The Dying Gaul: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome
The Dying Gaul: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome
December 12, 2013 – March 16, 2014
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Dying Gaul (in Italian: Galata Morente), better known as the Dying Galatian or the Dying Gladiator, is an ancient Roman marble copy of a lost Hellenistic sculpture that is thought to have been executed in bronze, which was commissioned some time between 230 BC and 220 BC by Attalus I of Pergamon to celebrate his victory over the Galatians in Anatolia.
The identity of the sculptor of the original is unknown, but it has been suggested that Epigonus, the court sculptor of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon, may have been its sculptor. The present base was added after its rediscovery. The statue depicts a dying Celt with remarkable realism, particularly in the face, and may have been painted. He is represented as a Celtic warrior with a typically hairstyle and moustache. The figure is nude save for a neck torc. He lies on his fallen shield while his sword and other objects lie beside him.
[print_my_photo_gallery]The statue was most commonly known as the Dying Gladiator until the twentieth century, on the assumption that it depicted a wounded gladiator in the Roman amphitheatre. Scholars had identified it as a Galatian by the mid nineteenth century, but it took many decades for the new label to become the norm.
