STATUE OF AN ELDERLY FISHERMAN, C2 CE. MUSÉE DU LOUVRE This is one of the most famous statues of antiquity, known as the Dying Seneca. Lacking its lower legs and feet, the restorers of the Borghese family decided to identify this old man, who once held a bucket in one hand, as the philosopher Seneca, ordered by Nero, his former student, to commit suicide, which he did in his bathtub, slowly opening his veins and bleeding, then binding his wounds as he dictated his final thoughts to his secretary. The dust on the surface of the vase he is standing in conceals the red colour of the stone "bathwater". This is obviously not someone killing himself in a bathtub. But identification bias required the restorer to give this fisherman a famous name. Which old man might be shown mostly nude? Why, Seneca, killing himself. In fact this is a stock figure from Roman novels, found in other examples as well. But a statue should represent a famous person, no? So this is Seneca dying in a vase.
#SpoliaSunday at the #Louvre in #Paris is of a particular intellectual type. A statue of an elderly #fisherman was restored as an improbable #Seneca committing #suicide when it formed part of the #Borghese collection in the C17, though the statue dates from the C2 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺
