Following models from Ancient Rome, 17th-19th century

Italian school of the 18th-19th century, following models of Ancient Rome.
Bronze.
Measurements: 28 x 52 x 21 cm.
Although this sculpture of a wild boar was made in the 18th-19th centuries, it follows classical models based on the art of Ancient Rome. According to historians of Classical Antiquity, the boar was the emblem of one of the Roman legions, probably the IX, and its antiquity dates back to 200 years before Christ. Particularly noteworthy is the careful workmanship of the carefully individualised fur, as well as the truthfulness of the animal's face and legs.
The Romans brought two important innovations to the world of sculpture: portraiture and historical relief, neither of which existed in the Greek world. However, they followed Greek models for much of their sculptural production, a base which in Rome was combined with the Etruscan tradition. After the first contacts with Classical Greece through the Magna Graecia colonies, the Romans conquered Syracuse in 212 BC, a rich and important Greek colony in Sicily, which was adorned with a large number of Hellenistic works. The city was sacked and its art treasures taken to Rome, where the new style of these works soon replaced the Etruscan-Roman tradition that had prevailed until then. Cato himself denounced the looting and decoration of Rome with Hellenistic works, which he considered a dangerous influence on native culture, and deplored the Romans' applause of statues from Corinth and Athens, while ridiculing the decorative terracotta tradition of ancient Roman temples. However, these oppositional reactions were in vain; Greek art had subdued Etruscan-Roman art in general, to the extent that Greek statues were among the most coveted prizes of war, being displayed during the triumphal procession of the conquering generals.