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
Sometimes the statues of Olympic pancratiasts were represented at
rest with the weight of the body equally on both legs, as we see from
the recovered basis of the statue of the Athenian Kallias by the
Athenian sculptor Mikon.[1775] Furtwaengler has identified a statue
in the Somzée Collection as a copy of this work.[1776] The footprints
on the recovered base of the statue of the Rhodian Dorieus show that
it was represented at rest with one leg slightly advanced.[1777]
We have actual remnants of statues of Olympic pancratiasts in the
marble head found at Olympia, which we are to assign to the statue
of the Akarnanian Philandridas by Lysippos, mentioned by Pausanias
(Frontispiece and Fig. 69),[1778] and the beautiful statue of Agias
discovered by the French at Delphi in 1894, a work by the same sculptor
(Pl. 28 and Fig. 68).[1779]
The struggle on the ground implies groups and not single statues.
Our best representation of such a group is furnished by the famous
marble one in the Uffizi, Florence (Pl. 25).[1780] Though having no
pretensions to be a victor monument, this group is the most important
monument extant connected with the pankration, a fine anatomical study
from Hellenistic times, evincing the direct influence of Lysippos
in its proportions.[1781] It shows affinity of design to certain
sculptures from the frieze of the Great Altar at Pergamon.[1782] Pliny
speaks of a _symplegma_ by Kephisodotos, the son of Praxiteles, at
Pergamon, but that group was of an erotic character and can not have
had anything to do with the Florentine one.[1783] Unfortunately the
group in question has been much restored, though the restoration in
the main is right. The heads, though probably antique, do not seem to
belong to the statues, but both appear to be copies of the head of one
of the Niobids, with which group the pancratiasts were discovered in
1583. The right arm of the uppermost athlete seems to have been wrongly
restored; in any case this athlete is not strangling his opponent. One
youth has thrown the other down on to his knee, and his left leg is
intertwined with the left leg of the other, and he is drawing back his
arm to aim a blow. The wrestler underneath supports himself upon his
left arm, and the intention of his opponent is to destroy this support
by a blow of the fist, which would bring the contest to a sudden
conclusion, since the right arm of the under youth is fast and he must
defend himself with the left. As Gardiner points out, such a situation
is illustrated by Heliodoros’ description of the match between
Theagenes and an Aethiopian champion.[1784] The under man’s position,
however, may suddenly change and the issue yet be in his favor. Many
writers have explained the group as ordinary wrestlers,[1785] but
Gardiner has conclusively shown that it belongs to the pankration,
since in wrestling the contest is ended when one of the contestants has
been thrown, while here the struggle is continuing on the ground.[1786]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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