Pierre Julien, “Dying Gladiator”, 1779, Marble, 60 x 48x 42 cm, Richelieu Wing, Louvre, Paris

The “Dying Gladiator” was Pierre Julien’s second admission piece for the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and a crucial work for him. He had presented another piece for admission in 1776, a statue of Ganymede and had been refused, possibly due to his teacher, Guillaume II Coustou’s, lack of support for his too talented pupil. Humiliated by this unjust failure, Julien had thought of becoming a naval sculptor but, encouraged by friends, persevered and presented “Dying Gladiator” to the Académie in 1778. Acclaim for the sculpture at the 1779 Salon made amends for the affront of 1776. Pierre Julien  was admitted to the Académie on 27th of March, 1779, and appointed an assistant teacher in 1781.

In this scholarly work, Pierre Julien demonstrated his mastery of academic criteria while asserting personal qualities and his knowledge of antique sculpture. He was reinterpreting the “Dying Gladiator” in the Capitoline Museum in Rome, a marble copy of which he had sculpted during his three-year stay at the Académie de France in Rome. Julien’s nude gladiator demonstrates his complete mastery of anatomy,. But it was the sculptor’s personal contribution which imbues the work with its sensitivity: the elegant proportions, unctuous modeling and delicate execution in the finesse of the hands, laurel leaves and strands of hair; the marble’s perfect finish and the rendering of textures, illustrated by the suggestion of metallic brilliance in the sword and shield.

The work is a dazzling testimony to the renaissance of classical sensibility, although in a codified genre. The return to antiquity and nature, begun in the 1740s by the sculptors Edme Bouchardon and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, asserted itself in the 1770s. Julien was exalting the heroism of a man overcoming his pain and stoically dying in silence. The balanced composition, dignified pose, discreet chest wound and restrained expression are formal echoes of this heroic serenity. Like the “Laocoon”, one of the most admired antique statues at that time, the gladiator is in agony but not crying out in pain; and it is this dignity in suffering which makes the figure more sensitive and inward-looking.

Information reblogged with thanks to Valerie Montalbetti