Biscuit

The Medici Wrestlers Group in biscuit on an oval base with Greek frieze Dimensions: Height: 29, Width: 35, Depth: 21 cm A Roman marble statue copy of the Greek original from the 3rd century BC which was bronze and s is lost in antiquity, this only known copy is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy dating from the first century BC. , found in Rome near the gate of St John Lateran in April 1583. Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici bought it in 1677 and placed it in the tribune hall in the Uffizi gallery. A marble copy of the antique group, made between 1684 and 1688 by Philippe Magnier (Paris, 1647 - 1715), is placed in the park of Versailles then Marly until the Revolution before being exhibited in the Tuileries garden in 1797 to 1865. It is today in the collections of the Department of Sculptures of the Louvre Museum. The sculpture was later reproduced in marble, bronze and plaster. The sophisticated composition of this statue and the intense emotion are characteristic of Hellenistic Greek art (from 323 to 31 BC). The work appears alive in its extraordinary features, its muscles, its position, its gaze, its bodily veins. The sculptor makes the work true with a sublime mastery of telling the sculpture in his own way, when I look at it I can't find a way to explain the energy it releases. This inextricable mixture of arms and legs of the two characters is simply amazing. (Anonymous praise) The history of this group is precisely described in the book: "For the love of the Antique" by Francis Haskelle and Nicholas Penny, Hachette edition, page 271.