Nude Torso of a Male Figure, fragment
According to Nibby, this torso was unearthed in 1826 during excavations in the Lucidi vineyard in the area between Frascati and Monte Porzio Catone, owned by the Borghese family. It is a nude bust of a male figure, larger than life size, with raised arms. The inclination of the neck to the left and the creases on the stomach suggest that it was originally a statue of a seated figure. Interpreted by scholars as an Apollo or a Diadumenos, it was inspired by Hellenistic models from the Alexandria area and is datable to the second century CE.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
Dimensions
height with raised arm 98 cm; height from the bust fracture to the neck 75 cm
Provenance
Borghese Collection, probably from the excavations carried out in 1826 in the area between Frascati and Monte Porzio Catone, in the Lucidi vineyard (Nibby 1841, p. 909–910, no. 14); cited for the first time in the Palazzina Borghese, on display in the Portico, by Nibby (Nibby 1832, p. 17, no. 6); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, C., p. 41, no. 1. Acquisto dello Stato, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1826-1832 - Restoration interventions with the application of metal dowels: insertion of marble dowels in the lower part of the back, in the right nipple. Arms recomposed from various fragments.
- 1994-95 - ABACUS s.n.c. of Nicoletta Naldoni and Gerlinde Tautschnig
- 2008 - Consorzio Capitolino di Elisabetta Zatti and Elisabetta Caracciolo
- 2022 - Restoration: Nobili - Fabrica – Antonelli (associated firms); Diagnostics: Artelab of Domenico Poggi
Commentary
This torso, which is larger than life size, depicts a nude male figure with a lean, sculpted physique. The inclination of the neck forward and to the left and the creases in the stomach suggest that it was originally a statue of a seated figure. Both arms are raised; the right is bent back, and the left is bent above the head. According to Nibby, it came from the excavations commissioned by Prince Camillo Borghese in 1820 in a vineyard owned by the family in Santa Croce, between Monte Porzio and Frascati, granted in emphyteusis to Cesare Lucidi. He wrote that the sculpture was unearthed in 1826 (Nibby 1841, pp. 909–910, no. 14; Moreno, Sforzini 1987, pp. 347–348). According to Valenti, who studied the sculptures discovered in the Lucidi vineyard, the archaeological exploration of the area was carried out in a single campaign between 1820 and 1821 and the date reported by Nibby was a slip of the pen (Valenti 2003, p. 188, note 17).
Nibby noted that it was in the Portico of the Palazzina Borghese and interpreted it in two different ways. First, as an ‘Apollo pulling back his bow to shoot the deadly arrow’ and, later, as a torso of Diadumenos (1832, p. 17; 1841 pp. 909–910). In the Inventario Fidecommissario of 1833, the sculpture was listed as a torso of Bacchus, while Venturi described it in 1893 as a ‘torso of an Apollo darter … the pose of which recalls Polykleitos’s Diadumenos” (p. 11). Lippold disagreed with Nibby’s interpretation of the sculpture as an Apollo preparing to shoot an arrow, and instead saw the movement as similar to that of the satyr with a kroupezion, a percussion instrument tied to the bottom of the foot (1925, p. 2, no. 2707). Lastly, Reinach placed it among depictions of athletes and associated it with a replica of an athlete of the Amelung type in the Torlonia Collection (Inv. 470: Picozzi 2006, pp. 73, 75).
Analysis of stylistic features such as the soft forms and realistic muscle tension, deriving from Hellenistic models from the Alexandria area, suggest a date for the sculpture in the second century CE.
Giulia Ciccarello
Bibliography
- A. Nibby, Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese, Roma 1832, pp. 16-17, n. 6, tav. 2.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1840, p. 6, n. 14.
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, pp. 909-910, n. 14.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1854 (1873), p. 6, n. 19.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 11.
- G. Giusti, The Borghese Gallery and the Villa Umberto I in Rome, Città di Castello 1919, p. 25.
- W. Amelung, P. Arndt, G. Lippold, Photographische Einzelaufnahmen antiker Sculpturen, X, 1, München 1925, p. 2, n. 2707.
- S. Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, II-2, Paris 1931, p. 548, n. 2.
- A. De Rinaldis, La R. Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1935, p. 5.
- G. Lippold, Die Griechische Plastik, in “Handbuch der Archäologie”, Münich 1950, p. 320, tav. 113, 3.
- P. Moreno, Museo e Galleria Borghese, La collezione archeologica, Roma 1980, p. 8.
- P. Moreno, S. Staccioli, Le collezioni della Galleria Borghese, Milano 1981, p. 101.
- P. Moreno, C. Sforzini, I ministri del principe Camillo: cronaca della collezione Borghese di antichità dal 1807 al 1832, in “Scienze dell’Antichità”, 1, 1987, p. 348, fig. 5.
- P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 38, n. 7.
- M. Valenti, Gli scavi Borghese nella Vigna Lucidi a Frascati, in “Lazio e Sabina”, II, atti del convegno (a cura di) G. Ghini, Roma 7-8 maggio 2003, pp. 187-192, in part. pp. 188-189, nota 21.
- P. Moreno, A. Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, pp. 84-85, n. 37.
- M. G. Picozzi, L’atleta Amelung, in L’immagine degli originali greci, Roma 2006, pp. 71-79, in part. pp. 73, 75).
- Schede di catalogo 12/01008295, P. Moreno 1976; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2020.
