Meleager, the hero of Calydon
Meleager is represented in a noble attitude resting on his lance, that is here missing, and holding with the left hand the head of the boar. On the left side, the faithful dog stands at his feet .
The elegant drapery, a chlamys fastened on his right shoulder, scarcely covers the breast, and passing over the shoulders, is twisted round his left forearm.
This highly finished statue is sculptured in “imezio” marble, and is a copy made in the 2nd century A.D. inspired by a Greek original of the mid-4th century B.C.
The original model probably was derived from the Meleager of Skopas, a lost bronze masterwork of the great sculptor of Paros (395 – 350 BC). The opera is a copy made in the 2nd century A.D. inspired by a Greek original of the mid-4th century B.C.The original work is known through a considerable number of copies that vary in quality and fidelity to the original: 13 statues, 4 torsos, 19 heads, among busts and herms, have been recorded. The considerable number of sculptures and the numerous replicas of Meleager’s myth carved on the Roman sarcophagi show the great popularity of Meleager during the imperial times. This appreciation of the myth of the heroic hunter who slew the monstrous Calydonian boar accounts “the appeal that hunting figures had for the Romans, through their heroizing connotations”.
The copy exhibited in the Vatican Museums was found about the year 1500 outside Porta Portese in Rome.
Skopas’ original sculpture
mid-4th century BC.
Roman copy
about 2nd century AD
Rome, Vatican Museums
Meleager, the hero of Calydon
Meleager is represented in a noble attitude resting on his lance, that is here missing, and holding with the left hand the head of the boar. On the left side, the faithful dog stands at his feet .
The elegant drapery, a chlamys fastened on his right shoulder, scarcely covers the breast, and passing over the shoulders, is twisted round his left forearm.
This highly finished statue is sculptured in “imezio” marble, and is a copy made in the 2nd century A.D. inspired by a Greek original of the mid-4th century B.C.
The original model probably was derived from the Meleager of Skopas, a lost bronze masterwork of the great sculptor of Paros (395 – 350 BC). The opera is a copy made in the 2nd century A.D. inspired by a Greek original of the mid-4th century B.C.The original work is known through a considerable number of copies that vary in quality and fidelity to the original: 13 statues, 4 torsos, 19 heads, among busts and herms, have been recorded. The considerable number of sculptures and the numerous replicas of Meleager’s myth carved on the Roman sarcophagi show the great popularity of Meleager during the imperial times. This appreciation of the myth of the heroic hunter who slew the monstrous Calydonian boar accounts “the appeal that hunting figures had for the Romans, through their heroizing connotations”.
The copy exhibited in the Vatican Museums was found about the year 1500 outside Porta Portese in Rome.
Skopas’ original sculpture
mid-4th century BC.
Roman copy
about 2nd century AD
Rome, Vatican Museums