Charcoal Drawing of Spinario Melville thorn

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Description: Charcoal on Paper, signed Grevis Melville lower right, depicts "Spinario" known as "a boy plucking a thorn from his foot" and is also called Spinario (thorn-puller) or Fidelino or Fedele. The original statue can be found at the Palazzo dei Conservatori, one of the iconic treasures of the Capitoline Museums in Rome, and was originally made in the 1st century BC, by Myron. This statue was first named Fedele (faithful) because it was thought to be a portrait of Marcius (mercari, mercury), the Roman messenger that would not delay his mission even though he was painfully tortured by a thorn in his foot. SIZE: 23 3/4" x 18" (artwork), 26 1/2" x 20 1/2" (frame). CONDITION: several creases, overall good condition. Background: The Spinario is a Roman masterpiece of the late first century BC. One of the few large-scale bronze sculptures to survive from antiquity, it brilliantly captures the intense concentration of a boy extracting a thorn from his foot. Because of its rarity and perfection the statue has had a profound influence on artists over many centuries. First documented in the 12 th century, the Spinario later became one of the ancient works of art that inspired the Italian Renaissance. It was among the first ancient sculptures to be copied and influenced leading painters and sculptors such as Luca Signorelli, Filippo Brunelleschi, Antico and many others. The Spinario continued to inspire artists throughout the 17th and 18th centuries when it became one of the 'must-see' items of the Grand Tour. Such was the statue's fame that in 1798 it formed part of the triumphal procession of great works of art sequestered by Napoleon for his new museum in Paris , only to be returned after his defeat. Apart from its obvious significance in the context of Renaissance and post-Renaissance art, the Spinario holds important testimony to the way the Romans themselves viewed and adapted Greek artistic models. There are marble versions in both the London British Museum and the Louvre in Paris.

Status: For Sale	Reference#: DR_011
Condition: See Desc.	Year: 20th Cent.

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