Attributed to Francesco Righetti (1745-1813) Rome, circa 1794

Probably, acquired in Rome by the Archbishop of Sevillia and later Cardinal Antonio Despuig Dameto (1745-1813), thence by descent in the collections of the Counts of Montenegro, Raixa ; collection of Juan Truyols Rovira (1973 – 2006), in his estate of Predio Morell, Majorca.

Related literature:
F. Haskell, N. Penny, L'Amour de l'Antique. La statuaire gréco-romaine et le goût européen, London, 1981, pp. 240-43, A. Gonzáles-Palacios, Il Necoclassismo III, Antologia Di Belle Arti, Turino, 1992, pp. 17-46 ; A. Gonzáles-Palacios, Il gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, pp. 210, 252-271 ; E. Colle, A. Griseri, R. Valeriani, Bronzi decorativi in Italia, Bronzisti e fonditori italiani del Seicento all'Ottocento, Milan, 2001, pp. 189-191 and 238; A. Gonzáles-Palacios, Nostalgia e invenzione, Arredi e arti decorative a Roma e Napoli nel Settecento, Milano, 2010 ; A. Gonzáles-Palacios, L'Oro di Valadier, Un genio nella Roma del Settecento, exh. cat. Villa Médicis, Rome, 1997, pp. 212 et 213, pl. XXVIII ; A. Pasquier, « Le Gladiateur Borghese ou la gloire d'un soldat inconnu », dans D'après l'antique, exh. cat. Louvre museum, Paris, 2000, pp. 276-277.

Overall the condition of this bronze is very good, with minor wear to the patina and surface dirt consistent with age and handling. The fairly thick brown-green patina, consistent with the dating and the origin of the bronze, with a few minor scratches to the surface and verdigris in the crevices. A vertical fissure is visible to the back of this proper left ankle, just above the Achilles tendon, where the foot appears to have been reattached with a square patch visible to the front. The bronze is slightly loose on its base. The marble and gilt-bronze base, a landmark of Francesco Righetti's work, with minor chips along the edges and oxidation to the gilding. The back of the base has no gilt-bronze frieze.
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The ancient marble sculpture Borghese Gladiator was first mentioned in 1611 and was one of the jewels in Cardinal Scipione Borghese's collection. It was sold to Napoleon I in 1807 along with most of the Borghese collection (Louvre, inv. n°MR 224). The sculpture was hugely popular and many moulds, copies and bronze statuettes were made of it. In 1794, the Gladiator appeared in a catalogue of bronze statuettes by the eminent Roman bronze artist Francesco Righetti (Gladiatore Combattente). His excellent castings of classical models have a similar greenish-brown patina to our bronze, and were popular souvenirs for the European aristocracy to bring back from their Grand Tour.

Righetti was trained in Rome, in the studio of Luigi Valadier's (1726-1785). His bronze casts were so refined that Catherine the Great and Popes Pius VI and VII were among his patrons. In 1805, he took over from Valadier as head of the Vatican foundry. During the French Empire, some of Rome's most illustrious figures commissioned works from him, including Camillo Borghese and his wife Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. As well as specialising in bronze statuettes, he was renowned for casting monumental sculptures such as the Napoleon I commissioned from Antonio Canova by Eugène de Beauharnais (Palazzo Brera, Milan).

The perfect translation into bronze of the Gladiator's anatomical perfection supports an attribution to Righetti. The high quality casting even captures the expression of terror on his face, as in the original model. The polychrome marble and gilt bronze base is also characteristic of Righetti's works. One of his centrepieces features three bronze reductions of classical Atlases, the base of which is applied with a candelabra between two griffins in gilt bronze, identical to the one on our base (Naples, Museo di Capodimonte; fig. 1).

Juan Truyols Rovira was a descendant of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Ramón Despuig I Martinez de Marcilla (1610-1741), and of Cardinal Antoni Despuig Dameto (1745-1813). He lived in Predio Morell, which had belonged to his family since the end of the 15th century. This Gladiator comes from his collection and was probably bought by his ancestor Cardinal Antonio Despuig Dameto. Despuig founded the Palma de Majorca school of art. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, rector of the University of Majorca and a keen patron of the arts.

From 1796 to 1797, Despuig was in Rome with Cardinal Francisco Antonio de Lorenzana y Burton, the King of Spain's emissary to Pius VI, who made him a cardinal. He later became Vicar General of His Holiness and was present when Pius VII was taken prisoner by Napoleon's troops on July 6th 1809. Despuig was placed under house arrest in Rome then exiled to Paris. When his health deteriorated, he was granted permission to return to Italy and settled in Lucca without ever seeing Majorca again. He was passionate about Antiquity and took advantage of his time in Rome to assemble a stunning collection of marbles and bronzes, which he kept in his palace in Raixa in Majorca, where he built a veritable museum. One part of his collection was bought in 1898 by the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. Another part was sold in Paris by M. Paul Chevallier on 11th July 1900. The remaining part still belongs to the family.