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This Roman marble sculpture of two children
wrestling is based upon a late Hellenistic
prototype. Like a snapshot of two grapplers in
the midst of battle, this sculpture captures a
moment in the struggle between these two
infants. One of the two children has seized
advantage. He climbs on his opponent’s back,
wrapping his arms around his neck and his legs
around his waist, and proceeds to bite the
other’s ear. The poor child who is on the losing
side, perhaps just for the moment, wears an
expression of pain on his face while trying to
disengage himself from his challenger with his
right hand. Perhaps in a moment he will toss his
competitor to the ground and regain control.
Other Hellenistic examples of scuffling children
reveal that biting was a popular motif for such
compositions. A hole has been drilled through
the work, either in antiquity or later on, revealing
that this sculpture once functioned as a
fountainhead.
This fanstastic sculpture, filled with movement
and emotion, originally belonged to the
esteemed Viennese sculptor Viktor Oskar Tilgner
(1844-1896). Later on, it was acquired by the
painter and sculptor Franz von Matsch (1861-
1942) sometime between Tilgner’s death in 1896
and 1908. Von Matsch once worked with Gustav
Klimt and collaborated in the interior decoration
of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. He also
served as a professor at the Vienna
Kunstgewerbeschule and published a book on
the university’s Greek vase collection.
This piece was published in Published inHans Tietze, Die Denmkale der Stadt Wien: XI-XXI. Bezirk, Mit archaologischen Beitr: Von Heinrich Sitte, (Osterreichische Kunsttopographie, vol. 2), Vienna, 1908, pp. 421-422, figs. 539-540.
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