The Ludovisi Gaul (Galatian Suicide), 2nd Century BC, Palazzo Altemps, National Museum of Rome
The Ludovisi Gaul is a Roman copy of the bronze Hellenisic original that was made to celebrate Attalus I’s victory over the Gauls in central Anatolia, now modern Turkey. This Roman copy appeared in the Ludovisi inventory in 1623 so it is assumed that it was found in the grounds of the Villa Ludovisi in Rome slightly before that. The sculpture is now in the Palazzo Altemps, part of the National Museum of Rome. The Romans used it to clarify their victory over the Gauls in Gaul, now modern day France.
“The first thing notable on this statue is the beautiful head of the man. His facial features, including his eyebrows eyes, nose, cheek, jaw, mouth, lips and chin, are in perfect Hellenistic proportions, despite the fact that he is not Hellenistic at all, but Gallic. There are added features on the statue to specify this ethnic, non-Hellenistic, identity. The clearest feature is the moustache. Hellenistic and Roman people were seldom depicted with moustaches, as Alexander the Great introduced the custom of smooth shaving.
His mud-caked hair (typical Gallic), however, appears to be the tousled hair of a satyr, a woodland creature depicted as having the pointed ears, legs, and short horns of a goat and a fondness for unrestrained revelry. He is therefore a threat to the civilized order of which Pergamon considered itself the centre.
The only piece of clothing he is wearing is a cape. This cape, hanging all the way till his lower back, appears to be waving under influence of the wind. The fact that it is worn around his neck also suggests that he is not Hellenistic but Gallic, as Hellenists often wore togas which are worn with the aid of a fibula.
Next is one of the more important features of the statue, the sword piercing through the man’s chest; an attempt to kill himself. He holds his sword firmly in his right hand, see-able in the tension of all his arm muscles. The sword itself is short, and the other features of it suggest that it is a Gladius, a Roman sword.” – Matin man Nieuwkoop, Leiden University, Faculty of Archeology, 2012