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Historic Images of the Greek Bronze Age: The Reproductions of E. Gilliéron and Son

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Historic Images of the Greek Bronze Age: The Reproductions of E. Gilliéron and Son

Program information

Seán Hemingway, curator, Department of Greek and Roman Art, discusses early twentieth-century reproductions of works from Sir Arthur Evans's historic excavations of Minoan Crete and Heinrich Schliemann's Mycenaean Greece.

This lecture was recorded on September 9, 2011, in conjunction with the exhibition Historic Images of the Greek Bronze Age: The Reproductions of E. Gilliéron & Son, on view May 17, 2011, through June 17, 2012.

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Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos (youth tying a fillet around his head)

Copy of work attributed to Polykleitos 

Period:
Early Imperial, Flavian
Date:
ca. A.D. 69–96
Culture:
Roman
Medium:
Marble
Dimensions:
H. 73 in. (185.4 cm)
Classification:
Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:
Fletcher Fund, 1925
Accession Number:
25.78.56

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 153

  • Description

    Head, arms, and legs from the knees down, and tree trunk are ancient. Remainder of the figure is a cast taken from a marble copy found at Delos and now in the Nation Museum, Athens.

    Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 430 B.C. by Polykleitos

    The statue represents a youth adorning his head with a fillet (band) after a victory in an athletic contest. The original bronze probably stood in a sanctuary such as that at Olympia or Delphi where games were regularly held. The Greek sculptor Polykleitos of Argos, who worked during the mid-fifth century B.C., was one of the most famous artists of the ancient world. His figures are carefully designed with special attention to bodily proportions and stance. The figure's thorax and pelvis tilt in opposite directions, setting up rhythmic contrasts in the torso that create an impression of organic vitality. The position of the feet—poised between standing and walking—give a sense of potential movement. This rigorously calculated pose, which is found in almost all work attributed to Polykleitos, became a standard formula used in Graeco-Roman and later Western European art.

  • References

    Richter, Gisela M.A. 1933. "A Statue of the Diadoumenos." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 28(12): pp. 214-16, figs 1-3.

    Richter, Gisela M.A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3: pp. 75, 77, fig. 5.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 45, pp. 9-10, 64-65.

    Abramitis, Dorothy H. 1997. "Statue of an Old Woman: A Case Study in the Effects of Restorations on the Visual Aspect of Sculpture." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 55(3): p. 32.

    Coscia, Joseph, Jr. and Elizabeth J. Milleker. 2003. Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Photographic Essay. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 96, pls. 8-9.

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