Alessandro Franceschi (Montasico, Bologna 1789 - Bologna, 1834)
Milo and the Lion, 1814
terracotta; inv. S 45
provenance: purchased by the Municipality of Bologna
This statue was attributed in the past to the Neoclassical sculptor
Giacomo De Maria, but it has recently been linked with his student
Alessandro Franceschi, thanks to the study of an 1879 inventory of City
possessions.
The statue was executed in 1814 for a contest held by the Accademia di
Belle Arti, which it won. It depicts the athlete Milo’s
uneven struggle with a lion that attacked him while his hand was
imprisoned in a tree trunk.
This subject gave the artist an opportunity to portray a nude male body
in motion in accordance with Neoclassical tastes, while at the same
time offering him the challenge of depicting a face altered by stupor
and pain.
