Pasquino (Menelaus supporting the Body of Patroclus)
Robert Fagan (1761 - Rome 1816)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1793 - 1795
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1200 x 1048 mm (47 1/4 x 41 1/4 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 609091
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Pasquino (Menelaus supporting the Body of Patroclus) by Robert Fagan (Cork c.1745 – Rome 1816), 1793/95. Grisaille panel of two full-length male figures: Menelaus on the left, naked except for a short tunic and helmet, bearded, bends over to the right supporting with his right hand the body of the naked Patroclus after he has been fatally wounded by Hector as told in Homer's epic poem the Iliad (Books XVI & XVII). The body hangs over his arm to the right, its knees on the ground, head hanging backwards to the right, left arm trailing on the ground. After a replica of a Roman copy of a Greek original by Antigonus of Carystos (?) 2nd half of the 3rd century BC in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence and the Pitti Palace, Florence originally from the most battered version in Piazza del Pasquino, Rome and manufactured by Pietro Tacca from a wax sketch mosle by Giambologna. Also known as Ajax amongst other titles.
Provenance
Presumably commissioned by Thomas Noel Hill, 2nd Lord Berwick (1770-1832) on his visit to Naples in 1792/3; bequeathed to the National Trust in 1947 with the estate, house and contents of Attingham by Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick (1877-1947) on 15th May 1953.
Credit line
Attingham Park, The Berwick Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Robert Fagan (1761 - Rome 1816), artist
References
Haskell and Penny 1981: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500 - 1900, New Haven and London, 1981, 72