Sunday is the last day to see 'Dying Gaul' in Washington

 

Dying Gaul in the Grand Rotunda of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie

People!  Do you realize what we have before us at the National Gallery of Art for only a few precious days more?  It's a masterpiece of time, one of the enduring pieces of art which students the world over study and observe with mouths open wide.

Dying Gaul in the Grand Rotunda of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie

The work by an unknown artist has been compared to the Winged Victory of Samothrace and Michelangelo's David, two of the best known and most studied sculptures in art history.

Dying Gaul in the Grand Rotunda of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie

It is one of the world's antiquities, a treasure which has survived the ages, spending hundreds of years buried in a Roman garden, and later, as a kidnapping victim by Napoleon who stole it from Rome in 1797 and carted it off to Paris for showcasing at the Louvre for almost 20 years.

Dying Gaul in the Grand Rotunda of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie

Dying Gaul is a marble beauty, a model of a Greek bronze made supposedly upon directive by the King of Pergamon in 228 B.C. to celebrate his kingdom's victory over the Gauls. (See map.) The king may have ordered several statues of his enemy in defeat, his competitors who fought in the nude. 

From William R. Shepherd's 1923 Historical Atlas showing Pergamon around 188 B.C./Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia says the warriors shed their clothing to show their spirit, fortitude, and skill which Polybius (200 - 118 B.C.) wrote was "a terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of splendid physique and in the prime of life."  (Dying Gaul)

Dying Gaul in the Grand Rotunda of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie

Meanwhile, Dionysius (60 - 7 B.C.) of Halicarnassus thought their lack of protection was rather dumb and showed the Gauls' "barbarian boastfulness."

Dying Gaul in the Grand Rotunda of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie

The sculpture reveals the deadly wound in the subject's chest and his forlorn frustration as he accepts his fate.  He doesn't look so much like he is dying as he is resigned to reality, angry and injured as much mentally as physically and not pumped up to continue a battle any more.  See how his skin glistens with sweat.

Dying Gaul in the Grand Rotunda of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie

Dying Gaul was found between 1621 and 1623 in an excavated garden in Rome on property once owned by Julius Caesar. 
After word got out about the sculpture, formerly called Dying Gladiator since that's what the "experts" initially thought he was, royalty like King Philip IV (1605-1665) of Spain and King Louis XIV (1638-1715) of France ordered life-sized replicas.  Historians claim Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) had Dying Gaul (or a copy) on his wish list.

Three of the artists Dying Gaul inspired, according to a brochure available at the sculpture, include Diego Velazquez, Jacques-Louis David, Giovanni Paolo Panini.  

What happened to the bronze the king ordered 2,000 years ago? Claudio Parisi Presicce, the director of the Musei Capitolini in Rome which owns Dying Gaul, told the Wall Street Journal it was likely melted down and used for weapons.  This copy was created in the first or second century A.D.

Dying Gaul in the Grand Rotunda of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie

At the unveiling of the sculpture in December at the National Gallery of Art, Ignazio R. Marino, the mayor of Rome called Italy's loan of the sculpture to the U.S. an "eloquent demonstration of the close friendship...and fruitful cooperation" between two of the world's most beautiful capitals and two of the world's most prestigious cultural institutions, the Musei Capitolini and the National Gallery of Art.  The presentation and this gift to the American people is one of more than 300 events Italy has staged throughout the U.S. over the last year to celebrate The Dream of Rome and 2013-The Year of Italian Culture.

The American people are grateful to the Embassy of Italy, the president of Italy, the Musei Capitolini, and the National Gallery of Art for the opportunity to see the sculpture on its first trip away from home in almost 200 years.

What: Dying Gaul

When: Now through March 16, 2014, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday.

Where: The Grand Rotunda, the West Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com





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Michelangelo's 'David-Apollo' arrives for President Obama's inauguration

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564), David-Apollo, c. 1530, marble, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

 

 

Not only to celebrate President Obama's second inauguration but to herald a year of Italian splendor and culture in the U.S. to the tune of more than 180 events in 40+ U.S. cities, a statue with its very own mystery has come to Washington, again.

At the National Gallery of Art, His Excellency Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, Italian minister of foreign affairs, and Ann Stock from the U.S. State Department, shared the platform with David-Apollo/patricia leslie

To begin:

  

Like many of us, Michelangelo (1475-1564) was not totally pleased with some of his work.  He abandoned many pieces he started and never finished (non-finito).

Sometimes he accepted more work than he was able to complete. He was an Italian Renaissance man.

