''The Pasquino Group'' (also known as ''Menelaus Carrying the Body of Patroclus'' or ''Ajax Carrying the Body of Achilles'') is a group of marble sculptures that copy a

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

original, dating to ca. 200–150 BCE. At least fifteen Roman marble copies of this sculpture are known. Many of these marble copies have complex artistic and social histories that illustrate the degree to which improvisatory "restorations" were made to fragments of

ancient Roman sculpture The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere and Barberini Faun, are known only from Roman Imperial or Hellenistic "copies" ...

during the 16th and 17th centuries, in which contemporary Italian sculptors made original and often arbitrary and destructive additions in an effort to replace lost fragments of the ancient sculptures. One of the most famous versions of the composition, though so dismembered and battered that the relationship is scarcely recognizable at first glance, is the so-called ''

Pasquin Pasquino or Pasquin (Latin: ''Pasquillus'') is the name used by Romans since the early modern period to describe a battered Hellenistic-style statue perhaps dating to the third century BC, which was unearthed in the Parione district of Rome i ...

'', one of the

talking statues of Rome The talking statues of Rome ( it, statue parlanti di Roma) or the Congregation of Wits () provided an outlet for a form of anonymous political expression in Rome. Criticisms in the form of poems or witticisms were posted on well-known statues in ...

. It was set up on a pedestal in 1501 and remains unrestored. A version of the group, probably intended to represent other Homeric figures, is part of the

Sperlonga sculptures The Sperlonga sculptures are a large and elaborate ensemble of ancient sculptures discovered in 1957 in the grounds of the former villa of the Emperor Tiberius at Sperlonga, on the coast between Rome and Naples. As reconstructed, the sculpt ...

found in 1957.

Subject

Ancient Roman copies of the original Greek sculptural group were first documented in Rome ca. 1500. During the 16th century, various authors proposed different identifications for the dead figure, including

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

Geryon In Greek mythology, Geryon ( or ;"Geryon"
''

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

. Bernhard Schweitzer's 1936 ''Das Original der sogennanten Pasquino-Gruppe'' identifies the subject of the group as

Menelaus In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; grc-gre, Μενέλαος , 'wrath of the people', ) was a king of Mycenaean (pre- Dorian) Sparta. According to the ''Iliad'', Menelaus was a central figure in the Trojan War, leading the Spartan contingent of ...

carrying the body of

Patroclus In Greek mythology, as recorded in Homer's ''Iliad'', Patroclus (pronunciation variable but generally ; grc, Πάτροκλος, Pátroklos, glory of the father) was a childhood friend, close wartime companion, and the presumed (by some later a ...

; however, this identification has been questioned and the subject of

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

carrying the body of

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pe ...

is now widely accepted for most of the Roman copies. In the case of the very fragmentary group from

Sperlonga Sperlonga (locally ) is a coastal town in the province of Latina, Italy, about halfway between Rome and Naples. It is best known for the ancient Roman sea grotto discovered in the grounds of the Villa of Tiberius containing the important and spect ...

, most scholars agree it is here intended to show

Odysseus Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odys ...

carrying the body of the dead Achilles off the battlefield outside Troy (or possibly Ajax doing the carrying), as the other sculptures in the ensemble show scenes from the story of Odysseus. This is an unusual subject, not in Homer, but one that is mentioned by

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

(''Metamorposes'', 13, 282 ff) and fits the rest of the programme.Blanckenhagen, 102 Here Odysseus is shown at his most conventionally virtuous, demonstrating ''pietas''.

The Loggia dei Lanzi group

Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Life Rise to power Cosimo was born in Florence on 12 ...

purchased an ancient marble fragment depicting the headless torso of a man in armor supporting a heroically nude dying comrade soon after it was discovered in the ''vigna'' of Antonio Velli, half a Roman mile beyond Porta Portese, Rome. With the consent of

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V ( it, Pio V; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in May 1572. He is v ...

, it was taken immediately to Florence, where it appears in the inventory taken at Cosimo's death in 1574. The project for completing the truncated torso of the "Ajax" figure, missing above the waist when it was found according to the ''Memorie'' (1594) of the sculptor and antiquarian

Flaminio Vacca Flaminio Vacca or Vacchi ( Caravaggio or Rome, 1538 – Rome, 1605) was an Italian sculptor. Biography His sculptural work can be seen in Rome in the grandiose funeral chapel of Pope Pius V designed by Domenico Fontana at the Basilic ...

