Ludovisi . In any case, in 1623 it was in the possession of the Ludovisi in Rome.

reception

The dying Gaul became one of the most famous works of ancient sculpture, copied and imitated countless times.

The beginning of the Enlightenment saw the work as a classic example of ancient art and admired the artistic quality and the expressive pathos of the representation. Numerous wealthy art lovers and monarchs had reproductions made for themselves, but less well-off people often came into the possession of a dying Gaul , for example in the form of a paperweight. It sometimes happened that it was assumed that the dying person represented a gladiator , so that misleading names such as “wounded gladiator” and the like were also used for the statue. were in circulation. In 1797 Napoleon had numerous valuable works of art brought to Paris as part of his Italian campaigns , including the dying Gaul . With the restoration in 1815, this work also came back to Rome and has since been exhibited in the Capitoline Museums.

In Germany, a life-size bronze copy is in front of the orangery of the castle park to Putbus on the island of Ruegen .

literature

  • Donato Attanasio, Matthias Bruno, Walter Prochaska: The Docimian Marble of the Ludovisi and Capitoline Gauls and Other Replicas of the Pergamene Dedications. In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 115, 2011, pp. 575-587.
  • Hans-Ulrich Cain : Celtic pictures in Rome. Staged humiliation and experienced winning morale. In: Munich Yearbook of Fine Arts . Third episode, Volume 57, 2006, pp. 9-30.
  • Ernst Künzl : The Celts of Epigonus of Pergamon (= contributions to archeology. Volume 4). Triltsch, Würzburg 1971, 6 f.
  • Ursula Mandel : Spatiality and Experience of Movement - Body Fates in High Hellenism (240–190 BC). In: Peter Cornelis Bol (ed.): The history of ancient sculpture. Volume 3: Hellenistic Sculpture. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2007, pp. 167–172 Fig. 168 a – be h – i.

Web links

Commons : Dying Gaul  - Collection of images, videos and audio files