Diskophoros
A type of statue is referred to as a diskophoros ("discus bearer") that has been preserved in several marble copies from the Roman period and the original is based on a bronze statue of Polyklet , a sculptor from the 5th century BC. Goes back.
The type was copied in different variations, which added different attributes depending on the interpretation. Some copies used the body for depictions of Hermes, a reduced version from Ephesus clearly shows the remains of a lance. A very reliable copy in the Museo Torlonia in Rome shows the remains of a disc on the left thigh and gave the type the scientific name Diskophoros, which is only used with reservations . If the type originally represented an athlete, a later reinterpretation as Hermes, who was also god of the palaestra , could be explained.
In contrast to Polyklet's most famous work, the Doryphoros , the free leg does not step back in order to only touch the ground with the ball of the foot, rather the foot, which is slightly forward, appears with the whole sole and is strongly turned outwards. Invention of Polyklet's work - the standing of the statues "on a by" ( uno crure insistere ) - was not carried out at Diskophoros, although a statue base of Polyklet from Olympia , which dates from around 460 BC , was already carried out . Is to be dated, the motive knows.
The Diskophoros is therefore to be regarded as an early work by Polyklet, written around 460 BC. Chr. Or soon after. Due to the conspicuous position of the feet, he is tentatively identified with the nudus talo incessens , the naked (youth) walking with whole soles, which Pliny has handed down as the work of Polyklet . With its slim proportions and its narrow, space-consuming stance, it is still in the tradition of early classical depictions of young people, as they are known from sculpture and relief. But the formation of the body shows all the approaches of ponderation and contrapostic design. So the hip drops to the side of the free leg , while the right shoulder tilts slightly to the side of the standing leg . The right arm, which is detached from the body, with its forearm presumably held a little forward, is answered by the left arm that is lying close to it and simply hanging down. The backbone takes up the posture resulting from the ponderation and mediates in an S-shaped curved furrow between the gluteal region and the neck. And the turning and inclination of the head towards the side of the standing leg is also one of the signs that Polyklets anticipate in a weakened form in the solution of the counterost realized in Doryphoros.
The upper body is set off from the thighs with distinct groin bulges, just as the whole musculature seems to belong to a mature, trained athlete rather than a youth. It forms a clear contrast to the youthful elongation of the proportions. Who the statue represents is unknown. Since it does not exceed life size, it could have been commissioned as a victorious statue. Since older victorious statues of discus throwers or pancratists usually show the moment before the drop as a motif, Polyklet would have gone his own way in this regard by choosing the athlete in general as the subject and erecting a memorial for him.
Remarks
- ^ Pliny , Naturalis historia 34, 56.
- ^ Wilhelm Dittenberger , Karl Purgold : Olympia: the results of the excavation organized by the German Empire. Volume 5: The inscriptions from Olympia. Berlin 1896, No. 149; see also Peter C. Bol in: Beck, Bol, Bückling (Ed.): Polyklet. The sculptor of the Greek classical period p. 17.
- ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 34, 55.
literature
- Peter C. Bol : Diskophoros. In: Herbert Beck , Peter C. Bol, Maraike Bückling (eds.): Polyklet. The sculptor of the Greek classical period. Exhibition in the Liebieghaus -Museum Alter Plastik Frankfurt am Main . Von Zabern, Mainz 1990 ISBN 3-8053-1175-3 , pp. 111-117 and 519-531 No. 20-33.
- Detlev Kreikenbom : sculptures after Polyklet. Examinations critical of copies of the male statuary types based on polycletic models. "Diskophoros", Hermes, Doryphorus, Heracles, Diadumenos . Mann, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-7861-1623-7
