Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger)
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Object description
Mars Ultor is an epithet of the Roman god Mars, meaning “Mars the Avenger”. He was associated with the cult of Mars as the avenger of Julius Caesar's murder. Emperor Augustus dedicated a temple to him in the Forum of Augustus in Rome, which became an important place for military ceremonies and discussions on matters of war and peace. This statuette is a version of the iconic statue of Mars Ultor, best known from the marble statue of the 2nd century AD, which originally stood in the Forum of Augustus and is now kept in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. Small reproductions of the statue were widespread throughout the Roman Empire. While adhering to the basic iconography and referring to ancient models, Renaissance sculptors often filled their works with their own stylistic interpretations, such as more dynamic contrapposto or facial features that differed from the original. In this version, the god of war is depicted as a young warrior (in the ancient original, he is a bearded man) modelled in contrapposto, shifting his weight to his left leg, with his right arm raised, which probably once held a spear. His head, wearing a Corinthian helmet, is turned to the right. The warrior's body is covered with a cuirass, pteryges on his thighs, greaves and sandals on his feet. His left arm is bent at the elbow and rests on his raised thigh. The nuances of the modelling give the image a dynamism characteristic of the early Baroque period. The figure is cast together with a rounded podium. Later, it was placed on a wooden cylindrical profiled base.
Inscriptions
On the back of the wooden base, there is an inscription in white paint: "№ С-І-534/ Л.ОКГ". On the base of the stand, in the middle, there is a mark with the inscription: "G.N.m.L./17." (crossed out in red); on the right, there is a sticker with the inscription "17" (crossed out in red); below, in black: "17 G. N. M. L."; at the bottom, there is a stamp: "GAL. NAR. m. LWOWA".
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery
