Boxer of Quirinal
The pugilist from the Quirinal ( often called Boxer the Quirinal ) in Rome is probably the most remarkable preserved bronze statue of such athletes - and one of only very few surviving Greek originals dating from the 4th century BC The sculpture is now in the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome under the Inv 1055th
Fund history
The 128 cm tall and soldered together from eight sections seated figure ( the base is not original) was discovered in 1885 on the Quirinal, which it got its name. Another bronze, which was found not far from it there is a still subject and probably represents an unidentified Hellenistic prince is, which is referred to in archeology as the " Therme ruler ". Maybe it belonged to the equipment of the Convention therein Baths of Emperor Constantine. For the classical archeology of this discovery of a veritable sensation was the same as the number of Greek originals is compared to the Roman replicas in marble extremely low.
Description
The face of this muscular athlete has some typical by this sport injuries such as thickened ears, swelling under the eyes, a deformed nose, old scars and fresh lacerations ( cuts) with blood clots among them. Also on the ears as well as on the shoulders, forearms and legs, there are wounds; these in turn - as well as the lips - highlighted by submissions from a reddish copper alloy. His facial expression is - despite all the injuries - awake and alert; shown is definitely a seasoned professional athlete resting after the fight. Still be on his hands and forearms the leather straps ( cestus ) for the fist fight. Neither the expression nor the posture or any attributes is possible to determine whether the pugilist defeated his opponent or not.
Portrait or type
While the earlier research mostly assumed that it is the figure the portrait of a real pugilist - of, inter alia, were Polydeuces, one of the two Dioscuri, or the mythical experienced fighter Dares after his victory over Entellus resting or Theagenes Thasos represents, who lived in the first half of the 5th century BC and a famous pugilist of his time, was named - (? Zeus ) or even to a God EXPRESSION, the British explorer RRR Smith sees in the figure, the generalized representation ( type, prototype ) of a particular non- nameable pugilist, ultimately the individual features are missing.
Attribution
The artist of the figure is unknown; earlier you dated them because of a supposed inscription in the 1st century BC. A thorough investigation at an exhibition in the Academic Art Museum in Bonn 1989, this hypothesis was rejected, with the result that the bronze figure now in the 4th century v. AD is dated. Due to its stylistic similarity to statues of Lysippus, which are preserved only as a Roman marble copies, whose brother Lysistratos is brought as a possible copyright into play.