Plaster Cast of Borghese Gladiator Head

Plaster casts of classical sculpture were standard equipment in American art education through much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, used for drawing instruction and anatomical study. This head, cast after the Borghese Gladiator, originates from the collection of The Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia, stamped in red on the reverse alongside a penciled catalog number. The Valentine's plaster cast holdings stem from the workshop of the museum's namesake, 19th-century sculptor Edward Virginius Valentine, whose studio became one of the most significant repositories of academic casting in the American South.

The original marble, carved by Agasias of Ephesus in the 1st century BC, has been in the Louvre since Napoleon acquired it in 1807. The face is idealized and intent, the hair worked in shallow carved waves, the gaze directed slightly upward. Hollow cast, with a wire loop at the crown for wall hanging.

Style: Neoclassical Academic
Materials & Techniques: Hollow plaster cast
Place of Origin: Richmond, Virginia
Provenance: The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA (stamped verso, no. 959)
Period: c. 20th century