Relief of a runner (NAMA 1959)

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The relief of a runner on display in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens

The relief of a runner in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (NAMA) with the inventory number 1959 dates back to around 500 BC. Dated.

The relief in the shape of a trapezoid is badly bumped, the upper part and the lower right corner are missing. The two volutes of the ancient crown are still present in the upper corners. Shown is a young, naked man whose only clothing is an Attic helmet . It is shown in a movement from left to right, the entire lower body is aligned entirely to the right, the upper body is shown in an independent movement that moves it from an alignment almost completely to the right in the lower area to a frontal view in the chest and shoulder area brings. The head is turned to the left and tilted slightly downwards. His arms are sharply bent and raised high up, he holds his hands in front of his chest. His hair is carefully shown in several braided strands, which are held together at the end by brackets reminiscent of shells. The design of the hair on the forehead from under the helmet is reminiscent of shells. With only slight hints, the artist was able to create a muscular body.

The piece is central to assessing the development of Attic art. It is striking how the shape of the stone and the motif fit together here, i.e. how they must have influenced each other. The rotations of the body are also developments of the time in which the relief was created. It stands at the transition between rigid archaic and dynamic classical art. A gun barrel may be shown. The runner moves forward, but at the same time looks back at his pursuers. In reality, such runs were of course not carried out in the nude, but this representation of the naked male body was rather symbolic ( heroic nudity ). The helmet indicates that you should actually imagine the runner in full armor. It is not entirely clear for what purpose the Parian marble relief was created. Possibly the less than life-size portrait with a height of 1.02 meters and a width of 73 centimeters was a grave monument. It is more likely, however, that this was one side of a base that was created for an actual grave monument. The relief was found in 1901 near the Theseion in Athens .

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