Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic ArtHyde, Walter Woodburn
History
Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art
Hyde, Walter Woodburn
Olympics; Sculpture, Greek; Sports -- Greece
At the beginning of the fifth century B. C. athletic training tended
to produce a uniform standard of physical development, which was
reflected in sculpture. At this date we do not find the divergence of
style which we saw in our review of the “Apollo” type of the sixth
century. Vase-paintings show the change better than sculpture. On
black-figured vases of the sixth century B. C., we see a good deal
of variety in groups of boxers and wrestlers, while on red-figured
vases of the early fifth century the number of types is far less.
In sculpture, however, differences in physical type did exist in
the various schools at the beginning of the fifth century. We have,
for example, the heavy, square-shouldered type in the _Apollo
Choiseul-Gouffier_ (Pl. 7A), which we have classed as a victor
statue, and the tall, rawboned type in the _Tyrannicides_ by Kritios
and Nesiotes (Fig. 32, _Harmodios_).[1112] We have, on the other
hand, a very different physical type in the short, stocky Aeginetan
pedimental figures (Figs. 20 and 21). Between such extremes there
are, of course, many gradations. We might instance the archaic
bronze statuette of a diskobolos in the Metropolitan Museum (Fig.
46).[1113] However, notwithstanding the diversity in type, it is
often difficult to distinguish runners from wrestlers, boxers from
pentathletes. Thus few early fifth-century statues show the type of
runner as well as the _Apollo of Tenea_ (Pl. 8A), or that of a boxer
as well as the “_Apollo_” from Delphi (Pl. 8B). The reason for this
is the ideal element, which entered into all these statues and which
was a reflection of the uniform development of athletics long before
specialization had set in. Out of this uniformity grew the canon of
Polykleitos, developed from that of Hagelaïdas.
The sculptor of the sixth century B. C. was incapable of
differentiating between god and mortal. This was especially the case,
as we have seen, with Apollo, as the “Apollo” type was a model of manly
vigor. In the early fifth century the sculptor had largely overcome
this difficulty, but still showed little diversity of type in treating
statues of different kinds of athletes. A method of differentiation
which was essential to athlete sculptors of the sixth century was found
convenient of retention by those of the fifth—_i. e._, characterizing
the statue of the victor by some attribute, in order, on the one hand,
to differentiate it from the nude god or hero, and on the other to
distinguish between different types of victors.
PRIMARY ATTRIBUTES OF VICTOR STATUES.
THE VICTOR FILLET.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account