Spinario at the Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Vienna

myminifactory

Boy With Thorn, also known as Fedele or Spinario, is a remarkable Greco-Roman Hellenistic bronze sculpture of a boy carefully extracting a thorn from the sole of his foot. This incredible piece of art is now proudly displayed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome. A stunning Roman marble rendition of this subject is on display in the Uffizi Gallery's corridors, a prized possession of the Medici collections. This magnificent sculpture has managed to evade loss throughout the centuries, and it was one of the very few Roman bronzes that never fell into obscurity. It stood proudly outside the Lateran Palace when Benjamin of Tudela, a keen-eyed Navarrese rabbi, saw it in the 1160s and identified it as Absalom, who "was without blemish from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head." Magister Gregorius, an English visitor, noted this sculpture in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century in his De mirabilibus urbis Romae, stating that it was mistakenly thought to be Priapus. It's believed that this incredible piece of art was transferred to the Palazzo dei Conservatori by Pope Sixtus IV in the 1470s; however, it wasn't recorded there until 1499-1500. During the Early Renaissance, it became a celebrated work of art, with one of the first Roman sculptures to be copied: bronze reductions were created by Severo da Ravenna and Jacopo Buonaccolsi, called "L'Antico" for his refined classicizing figures. He made a copy for Isabella d'Este around 1501 and followed it with an untraced pendant that perhaps reversed the pose. For a fountain of 1500 in Messina, Antonello Gagini created a full-size variant, which is probably the bronze now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This scan originates from Oliver Laric's initiative 'threedscans'. It's part of an ongoing project by Laric titled 'Versions', which explores historical and contemporary ideas related to image hierarchies. Every model produced by Laric is freely available for download and use without copyright restrictions. If you utilize the models, please contact stw@myminifactory.com and contact@threedscans.com.