You’re standing before a small terracotta copy of a famous statue known as the Diadoumenos. It represents a young athlete with his arms raised as he ties a victory fillet around his head.

The original bronze statue of the Diadoumenos is attributed to Polykleitos, one of the most famous Greek sculptors of the fifth century B.C. It probably stood in a sanctuary, such as Olympia or Delphi, where Pan-Hellenic games were held on a regular basis and victors in the competitions could have statues erected in their honor.

In the second and first centuries B.C., Roman generals conquered Greek cities and looted their sanctuaries for war booty. They took to Rome hundreds of original Greek works, most of them made in the earlier Classical period of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. When original statues became scarce, full-size copies were carved in marble, and smaller versions, like this one, were made in terracotta.

Notice how the young man stands with most of his weight on the right leg. This contrapposto pose is a well-known feature of sculptures by Polykleitos.

However, this version was made in the Hellenistic period, at least three hundred years after Polykleitos. The artist who made it has slightly elongated the original proportions according to the stylistic preferences of his time.