Cincinnatus (Roman version of a Greek original)

After Unidentified Roman sculptor

RA Collection: Art

Cast after a marble statue, which is widely believed to depict the Roman patriot Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who was appointed dictator in 458 BC and 439 BC. Alternative interpretations include Jason and Hermes.

This marble statue, now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotheck, Copenhagen, was discovered by Gavin Hamilton at Hadrian's Villa in 1769. Thought to be a copy of a bronze executed by a pupil of Lysippus in the third century BC, it was sold to the Marquess of Shelbourne (later Earl of Lansdowne) in 1772. The cast entered the Royal Academy collection in 1774.