History

The She-Wolf dates from 5th BCE Etruria, making it a product of the indigenous Etruscan culture inhabiting the Italian peninsula. This dating has become controversial in recent decades with some claiming it is a medieval sculpture based on its use of a lost wax casting technique where the artwork is completed in one single piece. However, when the skewed bodily proportions of this just under life-size wolf are combined with the stylized s-curl incisions and knobby tufts indicating its fur, it is stylistically consistent with Etruscan metalwork.

In the summer of 1923, Battle purchased the She-Wolf and the Statue of the Emperor Augustus as both the final two casts of his collection and the only two representing original Italian statues. Deviating from the original, Battle’s cast She-Wolf has a white patina and the suckling babies originally positioned on the rock-like platforms between its legs were quickly damaged and removed from the sculptural composition. The bronze version of these cast babies were added to the original sculpture during the Renaissance in an effort to more completely depict Rome’s founding myth. Thus, their removal from the plaster cast She-Wolf can be argued to offer a more authentic representation of the original composition. Raising such questions as authenticity and whiteness, the babyless She-Wolf featured prominently in artist Lily Cox-Richard’s 2019 exhibition, She-Wolf + Lower Figs, at the Blanton Museum of Art.

The She-Wolf’s history at UT is quite limited. This should be attributed to two factors: first, it was a late addition to Battle’s collection; and second, its Etruscan origins mean that it does not conform to the chronological development of the Graeco-Roman artistic style favored by the collection. In 1951, the She-Wolf was displayed, without its babies, alongside the rest of the collection in the new Main Building. It was in storage at the Pickle Research Campus when the casts were surveyed for conservation in the late 1970s, where it was determined to be in good condition. Today, it resides in storage at the Blanton.