Duelist

Description

The sculpture depicts a man in a fighting position placed as a "pendant" to another similar larger figure. The statue is mutilated of its left arm and right hand. The two sculptures, called the "Duellanti," once decorated the "verzura niches" around the Vasca dell'Isola; today, due to their precarious state of preservation, they are kept in the rooms of the "Stanzonaccio" in the Boboli Gardens (there are copies on site today). The sculptures were made by Domenico Pieratti around 1654, the year in which the sculptor received "90 scudi [of] coin [...] for [...] two stone statues that are about to fight with arms in hand, delivered by Agnolo Donnini and estimated by Cosimo Salvestrini scultore" (Pizzorusso 1989, pp. 96-97; Capecchi 2008, p. 106; ASF, Scrittoio delle Regie Possessioni, f. 4127, cc. 73-LXXIIJ). The "Duelists" originally had weapons in their hands, now lost, perhaps a sword and an iron staff, as shown in an 18th-century Note on Boboli sculptures: "8. The Gladiator's dagger is broken, and it is that same statue whose iron pole was raised on the dì 24 January of the present year. [...]. 11. To a statue called the Schermidore an arm and sword is broken" (Capecchi 2008, p. 106, nos. 530-531; ASF, Segreteria delle Finanze ante 1788, f. 434, fasc. 1762, ins. Note of the statues of the Imperial Boboli Garden which were damaged after the compensation made to them in the year 1758). The sculptures were considerably restored by Francesco Jansen in 1758 and 1762 (Capecchi 2008, p. 106)