Leseprobe

49 Two replicas of a greek statue of Victory 2nd resp. 1st cent. CE; copy of a lost bronze statue by Polykleitos, soon after 460 BCE Parian marble; height chin to crown 86.5 cm and 21 cm Purchased from the collection of Flavio Chigi, Rome, in 1728 such as acquired from a private collection, Vienna, in 1897 Inv. nos. Hm 84 and Hm 85 Not one of the many hundreds of bronze victor statues erected in ancient times in Olympia has survived. However, a few victory statues were moulded and sub­ sequently copied for export in the Roman imperial period – principally in Athens, where they were rendered in marble (and sometimes bronze). Adolf Furtwängler (1853–1907) was the first to see the connection between a statue at the British Museum, which is of the same statue type as the two pieces in Dresden, and a base discovered in Olympia in 1877. The top of the base features an inscription: ‘The pugilist Kyniskos of glorious Mantinea – who bears the name of his father – had this erected on the occasion of his victory’. The position and size of the attachment holes on the upper side of the base indicate that the lost bronze statue was identi- cal both in terms of stance and height as the 145-centimetre-tall sculpture at the British Museum. Thanks to Pausanias, who, in around 175 CE, visited Olympia and compiled an inventory of the victor statues displayed there, we also know the likely reason why the statue of Kyniskos was so frequently copied: the statue was the work of the famous bronze caster Polyclitus (p. 50), who crafted countless statues between 460 and 420 BCE. Specializing primarily in athletes, Polyclitus also created statues of deities (p. 51) and heroes.  |  sk