Castor and Pollux (Prado) facts for kids

The Castor and Pollux group is a famous ancient Roman sculpture from the 1st century AD. It's also known as the San Ildefonso Group because it was kept for a long time at the La Granja palace in San Ildefonso, Segovia, Spain. Today, you can see this amazing artwork at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

The sculpture shows two young men leaning against each other. Next to them, on an altar, is a small statue of a goddess. She holds a round object, which people think might be an egg or a pomegranate. The whole sculpture is 161 centimeters (about 5.3 feet) tall. Most experts now agree that the two young men are Castor and Pollux, who are twin brothers from ancient Greek myths.

Who are Castor and Pollux?

For a long time, people weren't sure who the two young men in the sculpture were. The figure on the left originally didn't have a head. In the 1600s, an artist named Ippolito Buzzi added a new head to it. This new head looked like Antinous, a famous figure from Roman times. Because of this, many people thought the sculpture showed Antinous and another person.

Some other ideas for who the figures might be included:

• Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death), with the round object being a pomegranate, a symbol of death.
• Corydon and Alexis, characters from ancient poems.
• Winckelmann, a famous art historian, thought they might be Orestes and Pylades. He believed they were offering a sacrifice to the goddess Artemis or standing in front of a tomb.

However, these ideas are now thought to be wrong. The new head added in the 1600s caused a lot of confusion. Today, most experts agree that the sculpture shows Castor and Pollux. This idea comes from the figure on the right, who holds two torches. One torch points down towards a flowery altar, and the other points up behind his back. Also, the woman's round object is now believed to be an egg, which makes sense because Castor and Pollux were said to have been born from an egg.

Some scholars believe that a famous ancient sculptor named Pasiteles might have created this group.

What is the style of the sculpture?

This sculpture is a great example of a style called neo-Attic eclecticism. This means it combines different art styles from ancient Greece. It was popular around the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.

The young man on the right is sculpted in a style similar to the artist Polyclitus, who was known for showing strong, athletic figures. The young man on the left is in a softer, more graceful style, like the artist Praxiteles. So, the sculpture blends two beautiful and different artistic approaches.

Where did the sculpture come from?

We don't know exactly where this sculpture was first found. But by 1623, it was part of the Ludovisi art collection in Rome. That's when Ippolito Buzzi restored it.

A famous painter named Nicolas Poussin saw the sculpture in Rome. He made a sketch of it, not to copy it exactly, but to remember its shapes and poses for his own paintings. Poussin often drew inspiration from ancient artworks.

The sculpture became very famous. In the mid-1600s, Queen Christina of Sweden bought it for her large art collection in Rome. Later, the sculpture was sold to the Odescalchi family. In 1724, they offered it to Philip V of Spain. Philip's wife, Isabella Farnese, bought it for a high price and had it sent to the Palace of La Granja in Spain. From there, it eventually moved to the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where it is today.

Are there copies of the sculpture?

Because people thought the sculpture showed Antinous, many copies were made. Most of these copies were created in Italy and Northern Europe. They were often made from plaster casts of the original, not directly from the sculpture in Spain. These copies helped spread interest in the artwork, even though they sometimes made it seem like the Antinous head was always part of the original.

Many copies of the Castor and Pollux group exist around the world. Here are a few examples:

See also

• In Spanish: Ofrenda de Orestes y Pílades para niños