Menelagro

Description

The statue needs specific study that is beyond the scope of this record. The figure is perhaps to be recognized in Vascellini's engraving, at the time still accompanied by a now-lost rod. Inghirami recalls it in the present place identifying it as Meleager, an iconography that seems correct to us. The ancient Hero, son of Mars, has been depicted since antiquity as a hunter, so the rod, perhaps a reed, and the presence of the dog are legitimate. He participated in fact in the killing of the boar Caledonius. Vascellini remembers him as Adonis. Of note is the remarkable beauty and elegance of the figure, especially in the head. Stylistically, one can only advance the finding of characters quite close to the manners of Battista Lorenzi united with a more Cellinian gentleness and especially tribolesque in the curls, which refer toIla Roman portraiture of the Antonine age. The present location does not seem original since the base does not coincide with the brick support