Discovery
It is thought to have been rediscovered in the early 17th century during some excavations for the foundations of the Villa Ludovisi and was first recorded in a 1623 inventory of the collections of the powerful Ludovisi family of Rome. The villa was built in the area of the ancient Gardens of Sallust where, when the Ludovisi property was built over in the late nineteenth century, many other antiquities were discovered, most notably the "Ludovisi Throne". By 1633 it was in the Ludovisi Palazzo Grande on the Pincio. Pope Clement XII acquired it for the Capitoline collections. As one of the most famous Roman antiquities, it was then taken by Napoleon's forces under the terms of the Treaty of Tolentino, and displayed with other Italian works of art in the Louvre Museum until 1816, when it was returned to Rome.
Read more about this topic: Dying Gaul
Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“However backwards the world has been in former ages in the discovery of such points as GOD never meant us to know,—we have been more successful in our own days:Mthousands can trace out now the impressions of this divine intercourse in themselves, from the first moment they received it, and with such distinct intelligence of its progress and workings, as to require no evidence of its truth.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“As the mother of a son, I do not accept that alienation from me is necessary for his discovery of himself. As a woman, I will not cooperate in demeaning womanly things so that he can be proud to be a man. I like to think the women in my son’s future are counting on me.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)