One of the most celebrated
statues from antiquity, the “Discobolus” remains a cautionary tale about the
ways in which we speak about ideal bodies through the art we curate and
display.
Sarah E. Bond
The Lancellotti Discobolus
and a fragmentary statue of the Lancellotti type, both Roman copies of Myron’s
original, second century CE, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome (photograph by
Carole Raddato via Flickr)
One of the most celebrated
statues from antiquity remains the “Discobolus of Myron,” praised as the
personification of equilibrium, strength, and athletic beauty. Although only
Roman, white marble copies of Myron’s bronze, Greek original survive today (except
for a miniature bronze statuette in the Munich Glyptothek), the statue has been
a metric for beauty since antiquity. From Hadrian to Hitler, its display was
often manipulated to project the ideals of the men who exhibited the discus
thrower.
To understand the original
“Discobolos” or “Discobolus of Myron,” we must first understand why it was
likely created. Many of the statues of athletes that survive from antiquity
were originally understood as markers of a victory. Triumphant athletes who
competed in Greek agones (athletic competitions) like the Olympics were often
awarded the right to erect a bronze statue of themselves at both the place
where they competed and also in their hometown — if they had the funds to pay
for it. Few of these life-sized bronze sculptures exist today, but a likely
example is the Hellenistic “Statue of a Victorious Youth” that now resides,
clad as he was during the competition (i.e. in the buff save for a now mostly
missing olive wreath), in the Getty Villa in Malibu.
Myron was a celebrated
sculptor born in the early fifth century BCE, in the Greek city of Eleusis, on
the border of Attica. He was extraordinarily good at casting bronze for his
sculptures and preferred to sculpt gods, animals, and athletes as his subjects.
We may know him best for the equilibrium and beauty with which he created his
“Discobolus,” but many in Athens knew him best for his life-like bronze cow
sculpture on display in the polis. (Sadly, this cow does not survive today.)
His athletic statues in particular were seen as balanced, with an impressive
symmetry that pointed to a honed body containing a sharp mind.
Unknown artist, “Victorious
Youth” Greece; (300–100 B.C.) bronze with inlaid copper; 151.5 × 70 × 27.9 cm,
64.4108 kg (59 5/8 × 27 9/16 × 11 in., 142 lbs), the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los
Angeles, on display at the Getty Villa (image via the Getty Open Content
program)
Tales of Myron’s
naturalistic work were told well into Roman antiquity — along with stories of
famed Greek artists like Phidias, Polykleitos, and Praxiteles. The Eleusian is
casually referred to by the likes of Lucian and Quintilian, and became
shorthand for the artistic rendering of life through art. In the Neronian-era
satire the Satyricon written by Petronius, it is noted that Myron “almost
caught the very soul of men and beasts in bronze.”
Dropping the name of famed
artists in rhetorical and literary treatises was a sign of refinement then as
now, but so was displaying copies of their work in your villa. Domestic display
of art intended to nod at the intellectual and social stature of the owner has
been an aspiration since antiquity. It is likely why Hadrian chose to display
copies of the “Discobolus” in his villa at Tivoli, outside of the city of Rome.
These statues emphasized to visitors his appreciation for Greek culture and
advertised his conviction in the innate beauty of the male form.
The “Discobolus’s” basic
shape appears to have been aesthetically familiar to most Romans in the same
manner that the Statue of Liberty or Rodin’s “The Thinker” (1904) is to us.
This is evidenced by the fact that it could be found in both private homes like
Hadrian’s and in public baths, like the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Ancient art
historian Lea M. Stirling noted recently in a volume on Roman Artists, Patrons,
and Public Consumption that only 20 life-sized versions and seven statuettes
survive. Most of these copies date to the second century CE, near to or during
the time of the emperor Hadrian.
Despite its celebration in
Classical Antiquity, the naked form fell out of favor in the early Christian
period, and many appear to have been removed from display during Late
Antiquity. Although literary knowledge of the work remained, it would be
centuries before the birthday suited Roman copies of Myron’s masterpiece would
resurface and be put on display following the increase in funded archaeological
excavations that seized Rome and other parts of Italy (such as Pompeii) during
the 18th century.
In 1781, a marble
discus-thrower 1.55 meters in height was excavated from Rome’s Esquiline Hill
at the Villa Palombara. This would be dubbed the “Lancellotti Discobolus,”
which is today displayed beside another copy of the statue, the “Discobolus of
Castelporziano,” whose head and several parts of limbs are missing from the
athlete’s body. The aristocratic Massimo family would place the “Lancellotti
Discobolus” in its own room in their Roman Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. Later
it was moved to the Palazzo Lancellotti ai Coronari in Rome.
Not long after the
discovery of the “Lancellotti Discobolus,” excavations at Hadrian’s Villa in
1791 turned up a first, and then second “Discobolus” statue. The first would be
dubbed the “Townley Discobolus” and can be seen today at the British Museum in
London. After being acquired by art dealer Thomas Jenkins, it was sold, after a
rather misguided restoration, to Charles Townley. It was billed to Townley as a
statue comparable to the prized one held by the Massimo family — word of which
had spread throughout Europe among both art dealers and wealthy elites. However,
this one had been restored incorrectly, with his head facing downward instead
of looking back at the discus as in the Massimo statue’s example…………….
https://hyperallergic.com/447769/the-political-uses-of-a-figure-of-male-beauty-from-antiquity/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=June%2028%202018%20daily%20
ANGEL'S HUT
