Unidentified Roman sculptor and Timotheus (fl. ca. 375 B.C. - ca. 350 B.C.)
RA Collection: Art
This cast is from a buts of a marble statue of Asclepius in the Louvre, Paris. It is a Roman copy of an original attributed to the Greek sculptor Timotheos who worked on the sculpture for Ascelepius' sanctuary at Epidauros in the early 4th century BC. Asclepius was the god of medicine and health.
The bust in the Louvre was restored in the 18th century, probably by the workshop of sculptor Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. The bust was formerly in the Albani collection in Rome but was seized by the French in 1718 and was then purchased by the Louvre in 1815.
The Royal Academy was given a cast of bust of the head of Asclepius by the Prince Regent in 1816. An earlier identical cast was in the RA Collection in 1779 but this bust probably dates from around 1816.
760 mm x 530 mm x 440 mm, Weight: 55 kg