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
Two archaic statuettes from the Akropolis, now in the National Museum
in Athens, and recently published, should be mentioned in this
connection.[1583] The more archaic of these represents a youth in an
attitude which has been misunderstood. De Ridder interpreted it as
a dancing man, while Staïs thought it represented a youth walking
along with his left hand raised as if to ward off a blow. White,
however, showed that it (like another less perfect example from the
Akropolis, no. 6594) represents a diskobolos standing with the right
foot advanced and holding the diskos in front of the body with the
right hand, resting it against the flat of the forearm, while the left
arm is raised above the head. Thus it is another example illustrating
the initial stage of Gardiner’s third position. The other statuette,
wrongly mounted, should, according to White, be made to lean further
forward; the knees are bent, the body swung forward from the hips, the
head thrown back and upward, the right arm stretched forth with the
flat of the forearm uppermost and the left similarly placed. Gardiner
and Staïs interpreted this figure as a charioteer, and de Ridder as
either a jumper, who has raised his _halteres_ preparatory to the
leap, or a diskobolos. White has shown that the position of the right
arm proves it to be a diskobolos, represented in a movement between
Gardiner’s third and fourth positions, just prior to that of Myron’s
statue. De Ridder believed both statues to be Aeginetan, but no. 6614,
when compared with Myron’s statue, is certainly Attic, and resemblances
in the treatment of the hair, eyes, and mouth show that both statuettes
are of the same school. It has often been said that Myron’s great
statue had no predecessor, as it certainly had no successor. Its
fame was enhanced by the assumption that Myron passed at one stride
from such statues as the _Tyrannicides_ to that complex work. Such
works, however, as these statuettes—especially no. 6614—show that the
preliminary problems had been solved on a humble scale before Myron
undertook his consummate work. Here, then, we have works by artists who
belonged to the very movement which produced Myron.
For the last three positions analyzed by Gardiner (nos. 5, 6, 7) our
only illustrations appear to be vase-paintings.
AKONTISTAI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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