Smugglerius is an

écorché An ''écorché'' () is a figure drawn, painted, or sculpted showing the muscles of the body without skin, normally as a figure study for another work or as an exercise for a student artist. The architect and Renaissance man Leon Battista Alber ...

sculpture of a man posed in imitation of the ancient

Roman sculpture The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Sculpture of Ancient Greece, Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the ''Apollo Belvedere'' and ''Barberini Faun'', are known only from Roman ...

known as the

Dying Gaul Dying is the final stage of life which will eventually lead to death. Diagnosing dying is a complex process of clinical decision-making, and most practice checklists facilitating this diagnosis are based on cancer diagnoses. Signs of dying ...

. The original

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 metalloid ...

cast was made in 1776 by

Agostino Carlini Augostino Carlini or Agostino Carlini (c. 1718 – 15 August 1790) was an Italian sculptor and painter, who was born in Genoa but settled in England. He was also one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Life He features in ...

for William Hunter, first Professor of

Anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

at the

Royal Academy Schools The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

, from the body of a muscular criminal,

flayed Flaying is a method of slow and painful torture and/or execution in which skin is removed from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact. Scope A dead animal may be flayed when preparing it to be used a ...

after he was

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

Tyburn Tyburn was a Manorialism, manor (estate) in London, Middlesex, England, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone. Tyburn took its name from the Tyburn Brook, a tributary of the River Westbourne. The name Tyburn, from Teo Bourne ...

. The criminal was thought to be a

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

, and so the cast of his body was given the mocking

cod Latin Dog Latin, or cod Latin, is a phrase or jargon that imitates Latin, often by what is referred to as "translating" English words (or those of other languages) into Latin by Latin conjugation, conjugating or latin declension, declining them, as i ...

name "Smugglerius". The original bronze cast has been lost, but

plaster cast A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a pregnant belly, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – ...

copies made by William Pink in 1854 survive at the

in London and at

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

. It is the best (and the best preserved) of the anatomical casts held by the Royal Academy, and has been sketched by many art students. A particularly famous drawing was made by William Linnell in 1840, and now held by the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...

in Cambridge. Research in 2010 tentatively identified the "smuggler" as James Langar,

on 12 April 1776 after being convicted at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

on 21 February as a

footpad In archaic terminology, a footpad is a robber or thief specialising in pedestrian victims. The term was used widely from the 16th century until the 19th century, but gradually fell out of common use. A footpad was considered a low criminal, as op ...

(convicted on two charges, and acquitted on two other charges). However, Langar was not sentenced to be dissected and anatomized (unlike, for example, Thomas Henman and Benjamin Harley, smugglers convicted of murdering a

customs officer A customs officer is a law enforcement official who enforces customs laws. Canada Canadian customs officers are members of the Canada Border Services Agency. It was created in 2003 and preceded by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (1999-20 ...

on 22 May 1776 and executed 5 days later). The subject may be inspired by earlier works such as

Bernardino Genga Bernardino Genga (1620–1690) was a scholar of Classical medical texts, editing several works of Hippocrates. He also had a great interest in the preparation of anatomical specimens as well as the anatomy of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. ...

's 1691 book ''Anatomia'', which includes écorché drawings of classical sculptures, including the

Farnese Hercules The ''Farnese Hercules'' () is an ancient statue of Hercules made in the early third century AD and signed by Glykon, who is otherwise unknown; he was an Athenian but he may have worked in Rome. Like many other Ancient Roman sculptures it is a ...

Laocoön Laocoön (; , , gen.: ) is a figure in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology and the Epic Cycle. Laocoön is a Troy, Trojan priest. He and his two young sons are attacked by giant serpents sent by the gods when Laocoön argued against bri ...

and the

Borghese Gladiator The ''Borghese Gladiator'' is a Hellenistic life-size marble sculpture portraying a swordsman, created at Ephesus about 100 BC, now on display at the Louvre. Sculptor The sculpture is signed on the pedestal by Agasias, son of Dositheus, who i ...

References

The Quick and the dead: artists and anatomy

Deanna Petherbridge Deanna Petherbridge (11 February 1939 – 8 January 2024) was a South African and British artist, writer and curator. Petherbridge's practice was drawing-based (predominantly pen and ink drawings on paper), although she also produced large-scale ...

, Ludmilla Jordanova; University of California Press, 1997, , p. 72, 74
Spectacular bodies: the art and science of the human body from Leonardo to now
Martin Kemp, Marina Wallace; University of California Press, 2000, , p. 85, 87, 88
Royal Academy Collections

Smugglerius unveiled
Edinburgh College of Art, 18 January 2010
Mystery of hanged man's corpse is revealed
the Scotsman, 30 January 2010
The art of anatomy
The Scotsman, 1 February 2010
Press release
Edinburgh College of Art, 19 July 2010
Odds and quads
Times Higher Education, 4 November 2010
Ecorché Drawing of Smugglerius by William Linnell
1840–1842, held by the Fitzwilliam Museum
Smugglerius unveiled
Edinburgh College of Art
"Old Bailey Proceedings, 21st February 1776"

"Old Bailey Proceedings, 22nd May 1776"
{{Authority control 1770s sculptures Sculptures in England 1776 works Sculptures in Scotland