Spartacus is depicted here in marble, larger than life, naked, left arm with a fist resting near his neck while his right hand holds a knife under his left armpit. He wears a bracelet (or is it part of a shackle?) on his right wrist. The artist of this 1828 work is Denis FOYATIER.
The Louvre's website for the piece (
visit link) translated by Google to English, informs us:
"Spartacus is the rebel gladiator who raised an army of slaves against Rome, multiplying wins before being defeated by Crassus in 71 BC. AD He is depicted as he has broken his chains. The furious and arms crossed, he plans his revenge. By a skilful political recovery, sculpture became the symbol of revolutionary days of July 1830.
history
Foyatier present at the Salon of 1827 the cast of Spartacus , the booklet described as follows: . "Spartacus , a Thracian prince , become a slave to the Romans , was sentenced to exercise the vile trade Gladiator Having escaped from prison , he raised an army of malcontents ... and struck terror into the walls of Rome. It is represented when it comes to break his chains . " The story of Spartacus is told in the Lives of illustrious men of the Greek author Plutarch ( v.46 - v.125 ), which draws parallels between the Greeks and Romans celebrated .
Strong expression
The sculpture was quickly embraced . For some, it came regenerate the neo-classical statuary. It responds to the academic canons . Spartacus is naked as the ancient heroes . Its imposing stature meets the grand style that establishes a correlation between the size of a statue and printing it produces. Further work is undoubtedly inspired by the sculptor Canova , especially Damoxenus (Rome , Vatican Museum ) she 's pose and has the taut and muscular concentration.
On the other hand , the expressive nature of the character, whose very particular attitude manifests contained fury , was sometimes associated with romantic sensibility .
Recovery policy
The success of the work as result of his subject. Spartacus is a particularly rare iconography sculpture. We saw a symbol of opposition to the regime of Charles X. This was not , apparently , the original intention of the artist. Foyatier executed the model at the Villa Medici in Rome, where he stayed in friendly title from 1822 to 1825. He presented at the Salon of 1827 and was commissioned by the Royal marble administration. When he finished his statue, the Three Glorious Days ( name given to the revolutionary days of July 1830 ) had shot the regime of Charles X. Opportunely Foyatier made ??Spartacus a Republican icon dating from the work of 29 July 1830 , the final day of the Revolution."
As for the asteroid, Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"2579 Spartacus (1977 PA2) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on August 14, 1977 by Nikolai Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Ukraine.
Discovered by Nikolai Chernykh
Discovery site Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
Discovery date August 14, 1977
Designations
MPC designation 2579
Named after Spartacus
Alternative names 1977 PA2
Orbital characteristics
Epoch May 14, 2008
Aphelion 2.3745838
Perihelion 2.0467034
Eccentricity 0.0741595
Orbital period 1200.5396826
Mean anomaly 198.79984
Inclination 5.77923
Longitude of ascending node 281.10225
Argument of perihelion 333.77104
Physical characteristics
Absolute magnitude (H) 13.0"