Kneeling Youth - possibly Ilioneus, son of Niobe

Copy in plaster transferred in 1897 from the Academy of Fine Art, made on a heavily restored Roman copy of a lost, Greek original made by a follower of Praxiteles around 300 BCE. The Roman version of the sculpture was owned by Renaissance artist Lorenzo Ghiberti, when he won the competition in 1402 for the making of bronze doors to the Baptistry in Florenze, surpassing his colleague Filippo Brunneleschi. The contest stated, that both competitors should do a panel showing “The sacrifice of Issac”. Ghiberti’s version show clear inspiration from the “Illioneus”. The competition is said to mark the starting point of the early Renaissance, the “rebirth” of antiquity.