Jupiter, called the Jupiter of Versailles
Unknown · Second century AD; restored in the seventeenth century
More than four metres high, the king of the gods towers over the hall with a bearded face, a bare chest and a mantle over his shoulder. Only the head and the torso are ancient, second-century Roman work of impressive scale. Everything from the middle of the abdomen down, both arms, the top of the hair and several locks are modern. In 1685 the sculptor Drouilly turned the lower part into a term, a tapering pillar, and added the drapery, while François Girardon, the leading sculptor of Louis the Fourteenth's court, reworked the other gaps apart from the arms.
The fragment was found in Rome near the Porta del Popolo and was sent to France to decorate the gardens of Versailles, where a Roman colossus rebuilt as a term suited the geometry of the parterres. Look for the cracks running across the forehead and right brow and the chips on the chest and back, the marks of centuries outdoors. Seized with the royal collections during the Revolution, the statue came to the Louvre and now stands in the former riding hall of the palace.
Did You Know? Girardon, the court sculptor of Louis the Fourteenth, helped turn this Roman fragment into a garden colossus for Versailles.
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