Leseprobe

50 Young athlete (so-called Dresden Boy) c. 10 BCE–CE; copy of a lost bronze statue by Polyclitus, c. 420 BCE Pentelic marble; height 152 cm (without plinth) Purchased from the collection of Alessandro Albani, Rome, in 1728 Inv. no. Hm 88 In 1893 the archaeologist Adolf Furtwängler successfully proved that the sculp- ture known as the ‘Dresden Boy’ is a copy of a famous lost bronze statue created around 420 BCE. This statuary type, represented by numerous copies in marble, is called the ‘Dresden Boy’ after the best-preserved example. While the original position of the arms can be approximated in reconstruc- tions, which attribute, or attributes, once identified the young man can no longer be determined, as none of the copies have survived intact. The figure’s size and hairstyle suggest that it represents an athlete who has won a victory in the youth tournament of an important agon or competition, perhaps in the Olympic games, and was thus honoured with a statue in life size, dedicated by his city. The statue’s great popularity in the Roman imperial period most likely derived from the original artist’s fame. Furtwängler was thus the first to believe that the Dresden Boy is based on a statue by the hand of Polyclitus, probably the most notable bronze caster of the High Classical period. Polyclitus’s signature style is particularly recognizable in the treatment of the hair.  |  sk