Fifth version, completed in Florence for Prince Demidoff, 1850

Prince Anatole Demidoff (1812–70) ordered a version of The Greek Slave in 1849, and later drew up a separate agreement for an unusually elaborate pedestal, which remains with the statue today. Demidoff, the son of a Russian diplomat, inherited his family’s large fortune at the age of sixteen. (See Helen A. Cooper’s essay.) He lived at the Villa San Donato, a Palladian palace near Florence his father had built and that housed a significant art collection. The statue is sometimes dated to 1851, likely because correspondence in the Archives of American Art shows that Powers and Demidoff continued to correspond about payment. However, an article published in 1850 (included here), announcing the statue’s placement in Demidoff’s villa, indicates that it was already completed, thus confirming the dating to 1850.