The Lanuvium Marbles are back ready for display in Leeds City Museum again.
The group of statues includes four torsos of cavalrymen and the heads of two horses discovered in Lanuvium. They were originally brought to Leeds by Sir John Savile Lumley in 1896. He was British ambassador to Rome at the time.
The life-size statues carved from solid marble have recently been on loan for six months to an exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome. The sculptures imitate the Greek bronzes of Alexander the Great and his bodyguards. The group would reinforce the idea of Lucullus being a mighty warrior.
Public sculpture informed the population about Roman victories and were used to reinforce the might of Rome in an age before radio and TV. Sculpture to the Romans was therefore their very own marketing tool, used effectively to promote and communicate. This is a surreal but interesting thought, combining modern ideas with old fashioned applications...
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