Nude Right Foot
This incomplete fragment of a bare right foot is missing the first three toes. Given that it is more than two times larger than life size, it must have been made using the acrolithic technique, a method that paired marble components with a wooden support. The material used suggests that it is from the same statue as the fragment of a hand also displayed in the portico (inv. XX). Although little evidence is provided by the finishing of the fragment, which is fairly rough, the piece can be dated to the second century CE.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
white marble with blue veining
Dimensions
height 25 cm; width 30 cm
Provenance
Borghese Collection, cited for the first time in the Indicazione of 1840 (p. 7, no. 26). Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, C., p. 41, no. 8. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Commentary
This fragment depicts the front portion of a bare right foot from a colossal statue, two times larger than life size. Heavily damaged, it is missing the first three toes. Summarily finished, the anatomical rendering is also imprecise and the separation between the toes is expressed with a simple furrow made by a drill. The material used suggests that it is from the same statue as the fragment of a right hand displayed opposite in the portico (inv. XX). The large size of the fragment suggests that the colossal statue was made using the acrolithic technique, attaching a marble head, arms and legs to a wooden core, covered in fabric or sheets of metal to imitate fabric, or, more simply, made using marble of a different hue. Three fragments from an acrolithic statue, representing a right hand, left hand and part of an arm, were unearthed in the Forum of Augustus and are now preserved in Trajan’s Market (Ungaro 2008, pp. 399–417).
Although the small size of the fragment prevents its precise dating, it is probably from the second century CE.
Giulia Ciccarello
Bibliography
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1840, p. 7, n. 26.
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, p. 910, n. 26.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1854 (1873), p. 8, n. 32.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 11.
- G. Giusti, La Galerie Borghèse et la Ville Humbert Premier à Rome, Roma 1904, p. 14.
- P. Moreno, A.Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, p. 63, n. 8.
- L. Ungaro, Storia, mito, rappresentazione: il programma figurativo del Foro di Augusto el’Aula del Colosso, Le due patrie acquisite. Studi di archeologia dedicati a Walter Trillmich,in “Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma”, Suppl. 18, Roma 2008, pp. 399-417.
- Scheda di catalogo 12/01008569, P. Moreno 1976; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2020
