EMILE CORIOLAN HIPPOLYTE GUILLEMIN (FRENCH, 1841-1907)

Born in Paris in 1841, Emile Guillemin made his début at the Salon in 1870 with Retiarius and Murmillo, a pair of Roman gladiators in plaster (n°. 4583 and 4584). They were acquired by the French state under a decree of 30 November 1871 for 1,000 francs each, and reappeared cast in bronze at the Salon of 1872 (n°. 1713 and 1714).

The bronzes, recorded to have been half-size, were exhibited at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair before being given by the Minister of Public Education and Fine Arts for display at the National Archaeology Museum, château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The present pair are part of a subsequent commercial edition, probably cast by the Barbedienne foundry, around 1883. They have title plaques with the well-known Latin phrase ‘Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant’ (‘Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you’), quoted from Suetonius’s Life of the Caesars.

Retiarius is the gladiator styled as a fisherman with weighted net and three-pointed trident and the other, with sword and sheild, is a Murmillo. Guillemin was a proponent of the Orientalist movement and his choice to submit representations of gladiators for his Salon debut was no doubt inspired by the success of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant (Hail Caesar! We Who Are about to Die Salute You), which had been exhibited at the Salon of 1859. It depicts strikingly similarly posed gladiators victoriously greeting the Emperor Vitellius. Today on display at the Yale University Art Gallery it, and similar canvases, were the inspiration for Hollywood’s amphitheatre set pieces from Ben-Hur (1959) to Gladiator (2000).