The Dying Gaul is an ancient Roman sculpture that is thought to have been created some time between 230 and 220 BCE by Attalus I of Pergamon. The original sculpture was made of bronze, but a marble copy is what that remains today. The dying Gaul was sculpted in celebration of a victory, and it is a sculpture of a gladiator who was killed from the opposing side. I found interesting that the artist would depict the gladiator in a way that people would feel sympathy for him, considering the fact that the gladiator was not on their side during the battle. He manages to depict wounded gladiator with extremely remarkable realism and pathos. In the gladiator's right side, there is a bleeding sword puncture. His facial expression clearly shows that he is in excruciating pain, yet he still struggles to hold himself up with every bit of effort that he has left; he wants to die an honorable death. The agony that this gladiator must have been in is almost unimaginable, but somehow the artist is able to make us “feel” the pain that he is suffering through. It is amazing how the artist was able to portray such emotion through this sculpture.

I see before me the gladiator lie:

He leans upon his hand; - his manly brow

Consents to death, but conquers agony,

And his drooped head sinks gradually low -

And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow

From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,

Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now

The arena swims around him - he is gone,

Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won.

~Lord Byron

In this poem about The Dying Gaul, not only does the author provide you with a description of how brave the gladiator was, but of the gash on the gladiator's side. He describes the gash as being red, which is interesting because the sculpture is entirely white. I feel that this description really proves that the artist did an amazing job with portraying emotion through the sculpture. I decided to make a sketch of the sculpture, but instead of keeping it entirely black or white, I made the gladiator's wound red. I did this because I found it amazing that the realism and pathos in the sculpture allowed for the author of the poem to see the gladiator this way.