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Rape of Polyxena
Museum Label:
Rape of Polyxena
20th-century stone variant of marble original by Pio Fedi (Italian, 1816-1872), 1866
Location: Loggia dei Lanzi, Rome
Please note:
The museum's sculpture resembles Pio Fedi's original, but is rather different.
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Subject info:
Polyxena was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Achilles fell in love
and wished to marry her. One story relates that she helped set up his murder and another
tells that he died in battle.
Achilles ghost demanded Polyxena's sacrifice on his tomb. This sculpture shows the Greeks
seizing her.
Pio Fedi's sculpture:
This group is modern and was executed by Pio Fedi, of Florence, in 1866. The group, with
its four large figures, was produced out of a single block of marble, and, until the work
was executed, the sculptor was exceedingly poor and comparatively unknown, but this
achievement lifted him at once out of poverty and obscurity. This remarkable work was
purchased by the city of Florence on condition that the artist would not reproduce the
subject, and it was placed here in the Loggia with the works of some of the greatest of
Italian sculptors. It represents a mythological subject, the forcible abduction of
Polyxena by Achilles. The warrior, whose form is characterized by great strength and
beauty, encircles the form of the maiden with his left arm, while his right is uplifted
and in its hand is a sword with which he is about to strike down the mother, Hecuba, who,
kneeling at his feet, implores his mercy while she clings piteously to her child and the
betrayer. The entire group is exceedingly strong, not unworthy of the immortal company by
which it is surrounded, and the powerful impression which it makes upon all beholders is
intensified when one recalls the fact that, on the promontory of Sigeum - so the legend
goes - where, after the fall of Troy, were buried the ashes of the hero-leader Achilles,
and those of his friend Patroclus, Polyxena was offered as a propitiatory sacrifice. The
group is instinct with vitality, passion and action, and seems more real and lifelike the
oftener you behold it.
Beyond the group and in the center of the Loggia notice Ajax supporting the body of
Achilles (or perhaps Menelaus with the body of Patroclus), an ancient sculpture, freely
restored, which was found in a vine-yard near the Porta Portese at Rome, and which stood
for a time at the entrance of the Ponte Vecchio. An-other representation of the same
subject exists at Rome, where it is known as " Pasquino."
At the opposite end of the Loggia is seen Hercules Slaying the Centaur Nessus, a
celebrated work by Giovanni da Bologna. By the back wall are seen remark-able antique
portrait-statues of Vestal virgins or priest-esses, the artist or artists being unknown.
They were brought here about the middle of the eighteenth century from the Medici Villa at
Rome.
There were no statues in the Loggia before the middle of the sixteenth century, and
even after the three groups by Donatello, Cellini and Bologna had been placed here, the
rest of the space was left free until the Grand Duke Leopold first began to fill it with
sculpture.
Florence may be said to have a double heart, the Piazza della Signoria, which contains
the Palazzo Vecchio and the Loggia dei Lanzi, being its political, and the Cathedral group
its religious heart. We shall look at the latter group from the northwest.
More information on other sculpture.
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