The Falling Gladiator by American artist William Rimmer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

The Falling Gladiator by American artist William Rimmer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Although not ancient, this sculpture of a falling gladiator exquisitely reflects the anguish experienced by ancient warriors whose lives depended on not only their martial skills but their ability to impress the often-jaded Roman crowds in amphitheaters across the empire. It's sculptor, William Rimmer, was an American artist originally born in Liverpool, England before his father, a French refugee, immigrated to Nova Scotia. His father was a shoemaker and Rimmer learned his father's trade. At fifteen he also became a draughtsman and sign-painter. Rimmer eventually moved to Randolph, Massachusetts where he studied medicine and supplemented his income by carving busts from blocks of granite. He originally crafted his Falling Gladiator, like many of his other works, in clay without models or preliminary sketches, in 1861. Because of the medium he used, few of his works survive. His Falling Gladiator, Fighting Lions, and Dying Centaur were cast in bronze after Rimmer's death and can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Met observes, "In this work, Rimmer conveys the wounded warrior’s physical stress by accentuating his rippling skin and the taut, straining muscles beneath. The tension between the raised arm and the dramatic, collapsing posture enhances the work’s emotional intensity and reflects Rimmer’s fascination with figures that rise and fall simultaneously. "

Images: The Falling Gladiator by William Rimmer in Clay (1861) and in Cast Bronze (1907). Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Wikimedia Commons.