“Marmoreality:” Re-Animating the Classical Body in the Romantic Present
“Marmoreality:” Re-Animating the Classical Body in the Romantic Present

Summary/Abstract: Taking as its starting point the popularity of the moving statue motif, this article explores the “re-animation” of the Classical body in early nineteenth-century literature and visual as well as material culture, with a focus on the figure of the “Dying Gladiator.” Some established strategies for viewing sculpture that attempted to simulate movement and life-likeness include gallery visits by torchlight (for instance at the Capitoline Museum in Rome – home of the Dying Gladiator), but for those unable to travel, other options were available. The first part of the article examines the “moving sculpture” shows on stage at Astley’s in London, in particular the innovative spectacles devised by the circus performer, Andrew Ducrow, who coined the term “poses plastiques” to describe attitudes drawn from Classical statuary or mythology that he performed on horseback. His performances were praised for “astonishing exactness and fidelity” as well as for impressive transitions between “marmoreality” and living flesh. The next part of the article positions the reception of Ducrow’s incarnations of the Dying Gladiator alongside responses to the statue in print culture, from the Penny Magazine to – in the final section – poems such as those of Lord Byron and Felicia Hemans that dwell on (and recover) the moment evoked by the statue when life and death hang in the balance. Here, the potent features of sculpture as a form, and the importance of the viewer’s imaginative engagement, become integral and activating elements in the works’ rapturous reception.

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