Arrontino

Italian, Early 19th Century copy after the antique. The Arrotino (Italian - the Blade-Sharpener), or formerly the Scythian, thought to be a figure from a group representing the Flaying of Marsyas is a Hellenistic-Roman sculpture (Pergamene school) of a man crouching to sharpen a knife on a whetstone. The sculpture was excavated in the early sixteenth century, for it is recognizable in an inventory made after the death of Agostino Chigi (1520) of his villa in Trastevere, which would become the Villa Farnesina. Later the sculpture formed part of the garden of sculptures and antiquities that Paolantonio Soderini inherited from his brother, Monsignor Francesco Soderini, who had arranged them in the Mausoleum of Augustus; Paolantonio noted in a letter of 1561 that il mio villano— my peasant— had gone away, and it is known that a member of the Mignanelli family sold the Arrotino to Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici. It was removed to the Villa Medici, where it was displayed until it was removed in the eighteenth century to the Medici collections in Florence. This object is part of Scan The World. Scan the World is a non-profit initiative introduced by MyMiniFactory, through which we are creating a digital archive of fully 3D printable sculptures, artworks and landmarks from across the globe for the public to access for free. Scan the World is an open source, community effort, if you have interesting items around you and would like to contribute, email [e-mail] to find out how you can help.