Castor and Pollux (Prado) - Misplaced Pages

Ancient Roman sculptural group

Castor and Pollux (San Ildefonso Group)

Year	1st century AD
Type	White marble
Dimensions	161 cm (63 in)
Location	Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Castor and Pollux group (also known as the San Ildefonso Group, after San Ildefonso in Segovia, Spain, the location of the palace of La Granja at which it was kept until 1839) is an ancient Roman sculptural group of the 1st century AD, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Drawing on 5th- and 4th-century BC Greek sculptures in the Praxitelean tradition, such as the Apollo Sauroctonos and the "Westmacott Ephebe", and without copying any single known Greek sculpture, it shows two idealised nude youths, both wearing laurel wreaths. The young men lean against each other, and to their left on an altar is a small female figure, usually interpreted as a statue of a female divinity. She holds a sphere, variously interpreted as an egg or pomegranate. The group is 161 cm high and is now accepted as portraying Castor and Pollux.

Identification

The lefthand figure was originally headless but was restored in the 17th century, the heyday of interpretive restorations, by Ippolito Buzzi, when the sculpture was in the collection of Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, using a Hadrianic-era (ca. 130) bust of Antinous of the Apollo-Antinous type from another statue. The identification of the figures inspired many choices of male pairs during the 17th and 18th centuries. During the 19th century, it became known as "Antinous and Hadrian's genius", to get over the problem of their both being youths, whereas ahistorically it was an important feature of Antinous' relationship with Hadrian that Antinous was a youthful eromenos and Hadrian an elder erastes. Alternatively "Antinous and a sacrificial daemon" was suggested, in reference to the myth that Antinous had killed himself as a sacrifice to lengthen Hadrian's life), or simply as Antinous and Hadrian pledging their fidelity to one another.

Other alternative identifications in the past have included:

Hypnos and Thanatos, interpreting the sphere as a pomegranate, symbol of death
Corydon and Alexis
Winckelmann's suggestion of Orestes and Pylades offering a sacrifice to the statue of goddess Artemis, which they wanted to seize, or in front of the tomb of murdered Agamemnon. Winckelmann was the first to publish the sculpture, in Monumenti Antichi Inediti 1767, pp xxi–xxii.

All these identifications are now thought to be erroneous and simply due to the figure's restoration as Antinous: the group is now accepted as Castor and Pollux, offering a sacrifice to Persephone. Such an identification is based on the right-hand figure, who holds two torches, one downturned (on a flower-wreathed altar) and one upturned (behind his back), and on identifying the woman's sphere as an egg (like that from which the Dioscuri were born). The interpretation was supported by Goethe, who owned a cast of the group.

Some scholars assert that the statute group was originally created by the ancient sculptor Pasiteles.

Style

The work is an outstanding example of neo-Attic eclecticism frequent at the end of the Roman Republic and during the first decades of the Roman Empire, around the Augustan period, combining two different aesthetic streams: whilst the right-hand youth is Polyclitean, the left-hand one is in a softer, more sensual and Praxitelean style.

History

Its find site is unknown, but by 1623 it was in the Ludovisi collection at the Villa Ludovisi in Rome, where the Ludovisi restorer, the sculptor Ippolito Buzzi (1562–1634), restored it that year. Nicolas Poussin (illustration, left) saw it in the Ludovisi collection or in that of Cardinal Camillo Massimo, who owned it later. Poussin's sketch was not intended as a faithful representation of the sculpture, but to be stored and referred to, as part of his visual repertory of antiquities, which was extensive and which made its presence felt in most of his paintings. In his sketch of the San Ildefonso group Poussin has made minor adjustments to the poses, but his major change is in transforming the lithe adolescents into more muscular athletes or heroes.

Its reputation soon spread and shortly after 1664 it was acquired by Queen Christina of Sweden to join the large art collection that she gathered during her stay in Rome. The ancient sculptures in that collection were transferred to the Odescalchi who, in 1724, offered this group to Philip V of Spain. Philip's second wife Isabella Farnese (from the Farnese of Parma, which had a history of sculpture collecting) acquired it at above-market price for him and had it sent to the Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia). From there it came into the Prado (catalogue number Catalogue Nr. E.28).

