" Menelaus with the body of Patroclus " - a marble copy of the 1st century AD e. from the lost Pergamon sculpture, fragments of which were discovered in Rome in the 16th century and immediately acquired by the Tuscan Duke Cosimo Medici . He commissioned Pietro Tacca and Lodovico Salvetti to “restore” the disfigured sculpture; the result of their efforts was placed in one of the niches of Ponte Vecchio . Now he stands in the loggia of Lanzi in Signoria Square .
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| Menelaus with the body of Patroclus . 1st century | ||
| Marble | ||
| Loggia Lanzi , Florence | ||
In 1771, Anton Mengs , not satisfied with the Mannerist "restoration" of the 16th-century sculptors, decided to fix their flaws and performed a plaster version of the sculptural group. Another version of the same heroic composition, originating from the mausoleum of Augustus , appeared in the Medici collection under the name of Ajax from the 16th century; He can be seen in the Pitti Palace . The famous Roman statue of Pasquino , apparently, originally illustrated the same plot.
See also
- Pasquino
Literature
- Francesco Lumachi Firenze - Nuova guida illustrata storica-artistica-anedottica della città e dintorni , Firenze, Società Editrice Fiorentina, 1929.
- Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500—1900 (Yale University Press) 1981: 291–96, cat. no 72. "Pasquino".
- Giovanna Giusti Galardi, The Statues of the Loggia Della Signoria in Florence: Masterpieces Restored 2002: 45-51.