Borghese Gladiator

When this statue was dug up at Anzio, shortly before 1611, it came out of the ground broken, and in the Rome of that time an ancient figure was rarely left as a ruin. Collectors expected restorers to complete it, so part of what you see is their work.

The sword and the shield the warrior once held are lost. His right arm is a replacement, and the raised left arm was put back together from four pieces, as were parts of both legs. The Louvre names two sculptors then working in Rome, Nicolas Cordier and Guillaume Berthelot, as possible restorers, and leaves the question open.

The rest is ancient. Around 100 BC the figure and the tree trunk that props it up were carved from a single block of Pentelic marble, the fine white stone quarried near Athens.