The Borghese Gladiator, side view, turned to right [plate 28]

Perrier employed the etching process, incising lines into a copper plate that were then inked and pressed onto paper. The work is characterized by swift, incisive strokes that delineate muscle tension and movement, while a background of undulating, wave‑like lines suggests water or a rocky setting, a common compositional device in prints of the period.

The image forms part of the series titled *Segmenta nobilium signorum et statuarum quae temporis dentem invidium evasere*, a collection intended to safeguard the visual vocabulary of classical statues. Distributed widely in the 17th century, Perrier’s plates served as reference material for artists engaged in the Roman Baroque decorative style that flourished in France.

During the early Baroque, French painters sought models from antiquity to inform their grand, theatrical compositions. Prints like Perrier’s provided accessible, detailed studies of ancient forms, influencing decorative schemes in palaces and churches where the dynamism of classical sculpture was reinterpreted in fresco and panel painting.