Right Hand
This fragment of a right hand, with part of the wrist and index finger, probably came from the same colossal statue as the fragment of a bare foot displayed opposite in the Portico (inv. XX). Based on its dimensions, twice life size, the sculpture might have been made using the acrolithic technique, in which marble components were assembled around a wooden support structure.
Although the small size of the fragment prevents its precise dating, it can probably be dated to the second century CE.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
white marble with blue veining
Dimensions
height 23 cm; width 45 cm
Provenance
Borghese Collection, cited for the first time in the Indicazione of 1840 (p. 7, no. 27). Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, C., p. 41, no. 8. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Commentary
This fragment of the palm of a right hand includes part of the wrist and the index finger. It was likely from the same colossal sculpture as the fragment of a bare right foot displayed opposite it in the Portico (inv. XX). The way that the index finger is bent and the position of the fragments of the other fingers suggest that the hand held an object. The original dimensions of the sculpture, twice life size, suggest that the statue might have been made using the acrolithic technique, attaching a marble head and limbs to a wooden structure covered with clothing or thin sheets of metal, or simply pairing different types of polychrome marble. The fragment can be fruitfully compared to the right hand, left hand and portion of an arm from an acrolithic sculpture found in the Forum of Augustus and now in Trajan’s Market (Ungaro 2008, pp. 399–417).
The small size of the fragment does not allow us to determine a precise date, but it must have been made in 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. 27.
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, p. 910, n. 27.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1854 (1873), p. 8, n. 36.
- 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. 7.
- L. Ungaro, Storia, mito, rappresentazione: il programma figurativo del Foro di Augusto e l’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 12/01008568, P. Moreno 1976; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2020
