Ludovisi Ares
Ludovisi Ares | |
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National Museum of Rome, Rome |
The Ludovisi Ares is an
.Ares/Mars is portrayed as young and beardless and seated on a trophy of arms, while an
Rediscovered in 1622, the sculpture was apparently originally part of the temple of Mars (founded in 132 BCE in the southern part of the Campus Martius[2]), of which few traces remain, for it was recovered near the site of the church of San Salvatore in Campo. Pietro Santi Bartoli recorded in his notes that it had been found near the Palazzo Santa Croce in Rione Campitelli during the digging of a drain. (Haskell and Penny 1981:260) The sculpture found its way into the collection formed by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi (1595–1632) the nephew of Pope Gregory XV at the splendid villa and gardens he built near Porta Pinciana, on the site where Julius Caesar and his heir, Octavian (Caesar Augustus), had had their villa. The sculpture was lightly restored by the young Bernini, who refinished its surfaces and discreetly provided a right foot; he was probably largely responsible for the cupid, which Haskell and Penny note was omitted from G.F. Susini's bronze replica and from the prints of the sculpture in Maffei's anthology.[3]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/Ares_Ludovisi_Altemps_Inv8602.jpg/170px-Ares_Ludovisi_Altemps_Inv8602.jpg)
The sculpture was a sensational find. A small-scale bronze replica of it was executed by
In 1901, the eventual heir, prince Boncompagni-Ludovisi, brought the Ludovisi antiquities to auction. The Italian state purchased 96 of the objects, and the rest have been dispersed among the museums of Europe and the US. The Ares is conserved in the section of the National Museum of the Terme that is housed in
A depiction of the statue is used as an emblem for the Greek athletic club Aris Thessaloniki.
See also
References
- ^ Wolfgang Helbig, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rome (4th ed. Tübingen 1963–72) vol. III, pp 268–69.
- ^ The southern part of the Campus Martius Archived 2005-12-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Paolo Alessandro Maffei, Raccota di statue antiche e moderne... Rome, 1704, noted by Haskell and Penny 1981:260 and note 19.
- ^ The Batoni portrait of Talbot (1773) Archived 2012-07-02 at the Wayback Machine is now at the Getty Museum
- Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, 1981. Taste and the Antique: the Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900. (Yale University Press) cat. no. 58.
External links
Media related to Ludovisi Ares at Wikimedia Commons