Head of Meleager
The provenance of this sculpture is unknown. It is one of several roman copies made from the Skopas’ masterpiece depicting Meleager, the hero of Calydon. The original sculpture, made about the years 340-350, is known through a considerable number of copies, the more accurate of whom is exhibited in the Vatican Museums. These copies vary in quality and fidelity to the original; 13 statues, 4 torsos, 19 heads have been recorded.
The considerable number of sculptures and the several 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”.
Skopas’ original sculpture
mid-4th century BC.
Legato Giovanni Grimaldi
Venice, National Archaeological Museum
Head of Meleager
The provenance of this sculpture is unknown. It is one of several roman copies made from the Skopas’ masterpiece depicting Meleager, the hero of Calydon. The original sculpture, made about the years 340-350, is known through a considerable number of copies, the more accurate of whom is exhibited in the Vatican Museums. These copies vary in quality and fidelity to the original; 13 statues, 4 torsos, 19 heads have been recorded.
The considerable number of sculptures and the several 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”.
Skopas’ original sculpture
mid-4th century BC.
Legato Giovanni Grimaldi
Venice, National Archaeological Museum