The Dying Gaul, also called The Dying Galatian[1] (Italian: Galata Morente) or The Dying Gladiator, is an ancient Roman marble semi-recumbent statue now in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. It is a copy of a now lost Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period (323–31 BC) thought to have been made in bronze.[2] The original may have been commissioned at some time between 230 and 220 BC by Attalus I of Pergamon to celebrate his victory over the Galatians, the Celtic or Gaulish people of parts of Anatolia. The original sculptor is believed to have been Epigonus, a court sculptor of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon.
Until the 20th century, the marble statue was usually known as The Dying Gladiator, on the assumption that it depicted a wounded gladiator in a Roman amphitheatre.[3] However, in the mid-19th century it was re-identified as a Gaul or Galatian and the present name "Dying Gaul" gradually achieved popular acceptance. The identification as a "barbarian" was evidenced for the figure's neck torc, thick hair and moustache, weapons and shield carved on the floor, and a type of Gallic carnyx between his legs.[4]
- ^ Capitoline Museums. "Hall of the Galatian".
The centre of the room features the so-called 'Dying Galatian', one of the best-known and most important works in the museum. It is a replica of one of the sculptures in the ex-voto group dedicated to Pergamon by Attalus I to commemorate the victories over the Galatians in the III and II centuries BC.
- ^ Wolfgang Helbig, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom (Tubingen 1963–71) vol. II, pp. 240–42.
- ^ Henry Beauchamp Walters, The Art of the Greeks, The Macmillan Company, 1906, p. 130 notes that it is still most commonly called that because of the popularity of Byron's description.
- ^ Peixoto, Gabriel B. (2022-01-01). "The Great Attalid Dedication at Pergamon".