Victor Oskar Tilgner

There is dirt and wear to the surface of the plaster consistent with age. The victorious gladiator’s proper right arm is reattached and there is a stable, slightly open joint visible. There are a few losses to the victorious gladiator’s drapery, including to the back. There are two holes in the defeated gladiator’s proper left arm, presumably for a lost piece of armour. Further elements may be reattached or restored, possibly including the defeated gladiator’s proper left hand. There is a slightly open fissure where the victorious gladiator’s proper left hand connects with his drapery. There are a few small losses to the rocky base. There are two holes to the underside of the defeated gladiator’s proper left foot. There is some wear to the polychromy. The group is numbered in blue pencil to the reverse: 1164. There is stable splitting to the wood base consistent with the material. There are losses to the bone inlay. A section of ebony moulding is lost and there are some further losses to the ebony veneer. The top of the base is loose; its velvet covering is worn.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This extraordinary polychromed plaster group was modelled by the Viennese sculptor, Victor Tilgner. Born in Bratislava in 1859, Tilgner trained at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna until 1871. After initially mixed success, he was inspired to persevere as a sculptor after meeting Gustave Deloye (1838-99), who introduced him to the Baroque Revival style. Tilgner was an immensely successful portraitist, modelling busts of many members of Vienna’s social elite. He was, however, passionately interested in monumental sculpture, and was responsible for the designs for the sculptural programmes adorning many of the most important public buildings on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, including the Burgtheater and the Naturhistorisches Museum. Most famously, he created the monument to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Burggarten. Tilgner was a close friend of the fashionable painter Hans Makart (1840-1884), famed for his daring approach to colour and for his vast canvases based on mythological or historical subjects. The Gladiator and defeated Slave would undoubtedly have appealed to those with a taste for Makart’s paintings. It is clearly inspired by one of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s (1824-1904) greatest paintings, his Pollice Verso of 1872, in which a triumphant Gladiator treads his sandal into the neck of his defeated opponent, his sword held outstretched, whilst he turns towards the crowd for bloodthirsty instruction (Phoenix Art Museum, inv. no. 1968.52). The presence of original polychromy on the present group is typical of Tilgner’s approach to his plasters, and reflects the vogue for colour in sculpture at the end of the 19^th century, a fashion, which had, in part, been borne out of the success of Gérôme’s own forays into the three dimensional at the end of his career.

RELATED LITERATURE
L. Hevesi, Victor Tilgners ausgewählte werke, Vienna, 1897, p. 7; L. Medvecky (ed.), Tilgner, exh. cat. Bratislava City Museum, Bratislava, 1964