FRENCH PATINATED BRONZE MODEL OF THE BORGHESE GLADIATOR

FRENCH PATINATED BRONZE MODEL OF THE BORGHESE GLADIATOR, late 19th century and cast after the Antique, heroically nude, his left arm extended, the right hand drawn back with a clenched sword hilt, the rectangular base inscribed Musee du Louvre, 48cm high, 43cm wide overall Note: Found before 1611 in the present territory of Anzio south of Rome, amongst the ruins of a seaside palace of Nero, the Borghese Gladiator is now held at the Louvre in Paris. It is now thought that from the attitude of the figure the work more probably represents not a gladiator, but a warrior contending with a mounted combatant. In the days when antique sculptures gained immediacy by being identified with specific figures from history or literature, Friedrich Thiersch, the 18th/19th century German classical scholar conjectured that it was intended to represent Achilles fighting with the mounted Amazon, Penthesilea