King Menelaus holding the body of Patroclus

The marble sculpture titled ‘Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus’ is named for its perceived portrayal of an incident from the Iliad involving Menelaus and Patroclus. This sculpture possesses a nuanced artistic and cultural background that demonstrates the extent to which impromptu ‘restorations’ were applied to fragments of ancient Roman sculptures during the 16th and 17th centuries. During this period, contemporary Italian sculptors made original, albeit often arbitrary and damaging, additions in attempts to replace missing sections of the ancient sculptures. The original core of the sculpture, beneath the later alterations, initially comprised a headless torso of a man in armor supporting a heroically nude dying companion. This group was crafted in the late 1st century CE, serving as a Roman reproduction that closely mirrored an original Hellenistic Pergamene piece from the mid-3rd century BCE.