Rinaldo Rinaldi
(Rome, 1793-1873)

Rinaldo Rinaldi (Italian, 1793-1873), after the models by Antonio Canova (Italian, 1757-1822).

The Pugilists Creugas and Damoxenos.

White statuary marble.

Each signed ‘Rinaldi Rinaldo Roma’.

Rome, circa 1815-1830.

Of ‘heroic size’, meaning larger than life, the discovery of these statues of Creugas and Damoxenos, by no less than Canova’s favourite pupil, is an important one. They tell a legendary tale of good versus evil. The two men were boxers from ancient Greece. They fought for many hours, until both men agreed to settle the contest with a single, undefended blow. Damoxenos grasps the fingers of his right hand, pointing them together, and strikes under the ribs with such force that when he withdrew his hand, he pulled out Creugas’ intestines. And so, the brutish Damoxenos killed the athletic Creugas with a blow judged to be a foul and he was banished.

They follow the original marble statues of Creugas and Damoxenos, known as the Pugilists, which Canova completed in 1801 and 1806 for the Vatican, where they are displayed in the Octagon Hall at the Pio Clementino Museum. In the same way as Canova before him, Rinaldi would have transcribed the present statues of Creugas and Damoxenos to marble from a plaster cast. The plasters would have to be alongside the marble being carved to transcribe the corresponding points.  Rinaldi, working in Canova’s Roman studio, would have transcribed these marbles from Canova’s original plasters. The plasters of Creugas and Damoxenos were removed to Canova’s Gypsotheca in Possagno in the 1830s. This gives a window of Rinaldi undertaking a commission for the Pugilists sometime between 1815 and the early 1830s. 

Rinaldi’s statues are exactingly close in detail to Canova’s originals and the only versions of Creugas and Damoxenos executed by a pupil of Canova.