The Dying Gladiator
Rupert Harris Conservation Ltd
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
2019
Materials
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Fountains and Studley Royal, North Yorkshire
NT 530997.1
Summary
Lead statue, traditionally known at Studley Royal as 'The Dying Gladiator' commissioned to replace an original eighteenth century copy, after the antique, of the Dying Gaul, lost at the end of the nineteenth century. Painted white to copy the traditional appearance of statuary at Studley Royal. Recumbent amongst weapons, one leg outstretched, supporting himself on one arm.
Provenance
The Dying Gladiator formed part of a collection of eighteenth century lead and stone statuary sited in and around the moon ponds and canals in the Studley Royal water garden. The earliest documentary evidence for statues in the gardens is a reference to ‘pedestals for ‘figures’ made in 1724’. The first reference to the Dying Gladiator statue features in Dorothy Richardson’s journal in 1771. During late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many features of the garden, including the Dying Gladiator, were lost. By the 1891 edition of the OS map the statue was no longer shown in the garden.
Makers and roles
Rupert Harris Conservation Ltd, sculptor