Ludovisi Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife

Ludovisi Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Altemps, Rome The sculpture is a Roman marble group depicting a man in the act of plunging a sword into his breast, looking backwards defiantly while he supports the dying figure of a woman with his left arm. It is a Roman copy of the early 2nd century AD, of a Hellenistic original, ca 230-20 BC, one of the bronze groups commissioned from Greek sculptors by Attalus I after his recent victories over the Gauls of Galatia. Other Roman marble copies from the same project are the equally famous Dying Gaul, and the less well-known Kneeling Gaul.