Mars, c.1584-87 (bronze, medium brown patina)

Mars shows the Roman god bearded and nude, holding a sword in his right hand while striding forward. The figure's body is in the twisted, s-shaped figura serpentinata pose that is typical of Giambologna models and indicates that the statue was meant to be viewed in the round. Representations of Mars in the 1500s are often difficult to identify as they do not typically follow ancient Roman iconography in which Mars always appears helmeted. For this reason the Mars was identified as a gladiator in the sixteenth century. The furrowed brow and wide nostrils of Mars's face exemplify the sixteenth-century interest in representing Olympians with individual personalities, unlike the more mask-like appearance of ancient sculpture. Here we see the rage and fury of Mars, the god of war. The nudity and bold stance also express ideas in the 1500s about representing pagan gods-associated with demons in the medieval period, an idea that carried over into the Renaissance. Nudity, while a more unadulterated symbol of heroism in antiquity, also became associated with lasciviousness and corruption of spirit in the Renaissance. There are thirty known variations on this work, some representing Mars, some Hercules, and some an executioner holding the head of St. John the Baptist. The Cleveland variant and variants in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, and the Quentin Collection, New York, are among the finest examples. The Cleveland Mars likely dates from c. 1584-87 for the Elector Christian I of Saxony offered a chain made in 1587 to Giambologna in exchange for a bronze statuette of Mars, and the Berlin cast is thought to be the work which Giambologna sent him. --Alice Sharpless 2008