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.
This statue represents a youth adorning his head with a fillet (band) after 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—gives a sense of potential movement. This rigorously calculated pose, which is found in almost all works attributed to Polykleitos, became a standard formula used in Graeco-Roman and later Western European art.
#1034. Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos (youth tying a fillet around his head)
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Title:Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos (youth tying a fillet around his head)
Artist:Copy of work attributed to Polykleitos
Period:Early Imperial, Flavian
Date:ca. 69–96 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Marble
Dimensions:H. 73 in. (185.4 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1925
Object Number:25.78.56
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.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1936[1934]. A Guide to the Collections, Part 1: Ancient and Oriental Art, 2nd edn. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. pp. 249–50, 569, fig. 652, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 137, 275, 277, pls. 115b, 117a, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. no. 38, pp. 30–32, pls. 37–38, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: pp. 75, 77, fig. 5.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. p. 331, pl. 109b, Cambridge, England.
Hartswick, Kim J. 1984. "Roman Copies of Fifth Century Head Types. Ph.D. diss." Ph.D. Diss. pp. 21–36, pl. 11 fig. A, pl. 16 fig. B. Bryn Mawr College.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 45, pp. 9–10, 64–65, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. 1995. "Paene ad exemplum: Polykleitos' Other Works." Polykleitos, the Doryphoros, and Tradition, Warren G. Moon, ed. pp. 187–88, figs. 10.7–10.8, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Picón, Carlos A. 1995. "Polykleitan and Related Sculptures in American Collections: Recent Acquisitions." Polykleitos, the Doryphoros, and Tradition, Warren G. Moon, ed. pp. 229, 244 n. 3, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Hallett, Christopher H. 1995. "Kopienkritik and the Works of Polykleitos." Polykleitos, the Doryphoros, and Tradition, Warren G. Moon, ed. p. 123 n. 16, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Abramitis, Dorothy H. 1997. "Statue of an Old Woman: A Case Study in the Effects of Restorations on the Visual Aspect of Sculpture." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 55(3): p. 32.
Bol, Renate. 1998. Amazones Volneratae: Untersuchungen ze den Ephesischen Amazonenstauen. n. 1198, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Picón, Carlos A. 1999. "Pleins feux sur l'art grec et romain." Connaissance des Arts, : p. 85.
Hollinshead, Mary B. 2002. "Extending the Reach of Marble: Struts in Greek and Roman Sculpture." The Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity, Dr. Elaine K. Gazda, ed. pp. 146–47, fig. 6.20, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Milleker, Elizabeth J. 2003. Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Photographic Essay. p. 96, pls. 8–9, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bol, Peter C. 2004. Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst, Vol. 2. p. 131, fig. 41, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 135, pp. 122–23, 431–32, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 1, pp. 31, 38–40, New York: Scala Publishers.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. p. 032, New York: Phaidon Press.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. pp. 30–32, fig. 17, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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