Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

B 127
Borghese Warrior. Louvre

Lunging nude warrior holding a raised shield and readied sword. A first century BC version signed by Agasias of Ephesos of a third century statue.

Marble
Statue
H 2 m, L 1.57 m

From Nettuno. Found during the papacy of Paul V Borghese. Its existence is first recorded in June of 1611; there it is said to have come from Nettuno. Later it is described as coming from the Port of Anzio and finally Visconti alleges that it was found not far from the place where the Apollo Belvedere was found. By 1613 it was on display in the Borghese collection and by 1650 a room had even dedicated to it. The statue was sold to Napoleon in 1807 and shipped out of Rome in 1808.
France, Paris, Louvre, 527
First century BC version of a third century BC statue

Preservation:
The statue was sent immediately to restorers in the area of Sta. Maria Maggiore. A drawing attributed to Canini shows the statue without any left arm and only the uppermost portion of the right arm. According to Rayet, only the right arm and right ear are restorations. It is unclear to this author why a seventeenth century restorer would not have also restored the sword in the right hand. The statue is also missing the shield that was worn on the left arm. Breaks in the legs show that they have been reattached.

Description:
The statue depicts a naked man with lean musculature and long limbs. He lunges forward with the right leg and the left leg stretches backwards in a straight diagonal line. The heel of the left foot is raised and rests on a triangular support. The upper body continues upward along the diagonal line of the left leg. The body twists slightly at the waist, revealing straining muscles. The left arm is raised and bent; it holds a shield in front of the body. The head, turned up and to the left, follows the action of the left arm. The right shoulder is pulled back and the lowered right arm trails behind the body. The right hand held a sword. The twist of the neck creates several folds on the left side of the neck. The head itself is small with short hair. The hair, cut around the ears, is curly and without a part but sticks closely to the head. The forehead is particularly prominent. The lower half not only protrudes significantly but is also divided into three horizontal sections by deep vertical furrows at the center. Under this knobbly brow are small deep set eyes. The cheeks are especially flat and continue uninterrupted down to the jaw which has dropped because the mouth is open. Rising from the plinth and reaching up to and behind the right thigh is a tree trunk support. On the support is the artist’s signature.

Discussion:
The lunging Borghese Warrior (sometimes called the Gladiator) defends himself with his raised shield and at the same time prepares to thrust with the sword in his right hand. Found around 1611 relatively close to Rome, the figure had a significant impact on late and post-Renaissance art. The ancient import of the Warrior is hard to assess. It probably was part of a group, and since the warrior seems to fight against an opponent on a higher level, one imagines that it should be completed with a mounted horseman. The statue was not a gladiator as scholars of the Renaissance and the following thought. The inside of the tree trunk support bears an inscription that reads AGASIAS DWSIQEOU EFESIOS EPOIEI, Agasias, son of Dositheos, from Ephesos made this. The lettering appears to date to about 100 BC. The artist is known also from a base found on Halos. The spatially expansive pose of the statue and the awkward tree trunk support, however, suggest that the original model of the statue was designed in bronze. Moreover, the lean proportions and small head recall the stylistic principles of Lysippos who worked at the end of the fourth century BC. Thus, scholars have conjectured that Agasias of Ephesos made a copy in the early first century BC of an earlier statue, one perhaps created ca.300 BC. Immediately after the statue was found, it was acquired, restored, and prominently displayed by the Borghese family in Rome. Within twenty years of its discovery bronze casts were made and distributed throughout Europe. Greatly admired for its pose and rendering of the human anatomy, the statue served as an inspiration for well-known artists, such as Bernini and Canova, in and outside of Rome. Napoleon’s purchase and subsequent transfer of the statue to France further renewed interest in the work. Julia Lenaghan

Bibliography:
O. Rayet, "Hoplitodrome Vanqueur. Statue en Marbre par Agasias d’Éphèse" (Monuments de l'art antique 1884) some indication of the preservation status
A. Hermary, J. Marcadé et al, Receuil de signatures de sculpteurs grecs II (Paris 1957) 3 records the inscription
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique (New Haven 1981) 221-224 on Renaissance and modern popularity of the statue
A. Stewart, Greek Sculpture. An Exploration (New Haven 1990) 224-225 figs.810-811 essential information with bibliography
R. R. R. Smith, Hellenistic Sculpture. A Handbook (London 1991) 53 fig.54 essential information with illustration
P. Moreno, Scultura Ellenistica (Rome 1994) 683-688 figs.83, 84-86 footnote 1080 useful bibliography but misleading text
A. Pasquier, "Le Gladiateur Borghése ou la gloire d’un soldat inconnu" in D’aprés l’antique (Paris 2000) 276-295 summary statement on the statue plus numerous renditions made by Renaissance and post-Renaissance artists