Copies

The erroneous identification with Antinous generated high interest in the sculpture, with large numbers of copies being produced, largely made in Italy and Northern Europe and based on plaster casts rather than made in Spain and based on the original there. These inevitably stoked the interest by obscuring the fact that the Antinous head was in fact a restoration, instead smoothing the two into a meaningful whole (as did the casts on which they were based).

Town/city	Place	Medium	Artist	Notes
Potsdam	Park of Sanssouci, near Charlottenhof Palace.	Marble	Francesco Menghi.	It first stood along the grove near the hippodrome; since 1885 it has been at its present location. It has recently been damaged.
London	Victoria & Albert Museum.	Marble	Joseph Nollekens in Rome (signed in 1767), from a cast.	Made for Thomas Anson; soon after its completion it was sent to his residence at Shugborough Hall (Staffordshire), where it stood until 1842, when it was sold for £320 3s (three times the amount any of the actual antiquities raised) to Mr H. Soden, whose son-in-law bequeathed it to the V&A Museum in 1940, where it is today exhibited in Room 50 (the British Galleries) under Inv. Nr. A.59-1940. At Shugboropugh it is represented by a plaster cast.
Versailles	Gardens.	Marble	Antoine Coysevox	The artist worked slowly on this work, at intervals between 1687 and 1706, and signed it only in 1712. First exhibited in the Palais du Louvre, then, in 1712 in the gardens of Versailles where it is still today. "Les guides font remarquer la beauté des adolescents nus et couronnés de fleurs" (Pierre de Nolhac, 1913).
Château de Sceaux (Hauts-de-Seine, France)	Gardens of the château.	Marble		This is an early and rather free interpretation of the Ildefonso group, probably based on an etching or drawing; at 2.5 m high, it is also considerably larger than the original. This group dates to the first half of the 17th century; it is carved in stone and its back has never been completely finished. The group shows today severe degradation.
Berlin	Charlottenburg	Bronze	Christoph Heinrich Fischer	Fischer, active in Berlin in the first half of the 19th century, sculpted it in 1833, since when it has remained in the Charlottenburg gardens. Restored in 1998.
Berlin	Glienicke Castle (originally on top of a fountain, now in the inner court of the castle).	Bronze		1828, in a set-up inspired by the Weimar copy.
Bad Freienwalde	(previously used to decorate a chimney-piece in the schloss, and now standing in the gardens, in front of the castle).	Cast iron		Manufactured in 1795 by the foundry of Lauchhammer, probably copied from the plaster cast figuring in the casts collection assembled by the painter Anton Rafael Mengs and donated to the Albertinum, Dresden in 1785.
Weimar		Cast iron		Manufactured by the foundry of Lauchhammer. Displayed from 1796 near the Holzhalle of the Rotes Schloß (Red Castle). In 1824, the architect Clemens Wenzel Coudray had it moved and set on a fountain in front of the Burgplatz, where it still stands today. Restored in 1994/95.
Weimar	Goethe House.	Plaster cast.		Acquired by Goethe in 1812 and now on the landing of the first floor. Goethe wrote about this group : "Diese beyden Epheben waren mir immer höchst angenehm"
Dresden	Porzellansammlung, Inv. N° PE 434.	Biscuit porcelain	Christian Gottfried Jüchtzer	c. 35 cm high. The artist produced several exemplars of “Castor and Pollux” during his career in Meißen. Exhibited in the Japanisches Palais in the 19th century, today in the Zwinger.
Berlin	Kunstgewerbemuseum, Room V.	Meissen porcelain	Christian Gottfried Jüchtzer	ca. 1790, about 35 cm high.
London	British Museum	Meissen porcelain	Christian Gottfried Jüchtzer	Inv. N° MME 2001, 3–4, 1. Dated 1788–89, acquired in 2001. Exhibited in Room 47, Showcase 1.

