It's a good thing I'm 436 miles away from brooklinegirl or I'd be getting smacked now.

In search of new and more exciting ways of not working on my midsummer_fic story, I am now browsing the Louvre's database in search of that one sculpture that I saw when I was there (for two hours) in 2001. All I remember about it is that it was marble, approximately life-sized, and located in an out-of-the-way stairwell. And I think the title may have had 'rex' in it. And I'd recognize the piece or the title if I saw it. Probably. Did I mention the database is entirely in French and I'm having to browse through all 5,090 pieces since I can't contribute any useful search terms?

Anyway, I just found this piece and my first thought was Coppertone baby!

ha!

Found him! Métabus, roi des Volsques. And he's from the Aeneid, so it would have been 'rex' in the original, dammit. Also, escalier means staircase. So I totally didn't hallucinate that part.

I spent most of my time standing at, approximately, the statue's left hand, which is the one view not supplied on the website. He's holding a short sword in his right hand, and that's a dog between his feet.

And I only had to page through 1,213 other sculptures to get there.

ETA: Another gorgeous image of the sculpture is available on this blog. Scroll down a bit.