Panther Attacking a Goat

One of the best known restorers of ancient sculpture, Francesco Franzoni often invented totally new compositions from small fragments. However, this sculpture is entirely Franzoni’s own work, down to the breaks seen in such places as the panther’s tail and the goat’s legs and jaw. Curiously, Franzoni based this work on one of his own restorations, now in the Vatican, although his composition here is more balanced and elegant, in keeping with ideas in the late 1700s about how ancient sculpture should look.