, was commissioned by Ferdinando II; the "restoration" was worked out by

Pietro Tacca Pietro Tacca (16 September 1577 – 26 October 1640) was an Italian sculptor, who was the chief pupil and follower of Giambologna. Tacca began in a Mannerist style and worked in the Baroque style during his maturity. Biography Born in Ca ...

and executed by Lodovico Salvetti from Tacca's model, according to

Filippo Baldinucci Filippo Baldinucci (3 June 1625 – 10 January 1696) was an Italian art historian and biographer. Life Baldinucci is considered among the most significant Florentine biographers/historians of the artists and the arts of the Baroque period. ...

. It was set up in a niche on the south end of the

Ponte Vecchio The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge", ) is a medieval stone closed- spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy. The only bridge in Florence spared from destruction during the Second World War, it is noted for the shops ...

Paolo Alessandro Maffei Paolo Alessandro Maffei (11 January 1653 – 26 July 1716) was an antiquarian with a humanist education, who was active in Rome. Maffei was the son of Paolo Maffei and his wife Giovanna di Raffaele, both of patrician families of Volterra. He was a ...

's engraving of 1704 shows that the "Ajax" figure then was wearing a helmet much simpler than the elaborate neoclassical one erroneously provided by Ricci seen on the sculpture today. Príamo y Héctor (Juan Adán, MRABASF E-212) 01

Príamo y Héctor (Juan Adán, MRABASF E-212) 01

In 1771, the neoclassic artist

Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (22 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German painter, active in Dresden, Rome, and Madrid, who while painting in the Rococo period of the mid-18th century became one of the precursors to Neoclassical painting, which replace ...

took moulds of the parts he considered genuinely ancient (and thus original) of this sculpture and the version at the Palazzo Pitti (discussed below) and reassembled them in a plaster model that was intended to be more faithful to the Roman original. It was taken away to be further repaired in 1798 and remained in obscurity, undergoing further adjustments by Stefano Ricci in the 1830s, until it was finally re-erected in 1838, in the

Loggia dei Lanzi The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide arches open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pi ...

in the

Piazza della Signoria Piazza della Signoria () is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republ ...

, Florence. The feature which still draws most attention is the lifeless hanging left arm of the "Achilles" figure, seemingly dislocated, which was in fact part of the Tacca-Salvetti restoration. Other errors in restoration are the lifted left leg of the bearer, the raised right knee of Patroclus, and the mounded ground that serves as a base.

The second Medici group

The second version was a gift in 1570 from the Florentine Paolo Antonio Soderini of Rome. It was said to have been found at the

Mausoleum of Augustus The Mausoleum of Augustus ( it, Mausoleo di Augusto, italic=no) is a large tomb built by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 28 BC on the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy. The mausoleum is located on the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, near the corner with Via ...

. Identified as Ajax, it stands in the ''Cortile del Ajaco'' of

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

. Further fragments of other Roman copies of this group have appeared during the 20th century, but more severe and careful modern criteria for restoration have led historians to avoid trying to restore them as a completed figural group, as past individuals attempted to do with the Pasquino group.

The Hadrian group

Five fragments of a Pasquino group were excavated from Hadrian's Villa by Gavin Hamilton in 1769. This sculpture was a part of the Roman emperor Hadrian's collection of copies of Greek masterpieces. Unlike other copies, the deceased figure in Hadrian's copy is wounded on the back. This has been interpreted as evidence that Hadrian's copy was meant to represent Menelaus and Patroclus, since the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Ody ...

'' states that he was killed by a blow to the back. These fragments are in the

Vatican Museums The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...

. The head of Menelaus is on display in the museum's Hall of Busts.

Notes

References

*Andreae, Bernard, review of ''Sperlonga und Vergil'' by Roland Hampe, ''Gnomon'', Vol. 45, Issue 1 (February 1973), pp. 84–88, Verlag C.H.Beck
JSTOR
*Blanckenhagen, Peter H. von, review of ''Die Skulpturen von Sperlonga'' by Baldassare Conticello and Bernard Andreae, ''American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 80, No. 1 (Winter, 1976), pp. 99–104
JSTOR
* Herrmann, Ariel, review of ''Sperlonga und Vergil'' by Roland Hampe, ''

The Art Bulletin The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

'', Vol. 56, No. 2, Medieval Issue (Jun. 1974), pp. 275–277
JSTOR
*Weiss, H. Anne, "Odysseus at Sperlonga: Hellenistic Hero or Roman Foil?", in ''From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context'', Editors: Nancy Thomson De Grummond, Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, 2000, University of California Press, , 9780520223271
google books

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menelaus Supporting The Body Of Patroclus Roman copies of 3rd-century BC Greek sculptures 1769 archaeological discoveries Outdoor sculptures in Florence Marble sculptures in Italy