Fighter

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 17

Inventory

PV 10804

Material and technique

Bronze, natural yellowish patina covered with black lacquer

Author

Northern Italian School

Dating

c. 1500-1550

Dimensions

16.9 x 13 x 9.8 cm.

Origin

Auriti Collection (1963)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This bronze, variously labelled as a gladiator or warrior, and now simply called the Fighter, is depicted nude, wearing a small helmet with a tight chinstrap. The figure is slim but strong, his right leg bent and his weight balanced, ready and able for combat. Liethe-Jasper examined a very similar statue at the Kunstisthorisches Museum in Vienna, considering other comparative works including a bronze at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Palazzo Venezia statue, even though the latter was not judged as the same quality of the Vienna gladiator. The artist of the present work, and other similar examples, has been widely discussed. For a long time all these versions of the Fighter were compared to two small warrior figures designed for the base for a bust of Emperor Charles V in the Kunstisthorisches Museum, a splendid gilded bronze by Leone Leoni. The two statuettes depict a man and a woman seated on top of a rock, either side of an eagle with its wings outstretched. Both figures are nude, wearing helmets with chinstraps. The similarity between these many fighting figures led Planiscig to include the bronzes as works by Leone Leoni in an article from 1924 on the artist’s “minor bronzes”; the attribution was shared by Santangelo, Weihrauch, Wilson and Aggházy. And Androsov also attributes the Hermitage fighter to Leone Leoni; in his recent catalogue on the sculptures of the Russian museum Androsov was no longer convinced of Leoni’s authorship, but decided to retain the “conventional” attribution.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

W. von Bode, The Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance, Berlin 1907-1912, pl. CCLVII; L. Planiscig, Die Bronzeplastiken: Statuetten, Reliefs, Geräte und Plaketten, Vienna 1924, p.228; L. Planiscig, Andrea Riccio, Vienna 1927, pp. 544-567; L. Planiscig, Piccoli bronzi italiani del Rinascimento, Milan 1930, p. 45; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. La Collezione Auriti, Rome 1964, pp. 26; H. Weihrauch, Europäische Bronzestatuetten, Braunschweig 1967, p. 249; M. G. Aggahazy, Nuovi aspetti di una discussione leonardesca, in "Akademiai Kiado'", Budapest 1969, pp. 743-746; M. G. Aggházy, Leonardo da Vinci, Francesco I e il bronzetto equestre del museo di Budapest, in "Arte Lombarda" 1972, 36, pp. 94-95; M. Hall, Reconsiderations of sculpture by Leonardo da Vinci: a bronze statuette in the J. B. Speed Art Museum, in "The J. B. Speed Art Museum Bulletin"; 29, 1973, pp. 16-19; M. Leithe-Jasper, Italienische Kleinbronzen und Handzeichnungen der Renaissance und des Manierismus aus Österreichischem Staatsbesitz. Wien - Tokyo, Wien 1973 , n. 69; M. Leithe-Jasper, Bronzestatuetten, Plaketten und Gerät der Italienischen Renaissance, in Italienische Kleinplastiken, Zeichnungen und Musik der Renaissance, Waffen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, exh. cat., Vienna 1976, pp. 51-244, no. 93, pp. 90-91; S. O. Androsov, Tre bronzi veneziani dell'inizio del XVI secolo all'Ermitage, in "Arte Veneta", 30, 1976(1977), no. 24; S. O. Androssow, Italienische Bronzen der Renaissance (aus der Sammlung der Staatlichen Eremitage in Leningrad), Berlin 1978, no. 22, pp. 36-37; A. F. Radcliffe, Scupltures from the David Daniels Collection, exh. cat., Minneapolis 1979, no. 6, p. 23; W. Bode - D. Draper, The Italian bronze statuettes of the Renaissance, New York 1980, pl. CCLVII, p. 110; C. Wilson, Renaissance small bronze sculpture and associated decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington 1983, no. 25, p.134; M. Leithe-Jasper, Renaissance master bronzes from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Washington 1986, nos. 39-40. pp.160-165; M. G. Aggházy, Leonardo's equestrian statuette, Budapest 1989 , pp. 49-51; S. Androsov, Museo Statale Ermitage: la scultura italiana dal XIV al XVI secolo, Milan 2008, no. 91 pp. 98-99.