Its legs outstretched, neck and head slightly inclined to the left and the soft moulding of the locks are the result of an admirable seventeenth-century intervention, which modern restorations have made it possible to trace back to the prodigious hand of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Perhaps conceived in ancient times as part of the furnishings of a Roman residence, the sculpture of the mighty animal, dating back to the Imperial era, was acquired by Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani, who decided to place it in the famous Gallery of Palazzo Giustiniani.
The great master Gian Lorenzo Bernini, a ‘universal man’ and profound connoisseur of Roman and Hellenistic statuary, attended Palazzo Giustiniani from a young age, dedicating himself with great skill to the restoration of the marbles present in the vast collection of antiquities put together by the Marquis, and which was later merged with the Torlonia Collection.
Inventory: MT 441
Material: White marble
Technique: Work sculpted through the use of: chisels (also square-tipped and toothed) rasps
Dating: Imperial era
Origin: Giustiniani Collection