MELEAGRO Cat. 490

Speranza

Hall of Animals

Meleager Cat. 490                                   Meleager is the mythical hero of Aetolia and is shown here as the victorious huntsman.   His hunting dog sits on his right, and on his left is the head of the Calydonian boar which he has just killed.   He is wearing a short cloak which is wrapped around his arm and the end of which is being blown by the breeze.   He would have been carrying a bow or a lance, but this has not survived.   The statue is a copy made in the 2nd century A.D. inspired by a Greek original of the mid-4th century B.C. and attributed to Skopas, now lost.   The Roman sculpture could have added the cloak, the hunting dog and the wild boar; the ears of the dog and part of the muzzle of the wild boar are modern additions.   The statue was found in Rome, either somewhere between Porta Portese and the Janiculum Hill or, according to another source, on the Esquiline Hill in the Pighini vineyard.   A document from the time of Pope Clement XIV (1769-1774) records the moving of the statue in 1770 from the Monastery of San Cosimato into the Vatican Museums.