A warrior, possibly a Gaul, beaten down to one knee and warding off a blow from above. His helmet (beside his right knee) had horns, now broken off.
Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum
B 126
Kneeling Warrior from Delos. Athens
Hellenistic statue of a nude warrior, a Gaul or Galatian, who resists an opponent from kneeling position, from a monument on Delos.
Marble
Statue
93 cm
From Delos. Found at the Agora of the Italians in 1882 with related fragments, belonging to at least one similar statue.
Greece, Athens, National Museum, 247
ca. 100 BC
Preservation:The statue is missing its right arm from the elbow down (including the hand), the right ankle and foot, the left foot, and the penis. Both horns of the helmet have broken off near the surface of the helmet. A section of the upper body that includes the left shoulder and upper arm were worked separately. There is a worked surface that runs (along the line of the baldric) diagonally from the right side of the neck to the left side of the waist where the section joins. A head, often said to be from Mykonos, has been attached to the statue and, according to the most recent marble tests, appears to belong. The front right corner of the plinth is broken, as is the side near the helmet. On the plinth are traces of the right toes. There is a hole on the inside of the right thigh just above the knee. The Ashmolean cast does not include the separately worked torso piece. Nor does it feature the so-called "Mykonos" head.
Description:The statue depicts a nude male with long limbs and sinewy musculature. The figure kneels on the right knee and extends the left leg forward. The torso bends toward the right. The right shoulder is lowered and the left is raised. The left arm was raised in an attempt to shield the body from a foe. The head (not included on the Ashmolean cast) depicts a young male with mouth open and short unruly hair. A baldric runs from the right side of the neck to the left side of the waist and would have concealed the join of the two separately worked pieces of marble.
The helmet of the figure has fallen off the head and lies near the right knee. The leather cheek flaps are splayed on the plinth. Each side of the helmet was decorated with a projecting curved horn. On the inside of the right knee is a circular hole into which an arrow may once have been inserted.
The surface of the plinth is uneven. The outer edge is rounded near the left foot and behind the helmet the upper surface is only very roughly worked.
Discussion:This statue shows an anguished young Gaul or Galatian, perhaps wounded at the right knee, fighting upward against an invisible foe. His helmet adorned with animal horns clearly proves his barbaric ethnicity which is confirmed by his animal-like physique and wild hair (cf. Diodorus Siculus5.28). The statue, and at least one other similar to it, decorated the Agora of the Italians on Delos which was begun ca. 120 BC. In subject it reflects the earlier Large and Small Attalid Monuments that featured various statues of defeated barbarians and were set up after the victories of Attalos I over the Gauls in the 230s.
The long-limbed and lean-muscled appearance and the extended posture recall those of the “Borghese Warrior” (cat.no. B 127), a work signed by Agasias son of Dositheos from Ephesos. A. Stewart even refers to the Delos statue as kneeling version of the Borghese Warrior. This striking similarity and a coincidence in the name of the sculptors may have led Reinach to associate the statue with a base, also found in the Agora. This base features a bilingual dedication to a Roman legate (Marius has been proposed as hypothetical example) by the Italians of Alexandria and is signed by an Agasias son of Menophilos from Ephesos who is known in at least 15 inscriptions, all but one from Delos. This association of the statue and the base, however, is no longer deemed tenable for two reasons. First, the inscription implies the presence of a Roman and the base is not large enough for both a Roman and the kneeling Gaul. More importantly, the plinth of the Kneeling Gaul seems to fit on another base.
Another much disputed association concerns the head. Although Marcadé originally argued that the head did not belong and it was said even to come from Mykonos, its size, general appearance, and emotional expression are appropriate. Moreover, recent marble tests may have confirmed its pertinence.
Scholars have suggested various motivations and particular events that might have led to the dedication of this monument. It is agreed that the work was influenced by the monuments of Attalos I. Specific dates and events that may have some bearing on the issue include the Roman victory in Galatia in 189 BC, Marius’ victory over the Germans and Gauls in the Alps in 102-101 BC, and Attalos III’s death in 133 BC at which juncture the Romans inherited his kingdom and mission.
Julia Lenaghan
Bibliography:S. Reinach,
"Monuments Figurés de Délos" (BCH 8 1884) 178-180
first publication of the statue, believes that it goes on a base that was dedicated by the Italians of Alexandria and that bears the artist’s Agasias of Ephesos’ signatureC. Picard,
"Le Guierrier blessé de l’Agora des Italiens a Délos" (BCH 56 1932) 491-530 pls.25-26
interesting discussion of the findspot and arguments about the baseA. Hermary, J. Marcadé et al,
Receuil de signatures de sculpteurs grecs II (Paris 1957) 5
records the inscribed base with Agasias of Ephesos signature which at this point M. considers possibly to belong to the statueA. Hermary, J. Marcadé et al,
Au Musée de Délos (Paris 1969) 119-126, 363-366 pl.80
disassociates the statue with the base, discussion of type of monumentA. Stewart,
Greek Sculpture. An Exploration (New Haven 1990) 227 fig.838
fallen Celt from ca.100, considers it a kneeling version of the Borghese WarriorB. S. Ridgway,
Hellenistic Sculpture I: The Styles of ca. 331-200 BC (Bristol 1990) 297-299 pls.154a-b
succinct discussion of statue and motivations for itA. Hermary, J. Marcadé et al,
Sculptures déliennes (Paris 1996) 204 no.92
most recent catalogue entry
