Meleager - New York City, NY
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 40° 46.762 W 073° 57.762
18T E 587529 N 4514782
This sculpture is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Waymark Code: WMN913
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 01/21/2015
Views: 4
The Museum's website (
visit link) informs us:
"Meleager
Antonio Gai
(Italian, Venice 1686–1769 Venice)
Date: 1735
Culture: Italian, Venice
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: Overall (wt. confirmed): 56 1/4 in., 493lb. (142.9 cm, 223.6233kg)
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Judith M. Taubman, 2005
Accession Number: 2005.107
On view in Gallery 619
The Venetian Antonio Gai had an international clientele. According to a contemporary chronicle, statues by Gai of the mythological lovers Atalanta and Meleager, as well as a number of busts, were shipped to England by Joseph Smith, the noted collector and British consul in Venice."
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"In Greek mythology, Meleager ... was a hero venerated in his temenos at Calydon in Aetolia. He was already famed as the host of the Calydonian boar hunt in the epic tradition that was reworked by Homer...
Meleager was the son of Althaea and the vintner Oeneus and, according to some accounts father of Parthenopeus and Polydora. When Meleager was born, the Moirai (the Fates) predicted he would only live until a brand, burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire. Overhearing them, Althaea immediately doused and hid the brand."