Notes

It was listed in the Ludovisi collection in 1623, as portraying the Dioscuri. (Haskell and Penny 1981:cat. no. 19)
The head itself has had its nose, throat and sections of its wreath and hair restored.
Museo Nacional del Prado: Página no encontrada Archived 2005-02-17 at the Wayback Machine
"HAM - Europa art - Ancient Rome - 32". Archived from the original on 2007-06-19. Retrieved 2007-02-08.; Haskell and Penny 1981:174 note 21
^ Copies of famoust Antinous-Sculptures ". antinoos.info. Retrieved on 22 March 2007.
Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway (2002). Hellenistic Sculpture: The styles of ca. 100-31 B.C. Univ of Wisconsin Press. pp. 177–. ISBN 978-0-299-17710-2.
Homepage der Skulpturhalle Basel Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine. Skulpturhalle Basel, 2008. Retrieved on 22 March 2008.
A Hermaphroditus belonging to Ludovisi was restored by Buzzi, 1621–23; it was later purchased by Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and is in the Uffizi. (Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900 (Yale University Press) 1981, p. 235.)
The Cardinal owned Poussin's Midas Washing at the Source of the Pactolus, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; James Thompson, "Nicolas Poussin" The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin New Series, 50.3, (Winter 1992:1, 3-56) p 13f.
^ James Thompson, "Nicolas Poussin" The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin New Series, 50.3, (Winter 1992:1, 3-56) p 13f.
A. Blanco and M. Lorente, Catalogo de la Esculture: Museo del Prado (1981:22-24) with bibliography.
Goethe, 10.11.1812, letter to Heinrich Meyer.

References

Main site about copies of the Ildefonso (or Castor & Pollux) group : http://www.antinoos.info/copies1.htm Copies

Caroline Vout, Antinous: The Face of the Antique (Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, 2006), p83
Jules David Prown, 'Benjamin West and the Use of Antiquity' (American Art, Vol. 10, No. 2 – Summer, 1996), pp. 28–49
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.02.36 – Stephan F. Schröder, Katalog der antiken Skulpturen des Museo del Prado in Madrid. Vol. 2: Idealplastik. Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern, 2004. Pp. xii, 537. ISBN 3-8053-1758-1.
Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (Yale University Press) 1981.
Viktor Rydberg, Romerska dagar (Roman Days, 1877)
John Addington Symonds, Excerpts from "Antinous," in 'Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece' – "could we but understand meaning clearly, the mystery of Antinous would be solved"

External links

Media related to San Ildefonso Group at Wikimedia Commons

Prado link (English) Archived 2012-02-27 at the Wayback Machine
Copies
Image Archived 2009-01-02 at the Wayback Machine
Copy by Joseph Nollekens at the Victoria and Albert Museum
- Another view (large) (Flickr)
- Back view (large) (Flickr)
  - (The Flickr images were taken after the statue was moved to the British Galleries; previously it had stood against a wall, preventing its back from being photographed)
Re-created using 3D computer generated characters as part of 'Classics' by Beverley Hood, 2001

