Created to commemorate a celebrated war victory, 'The Dying Gaul' is on display at
Washington's National Gallery of Art, the first time in two centuries that the sculpture
has left Italy.
One other complete sculpture, also extant in the form of a high-quality marble copy, can be associated with near certainty with this larger composition: the "Gaul Committing Suicide With His Wife" in the National Museum of Rome's Palazzo Altemps.
The "Gaul Committing Suicide With His Wife"
Often, art has served as basis for others to emulate in achieving a legacy larger than life. There are those among us, leaders, heads of state, illegitimate and unpopular, vainglorious, self-aggrandizing, bereft of any legacy of their own to speak of, might consider following in the footsteps of those exemplified in art, sculpture, as their only means to achieving immortality.
