Borghese Warrior
- Title:
- Borghese Warrior
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Agasias of Ephesus, son of Dositheus
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. 100 BCE
2008 (image)
- Site:
- Anzio, Italy (discovery site, early 17th c.) (original)
- Location:
- Warehouse
Anzio, Italy (discovery site, early 17th c.) (original) - ID Number:
- IMG_1685
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 320
99 on front of plinth
129 - File Name:
- IMG_1685.JPG
- Original Measurements:
- 199 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- Hellenistic
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Ancient warfare
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from side
- Measurement:
- 154 (with socle) (centimeters, height)
socle: 8.5 x 116 x 96.5 (centimeters, height x width x diameter) - Description:
- This is a damaged cast of the Borghese Warrior, a marble, nude, male combatant in action housed in the Louvre. The figure stands poised to defend himself from a threat from above him. His well-defined muscles are tensed. He bears his weight on his bent right leg and appears to spring forward from his taut and rigid left leg, which extends behind him. A knotted tree trunk just behind the right leg attaches at the right buttock. His torso is bent forward and twisted at the waist to almost profile. The head of this cast is missing, but in the original the warrior cranes his neck out and up and lifts his head to look up. His left arm is also missing in this cast from below the shoulder. The right arm of the cast is broken away but preserved (see ID no. 129a). In the original, the figure holds his left arm up, raising a now-missing shield. He holds his right arm, a 17th century addition, back and clasps the hilt of a sword in his hand. The cast retains evidence of past vandalism. The sculptor, Agasias of Ephesus, is identified by inscription on the tree trunk at the base. The original work shows heavy Lysippan influence but also incorporates elements of the Hellenistic Baroque of the Pergamene school. The Borghese Warrior is likely to have been a first century BCE copy or adaptation of an earlier, Classical work. The figure was anachronistically thought to be a gladiator for many years after its discovery.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. MR 224 - Bibliography:
- Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 221-224
P.P. Caproni and brother, Catalogue of Plaster Reproductions from Antique, Medieval and Modern Sculpture (Boston, MA, 1911),15
W. M. Ramsey, Modern Athletics and Greek Art: Notes on the Borghese Gladiator and the Apobates-Relief of the Acropolis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1885) (available online): http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=a-sHAAAAQAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Borghese+warrior&ots=teNRrzehPK&sig=LhFhDUjTVbT1xmRsCJ-Yxj8bDno#v=onepage&q=Borghese%20warrior&f=false - Related Work:
- Belongs with ID no. 129a.
- Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Paris, Louvre (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.