Ludovisi Ares
Encyclopedia
Mars (mythology)
Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...
, a fine 2nd-century copy of a late 4th-century BCE Greek original, associated with Scopas
Scopas
Scopas or Skopas was an Ancient Greek sculptor and architect, born on the island of Paros. Scopas worked with Praxiteles, and he sculpted parts of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, especially the reliefs. He led the building of the new temple of Athena Alea at Tegea...
or Lysippus: thus the Roman god of war receives his Greek name, Ares
Ares
Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and...
.
Ares/Mars is portrayed as young and beardless and seated on a trophy of arms, while an Eros plays about his feet, drawing attention to the fact that the god of war, in a moment of repose, is presented as a love object. The 18th-century connoisseur Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art...
, a man with a practiced eye for male beauty, found the Ludovisi Ares the most beautiful Mars that had been preserved from Antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
, when he wrote the catalogue of the Ludovisi collection.
Rediscovered in 1622, the sculpture was apparently originally part of the temple of Mars (founded in 132 BCE in the southern part of the Campus Martius
Campus Martius
The Campus Martius , was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome...
), of which few traces remain, for it was recovered near the site of the church of San Salvatore in Campo. Pietro Santi Bartoli
Pietro Santi Bartoli
Pietro Santi Bartoli was an Italian engraver, draughtsman and painter.-Biography:Bartoli was born at Perugia....
recorded in his notes that it had been found near the Palazzo Santa Croce in Rione Campitelli
Rioni of Rome
A rione is an Italian term used since the Middle Ages to name the districts of Rome, according to the administrative divisions of that time. The word originates from the Latin word regio A rione (pl. rioni) is an Italian term used since the Middle Ages to name the districts of Rome, according to...
during the digging of a drain. (Haskell and Penny 1981:260) The sculpture found its way into the collection formed by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi (1595–1632) the nephew of Pope Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV , born Alessandro Ludovisi, was pope from 1621, succeeding Paul V on 9 February 1621...
at the splendid villa and gardens
Villa Ludovisi
The Villa Ludovisi was a suburban villa in Rome, built in the 17th century on the area once occupied by the Gardens of Sallust near the Porta Salaria...
he built near Porta Pinciana
Porta Pinciana
Porta Pinciana is a gate of the Aurelian Walls in Rome.The name derives from the gens Pincia, who owned the epponymous hill...
, on the site where Julius Caesar and his heir, Octavian (Caesar Augustus), had had their villa. The sculpture was lightly restored by the young Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect...
, who refinished its surfaces and discreetly provided a right foot; he was probably largely responsible for the cupid, which Haskell and Penny note was omitted from G.F. Susini's bronze replica and from the prints of the sculpture in Maffei's anthology.
The sculpture was a sensational find. A small-scale bronze replica of it was executed by G.F. Susini, heir and assistant to his more famous uncle Antonio Susini, when he visited Rome in the 1630s and copied several marbles from Ludovisi's collection; a bronze of the Ludovisi Ares is in the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
, Oxford. Later, the Ludovisi Ares was one of the featured antiquities to be seen on the "grand tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
". For example, the portrait of English tourist John Talbot (later first Earl Talbot) poses him casually in its virtual presence, as a display of his cultural familiarity with great works of art. Less expensive representations could be found: Giambattista Piranesi's son Francesco made an engraving of it at the Villa Ludovisi in 1783 http://search.famsf.org:8080/view.shtml?record=59316&=list&=1&=&=And. Casts of the Ludovisi Ares found their way into early museum collections, such as the Copenhagen Glyptotek http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/000Free/000Ares/source/8.html and were influential to several generations of Neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
and academic
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
students.
In 1901, the eventual heir, prince Boncampagni-Ludovisi, brought the Ludovisi antiquities to auction. The Italian state purchased 96 of the objects, and the rest have been dispersed among the museums of Europe and the US. The Ludovici Ares is conserved in the section of the National Museum of the Terme that is housed in Palazzo Altemps, Rome.
A depiction of Ludovisi Ares statue is used as an emblem for the Greek athletic club Aris Thessaloniki.