Until 1956, this painting was attributed to Pietro da Cortona, an understandable mistake, given how close Romanelli’s style was to that of his teacher. In fact, it appears as such in Charles II’s will and in the Museo del Prado’s 1845 catalog (p. 373, no. 1623), where it is mentioned for the first time as being on the staircase leading to the new Flemish rooms of the ground floor. In the 1878 catalog (p. 31), it is already listed as on loan to the Supreme Court, like many other paintings from the same series. There, it was damaged by fire in 1915, and its condition was later worsened by a deficient restoration. In 2005 it was again restored, this time with brilliant results. Its correct attribution is due to Alessandro Marabottini, who proposed assigning it to Romanelli in 1956. This was confirmed by Briganti in 1962 and has never been questioned since then.

It is not possible to base an estimated date for this painting on its stylistic characteristics, but it must have been within the general dates the Buen Retiro palace project, that is: between 1635 (the date of the first paintings) and 1639, when there was a documented shipping from Rome. That same year (1639), Romanelli gave a painting to Philip IV’s ambassador to Rome, the Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, which proves there was contact between them at that time, possibly as a result of the Buen Retiro commission. Therefore, the present work corresponds to his youthful period, which was strongly influenced by the heroic and archeological character he had learned from Petro da Cortona. At that time, Romanelli was part of the artistic court around Cardinal Francesco Barberini. His later work was largely shaped by two trips to the French court (1646-1647 and 1654-1657), where he painted the frescoes at the Mazzarino palace and at Queen Mother Anne of Austria’s apartment at the Louvre.

It seems clear that Romanelli depicted gladiators training with wooden swords, although he did not base this work on any of the plates that illustrate the Antiquarian literature employed by other artists in this series. The closest image is found in Justo Lipsio’s Saturnalium, which shows a similar exedra and the same bloodless combat. The following illustration in that book presents a similar scene, except the gladiators are wielding real weapons. This scene no longer exists among those in the Ancient Rome series, but it could well have been one of the Gladiators’ Arenas listed in the 1701 will but no longer in existence.

In recent decades, efforts have been made to establish the existence of a series of paintings related to the History of Rome -including the present work- that Philip IV’s representatives would have commissioned in that city and in Naples around 1634 for the Buen Retiro Palace. Today, twenty-eight extant works can be related to this project (most in the Museo del Prado or Patrimonio Nacional), along with another six mentioned in Charles II’s will but now lost or destroyed. This total of thirty-four paintings constitutes the largest group from the Retiro, including the Hall of Realms. The only larger group consists of mythological scenes that the king’s brother, Cardinal-Infante don Fernando, commissioned Rubens to paint for the Torre de la Parada. The size of the Roman group is the first indication of its importance in the new palace (Text drawn from Úbeda de los Cobos, A. in: El Palacio del Rey Planeta. Felipe IV y el Buen Retiro, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2005, pp. 169-170; 231).