Title: Ares Ludovisi type
Summary: Seated statue of a youth
Material: Bronze
Sculpture Type: Free-standing statue
Category: Original/copies
Style: Early Hellenistic
Technique: Hollow cast
Original or Copy: Original (lost)
Date: ca. 330 BC - ca. 300 BC
Scale: Over life-size
Period: Early Hellenistic

Subject Description: As restored from copies this statue showed a nude, seated, youthful, male figure, perhaps Ares. The piece is named after the statue from the Ludovisi Collection, in the Terme Museum (Ares Ludovisi), the most complete example known.

Form & Style: Scholars have attributed this piece, on stylistic grounds, to a variety of artists and in some cases have correspondingly identified the figure represented. Among those who agree that it is an early Hellenistic work are Süsserott and Picard who assign it to Skopas; Aurigemma, Bieber, and Johnson among earlier scholars who assigned it to Lysippos; and Praschniker who suggests it was a Mars by Piston (supported by Watzinger), as noted in Pliny HN 36.89. Among those who attribute it to an unknown artist working in the styles of Skopas and Lysippos are Arias and Zanker; Fuchs supposes this artists was working in the styles of Skopas and Praxiteles. Sieveking identifies the type as the Paris by Euphranor. Among those who see it as a later Hellenistic type are Fink, who sees it as an eclectic work, and Coarelli, who identifies it as the seated Mars of Skopas Minor (2 c B.C.), noted by Pliny HN 36.26. Lattimore has hypothesized that the Ares Ludovisi type is the Achilles attributed to Silanion by Pliny HN 34.81

Condition: Lost

Sources Used: Lattimore 1979, 71; Vierneisel-Schlörb 1979, 423-29

Other Bibliography: P. Zanker in Helbig, 3.269 no. 2345; Fuchs 1969, 272; F. Coarelli, "L' 'Ara di Domizio Enobarbo' e la Cultural Artistica in Roma nel II Secolo A.C.," DialArch 2 (1968) 313-16; Fink 1964, 152-57; Picard/Manuel, 3.2.720-29; Bieber 1961b, 41; Aurigemma 1956, 98; Arias 1952, 135; Süsserott 1938, 181, n. 197; Johnson 1927, 167, 170; Watzinger 1927, 31; Praschniker 1924, 215-16; Sieveking 1924, 11-13