Museo del Prado

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Paintings

Spanish	Esquivel: José de Espronceda Gisbert: Execution of Torrijos and his Companions on the Beach at Málaga Goya: Allegory of Industry – Asmodea – Atropos – Blind Man's Bluff – Boys playing soldiers – Charles IV of Spain and His Family – Los caprichos – Christ Crucified – The Clothed Maja – The Colossus – The Countess of Chinchon – Los disparates – The Dog – The Drunk Mason – The Duchess of Alba and la Beata – Fight with Cudgels – Judith and Holofernes – La Leocadia – Man Mocked by Two Women – La novillada – Portrait of the Marchioness of Santa Cruz – Men Reading – The Milkmaid of Bordeaux – The Naked Maja – The Parasol – A Pilgrimage to San Isidro – Pilgrimage to the Fountain of San Isidro – Saturn Devouring His Son – The Second of May 1808 – Self-portrait at 69 years – Summer – The Third of May 1808 – Two Old Men – Two Old Ones Eating Soup – The Victorious Hannibal Seeing Italy from the Alps for the First Time – Witches' Flight – Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) El Greco: The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest – Adoration of the Shepherds – Doña María de Aragón Altarpiece – Annunciation – Christ Carrying the Cross – The Fable – The Flight into Egypt – Holy Face of Jesus – Holy Trinity – Julián Romero and Saint Julian – Portrait of a Doctor – Portrait of a Gentleman – Portrait of a Young Nobleman – Portrait of an Elderly Man – Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman – Portrait of Jerónimo de Cevallos – Portrait of Rodrigo Vázquez de Arce – Saint Andrew and Saint Francis – Saint Anthony of Padua – Saint Bernardino of Siena – Saint James the Great – Saint John the Evangelist – Saint Paul – Saint Sebastian – Saint Thomas the Apostle – Holy Trinity – The Saviour – Virgin Mary Luna: The Death of Cleopatra Maíno: Adoration of the Magi – Portrait of a Gentleman – The Recovery of Bahía de Todos los Santos Murillo: Adoration of the Shepherds (1650) – Aranjuez Immaculate Conception – The Christ Child and the Infant John the Baptist with a Shell – Christ on the Cross (1675, 1677) – The Conversion of Saint Paul – The Good Shepherd – The Holy Family with a Little Bird – The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial – The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables – The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew – Our Lady of the Rosary – The Patrician's Dream – Rebecca and Eleazar Pradilla: Doña Joanna the Mad Ribera: Jacob's Dream – Democritus – Isaac and Jacob – Ixion – Tityos – The Martyrdom of Saint Philip – The Blind Sculptor Sánchez Gallque: The Mulattos of Esmeraldas Velázquez: Las Meninas – The Triumph of Bacchus – Las Hilanderas – The Surrender of Breda – Mars Resting – Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV – Equestrian Portrait of Elisabeth of France – Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles – Equestrian Portrait of Philip III – Equestrian Portrait of Margarita of Austria – Equestrian Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares – Adoration of the Magi – Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan – Christ Crucified – Coronation of the Virgin – View of the Garden of the Villa Medici – Prince Balthasar Charles as a Hunter – Portrait of the Infante Don Carlos – Doña Antonia de Ipeñarrieta y Galdós and Her Son Don Luis – The Jester Barbarroja – The Jester Calabacillas – The Jester Don Diego de Acedo – The Jester Don John of Austria – Portrait of Francisco Lezcano – Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress – Portrait of Maria Anna – Portrait of Juan Martínez Montañés – The Nun Jerónima de la Fuente – Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid – Portrait of Philip IV in Armour – Portrait of Mariana of Austria – Portrait of Sebastián de Morra Zurbarán: Agnus Dei – The Death of Hercules – The Defence of Cádiz Against the English – Hercules and the Hydra – Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla – Hercules Fighting the Nemean Lion – Saint Elizabeth of Portugal – Saint Luke Painting the Crucifixion – Saint Peter Nolasco's Vision of Saint Peter the Apostle – Still Life with Pots – The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco
