Struggle in stone
Raccolta di statue antiche e moderne (Collection of statues ancient and modern), by Domenico de’ Rossi and Paolo Alessandro Maffei. Published in Rome in the Stamperia alla Pace, 1704. Lower Library, Aa.4.26
Domenico de’ Rossi (1659–1730) was a member of the multi-generational Roman de’ Rossi print dynasty. The print shop, founded by his grandfather in 1633, had grown to be one of the largest of the city. Mostly focused on arts and architecture, it continued to produce engravings for the use of designers over the eighteenth century.
Raccolta di statue antiche e moderne is considered to be the first eighteenth-century art book. De’ Rossi invited the collaboration of the well-known antiquarian Paolo Alessandro Maffei (1653–1716) for the descriptive text and chose refined engravings by French artists for the plates. The volume focuses on ancient sculptures, with a few modern ones from prominent collections.
The first image in the gallery shows The Wrestlers, a Roman marble sculpture discovered in 1583 during some excavations in Rome and acquired by the Medici family, who ordered heads to be added for restoration purposes. The Wrestlers is considered to be a Roman copy of a lost Greek bronze of the third century BCE.
Pankration, an ancient sport combining wrestling and boxing techniques, first appeared in the Olympics in 648 BCE, and was a popular subject for vase paintings as well as statues. It was similar to the modern sport of mixed martial arts. The position these men are shown in here is now known as a cross-body ride. The wrestlers’ left legs are entwined, whilst the upper wrestler lifts his opponent’s right arm.
The statue is currently displayed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
Health in our hands << Struggle in stone >> Sporting discipline
