AFTER THE ANTIQUE, ENGLISH, 19TH CENTURY

The Wrestlers, also known as The Pancrastinae, is inspired by a Roman marble sculpture at the Uffizi, Florence, which is after a lost Hellenistic bronze of the third century BC, either of the Pergamene school or the circle of Lysippus. Lauded since its discovery in 1583, the group has been a fixture of Western art, reappearing in many forms throughout the centuries including the marble copy by Philippe Magnier, now in the Louvre (circa 1684-1688, inv. no. MR2040), and as a highlight of the Uffizi gallery in Johan Zoffany’s painting for Queen Charlotte, The Tribuna of the Uffizi, still a part of the Royal Collection (1722, inv. no. RCIN 406983).