Dutch, Flemish, German	Anonymous: The Fountain of Life Baldung: The Ages and Death Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights – Adoration of the Magi – Cutting the Stone – The Haywain Triptych – Head of a Halberdier – The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things – The Temptation of St Anthony Bouts: Triptych with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin Bruegel the Elder: The Triumph of Death – The Wine of Saint Martin's Day – Excursion in the Countryside of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia – Life in the Countryside – The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the Mariemont Park (with de Momper) – Landscape (with de Momper) – The Five Senses (with Rubens) Campin: Marriage of the Virgin – Werl Triptych de Crayer: Caritas Romana (1625) David: Rest on the Flight into Egypt Dürer: Adam and Eve – Self-Portrait van Dyck: Self-portrait with Sir Endymion Porter – The Betrayal of Christ – The Brazen Serpent – Diana and a Nymph Surprised by a Satyr – Saint Rosalia – The Crowning with Thorns van Hemessen: The Surgeon Francken the Younger: The Sciences and the Arts Jordaens: Apollo as Victor over Pan – Meleager and Atalanta – The Painter's Family Memling: Adoration of the Magi Mengs: Portrait of José Nicolás de Azara de Momper: Landscape with Sea and Mountains – A Farm – Flemish Market and Washing Place – Landscape with Skaters – The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the Mariemont Park (with Brueghel the Elder) – Landscape (with Brueghel the Elder) Patinir: Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx Rembrandt: Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes Rubens: The Judgement of Paris (1638) – The Three Graces – Adoration of the Magi – The Dance of the Villagers – Diana and Callisto – Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma – The Fall of Man – The Garden of Love – The Birth of the Milky Way – The Rape of Europa – The Rape of Ganymede – Saint George and the Dragon – Saturn – The Triumph of the Church – Deucalion and Pyrrha – The Five Senses (with Brueghel the Elder) Stom: The Incredulity of Saint Thomas Strobel: Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist Teniers the Younger: Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Painting Gallery in Brussels (1651) Verhaecht: Alpine Landscape van der Weyden: The Descent from the Cross – Durán Madonna
Italian	Fra Angelico: Annunciation Anguissola: Portrait of Elisabeth of Valois – Portrait of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia – Portrait of Giovanni Battista Caselli Barocci: Nativity Bellini: Madonna and Child with Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Ursula Botticelli: The Story of Nastagio Degli Onesti, part one Caravaggio: David and Goliath Carracci: Assumption of the Virgin – Mural Paintings from the Herrera Chapel – Venus, Adonis and Cupid Correggio: Noli me tangere – Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist A. Gentileschi: The Birth of Saint John the Baptist O. Gentileschi: The Finding of Moses (1633) Leonardo: Mona Lisa (by his studio) Lotto: Portrait of Marsilio Cassotti and His Bride Faustina Mantegna: Death of the Virgin Parmigianino: Holy Family with Angels – Portrait of Camilla Gonzaga and Her Three Sons – Portrait of Pier Maria Rossi di San Secondo – Saint Barbara Raphael: Portrait of a Cardinal – Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary – Madonna of the Rose – Visitation – La Perla (with Romano) Romano: Holy Family under an Oak Tree Andrea del Sarto: Sacrifice of Isaac Tintoretto: Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet – Joseph and Potiphar's Wife – Judith and Holofernes (by his studio) – The Washing of the Feet Tiepolo: The Immaculate Conception Titian: The Bacchanal of the Andrians – Equestrian Portrait of Charles V – The Fall of Man – Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops – Danaë Receiving the Golden Rain (1565) – The Entombment – La Gloria – Virgin and Child Between Saints Anthony of Padua and Roch – Mater Dolorosa with Clasped Hands – Philip II in Armour – Portrait of Charles V with a Dog – Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga – Portrait of Isabella of Portugal – Sisyphus – Tityus – Religion saved by Spain – Salome - Self-Portrait (1567) – Saint Margaret and the Dragon – Venus and Adonis (1554) – Venus and Musician (1550, 1555) – The Virgin and Child with Saint George and Saint Dorothy – The Worship of Venus Veronese: Venus and Adonis – Christ Among the Doctors – The Finding of Moses
French	Anonymous: Agony in the Garden Baudry: The Pearl and the Wave van Loo: The Family of Philip V (1743) Lorrain: Landscape with St Paula of Rome Embarking at Ostia – The Ford – Landscape with St María de Cervelló – Landscape with the Burial of St Serapia – Landscape with the Finding of Moses – Landscape with the Temptation of St Anthony – Landscape with Tobias and Raphael Poussin: Parnassus – Landscape with Three Figures – Saint Cecilia Ranc: The Family of Philip V (1723) – Portrait of Ferdinand VI as a Boy Watteau: Marriage Contract and Country Dancing Vouet: Time Defeated by Love, Beauty and Hope
Other	British paintings

Sculptures

Rome	The Apotheosis of Claudius Castor and Pollux

On display at El Greco Museum in Toledo
On display at Museo de América in Madrid
On display at the Spanish Embassy in Paris

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