BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Gallery of Art -- West Wing -- Exhibit: The Dying Gaul

DC -- Natl Gallery of Art -- West Wing -- Exhibit: The Dying Gaul:

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Description of Pictures: The Dying Gaul: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome
December 12, 2013 – March 16, 2014
Created in the first or second century AD, the Dying Gaul is one of the most renowned works from antiquity. This exhibition marks the first time it has left Italy since 1797, when Napoleonic forces took the sculpture to Paris, where it was displayed at the Louvre until its return to Rome in 1816. A universally recognized masterpiece, the Dying Gaul is a deeply moving celebration of the human spirit.
Organization: Organized by Roma Capitale, Sovrintendenza Capitolina – Musei Capitolini, and the National Gallery of Art, together with the Embassy of Italy, Washington.
It is part of The Dream of Rome and 2013—The Year of Italian Culture in the United States, which is organized under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic by The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy in Washington, in collaboration with the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali.

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[1] NGADG_131214_001.JPG	[2] NGADG_131214_010.JPG	[3] NGADG_131214_013.JPG
[4] NGADG_131214_020.JPG	[5] NGADG_131214_045.JPG	[6] NGADG_131214_051.JPG
[7] NGADG_131214_055.JPG	[8] NGADG_131214_058.JPG	[9] NGADG_131214_062.JPG
[10] NGADG_131214_067.JPG	[11] NGADG_131214_070.JPG	[12] NGADG_131214_074.JPG
[13] NGADG_131214_081.JPG	[14] NGADG_131214_102.JPG	[15] NGADG_131214_110.JPG
[16] NGADG_131214_118.JPG	[17] NGADG_131214_124.JPG	[18] NGADG_131214_131.JPG
[19] NGADG_131214_140.JPG	[20] NGADG_131214_146.JPG	[21] NGADG_131214_153.JPG
[22] NGADG_131214_159.JPG	[23] NGADG_131214_161.JPG	[24] NGADG_131214_167.JPG
[25] NGADG_131214_175.JPG	[26] NGADG_131214_179.JPG	[27] NGADG_131214_189.JPG
[28] NGADG_131214_193.JPG	[29] NGADG_131214_196.JPG	[30] NGADG_131214_202.JPG
[31] NGADG_131214_223.JPG	[32] NGADG_131214_232.JPG	[33] NGADG_131214_259.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NGADG_131214_001.JPG: The Dying Gaul: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome Fame: The fame of The Dying Gaul spread soon after its discovery partly on account of an engraving by the French artist François Perrier published in 1638. Full-size copies were commissioned by King Philip IV of Spain (reigned 1621–1665) and Louis XIV of France (reigned 1661–1715). Bronze statuettes produced by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Francesco Susini in the 1630's made the work available to a larger audience. In 1771, Thomas Jefferson, who knew Perrier's engraving, included the sculpture on a list of antiquities he hoped to acquire, presumably in reproduction, for a never-realized art gallery at Monticello. The Dying Gaul was endlessly copied by art students and inspired works by Diego Velázquez, Jacques-Louis David, Giovanni Paolo Panini, and other artists. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a visit to the Capitoline Museum to see the original sculpture of the Dying Gaul was an essential stop on the Grand Tour. Europeans seeking to further their education by studying antiquities firsthand included Lord Byron, who toured Italy from 1816 to 1818. Still under the misconception that the sculpture portrayed a gladiator, he memorialized in in his poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: I see before me the gladiator lie He leans upon his hand -- his manly brow consents to death, but conquers agony
2. NGADG_131214_045.JPG: The Dying Gaul: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome: Discovery: The Dying Gaul was found in Rome in the gardens of a Villa Ludovisi, probably during excavations for the villa's foundation between 1621 and 1623. The sculpture is a Roman copy of Greek bronze original created in the third century BC in Asia Minor (now Turkey) to commemorate the victory of the King of Pergamon over the invading Gauls. In Pergamon, the original bronze mostly likely adorned the Sanctuary of Athena, who was the protector of the city. The Greek sculpture was evidently brought to Rome, possibly under Emperor Nero (reigned 54-68 AD), where it reminded Romans of their own proud conquest of Gaul. For both the Romans and the Pergamene Greeks, the subject also held larger significance: the triumph of civilization over barbarism. The Ludovisi sculpture was not immediately recognized as a depiction of a Gallic warrior. The earliest record of the Dying Gaul appeared in the 1623 inventory of the Ludovisi collection, in which it is described as a dying gladiator. Later, the presence of a trumpet of the plinth led the German art historian and archaeologist Johann Winckelmann (1717-1768) to propose that the subject was instead a Greek herald. Around the turn of the eighteenth century, scholars began to recognize that the figure portrays instead of Gallic warrior. The torque around his neck, his mustache, and his leonine hair all signify a member of one of the Germanic tribes that the Greeks and Romans considered barbarians. The sculpture also conforms to ancient descriptions of Gallic warriors, noted for their bravery and ferocity. In the second century BC, the historian Polybius marveled they fought "wearing nothing but their weapons... Very terrifying too were the appearance and gestures of the naked warriors... all in the prime of life, and finely built men."
3. NGADG_131214_051.JPG: Hypothetical reconstruction of the Sanctuary of Athena, Pergamon (detail)
4. NGADG_131214_055.JPG: View of the Villa Ludovisz and Gardens, Giovanni Battista Falda, c 1760, engraving
5. NGADG_131214_058.JPG: Hypothetical reconstruction of the Sanctuary of Athena in Pergamon in the 3rd century VC, with the Dying Gaul (see detail at right).
6. NGADG_131214_124.JPG: The Dying Gaul The Dying Gaul depicts a warrior in his final moments, his face contracted in pain just before he collapses from the mortal wound to his chest. Embodying courage and nobility in the face of death, this image of a vanquished enemy is one of the most moving and renowned works from antiquity. This exhibition marks the first time it has left Italy since 1797, when Napoleonic forces took the sculpture to Paris, where it was displayed at the Louvre until its return to Rome in 1816.
7. NGADG_131214_193.JPG: The Dying Gaul, Francois Perrier, from Segmenta nobilium signorum et statuarium. Perrier's print is the earliest published image of the sculpture.
8. NGADG_131214_196.JPG: Mercury and Argus, Diego Velazquez, 1659, Museo del Prado, Madrid. Philip IV sent Valezquez to Rome to acquire plaster casts of antiquities, including the Dying Gaul, Velazquez based the figure of Argus on that of the Dying Gaul, but transferred the Gaul's arms to the figure of Mercury.
9. NGADG_131214_202.JPG: Male Nude Study, called Patroclus, Jacques-Louis Davis, 1780, Musee d'Art Thomas Henry, Cherbourg. The back view of the Dying Gaul inspired David's portrayal of "Patroclus," painted while the artist was at the French Academy in Rome.
10. NGADG_131214_223.JPG: Ancient Rome, Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1754/1757, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart. The Dying Gaul is to the left of center.
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