Fortunately, Michelangelo didn’t pitch his incomplete pieces in the fire, but many were spared, like his David-Apollo, now on view at the National Gallery of Art through the graces of the Italian government and the lending institution, Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

But the marble statue has two names split by a hyphen. What is the meaning of this? Is it David or Apollo or both? Only the creator knew for sure.

Michelangelo’s biographer, Giorgio Vasari, called the statue “an Apollo who draws an arrow from his quiver,” however, a 1553 inventory labeled the work, "an incomplete David" with his sling over his back.

The figure's pose is serpentinata which invites viewers to circle David-Apollo and observe different components where surprises may be found on each sequence which makes the ambiguity more alluring.

Take David-Apollo's legs, for example.

Wikipedia mixes them up saying the right leg is extended when it’s the left, and the left leg (actually, the right) is bent over what may be a pile of dirt, or Goliath’s head, which, once the idea is mentally carved, is hard to escape, and adds support to the David argument. (The National Gallery of Art has its own marble David, (c.1461/1479), this one by Bernardo (1409-1464) or Antonio Rossellino (1427-1478-1481; they were brothers) with David’s foot resting on Goliath's head. Maybe Michelangelo copied this statue?)  (Some of these facts and more are found in the handsome four-page color brochure available at the David-Apollo statue.)

Stand at David-Apollo's left side and look under his right foot for the semblance of a male head's silhouette with nose and facial features facing up, and, honestly, yes, due to the power of suggestion, sometimes it's there; sometimes, it's not.  (Honestly, this happens.) However, make your spiral galaxy over to the other side where you'll find no hint of a person's face or head in the mound found under his foot, but what is this new form?  A circular mound of something. A pound of Earth?

The same year Michelangelo brought David-Apollo to life was the same year (1530) that Copernicus (1473-1543), another Renaissance man (and artist who studied in Italy), unveiled his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium which claimed that Earth was not the center of the universe, but it rotated on its axis and traveled around the sun once a year.

With his foot resting (maybe) on the Earth, is David-Apollo squashing flat the 1,400 year-old Ptolemaic theory which claimed that Earth was the center of the universe? Just a few astronomers at the time were aware of Copernicus’s theory and information exchange over long distances was quite limited (I dare say: rare) for the Renaissance preceded Social Media Daze. (Does this not make for the plot of a great mystery novel? You write it.)

Another angle: One glimpse of his leg muscles and the possibility that David-Apollo, in his spare time, may have been a danseur, swells. (That female hearts will not be captured by the looks of David-Apollo when gazing upon his person is almost an impossibility, and the figure may mesmerize a few men, too.)

You are invited to make your own comparisons and determine who is there: David or Apollo? Both? Be prepared to go round and round. (A ballot box for votes is not available, however, the guards are there to prohibit picture taking.)

To inaugurate 2013 as The Year of Italian Culture in the U.S. (but I thought every year was a year of Italian culture in the U.S.), David-Apollo will reside at the National Gallery of Art just off the West Building Courtyard (where the Sunday evening concerts are played) until March 3, 2013, marking the first time the statue has come to town since another inauguration, Harry S Truman’s in 1949 when almost 800,000 came calling.

Whoever, whatever is there, the people of the United States are grateful to the president of Italy, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Italy in Washington, the Minister per I Beni e le Attivita Culturali and the National Gallery of Art for the grand opportunity to observe the masterpiece at no cost to the people, a loan which memorializes the long-lasting friendship between the two nations.

Viva l'amicizia!

Programs:

January 3, 5, 7, and 9, 2013 at 12 p.m., West Building, talks by Eric Denker, a Gallery senior lecturer

January 27, 2 p.m. "Michelangelo's David-Apollo:  An Offer He Couldn't Refuse," East Building Auditorium by Alison Luchs, the Gallery's curator of early European sculpture, who wrote the brochure

February 11 at 3 p.m., an overview at the Embassy of Italy of the collection of Michelangelo's works at the Casa Buonarroti by its director, Pina Ragionieri

  

Who: David-Apollo by Michelangelo

What: To celebrate 2013 - The Year of Italian Culture in the U.S.

When: Now through March 3, 2013 every day from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Sundays: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.) excepting New Year's Day when the Gallery is closed

Where: West Building, National Gallery of Art, between 4th and 7^th and Constitution Avenue, N.W.

How much: No charge

For more information: (202) 737-4215

Metro stations: Judiciary Square, Navy Memorial-Archives, or the Smithsonian

The Cherubs Playing With a Swan by Jean-Baptiste Tuby I (French, 1635-1700) on the left, were silent for the press opening of David-Apollo, and they remain silent today/patricia leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com