This statue is called the Diadoumenos, which means "the man who is tying or binding." He ties a fillet, or ribbon, around his head—a sign of victory in athletic games. The young man’s hair is tousled and sticks to his neck, sweaty from running or wrestling. But his face is serious and thoughtful, and his lips are closed.

This statue is a Roman work, one of over forty known versions of the same composition. All are ancient replicas of the same lost statue—a bronze created in the fifth century BC by the Greek sculptor Polykleitos from Sikyon. The original probably stood in a sanctuary such as Olympia or Delphi, where games were held every four years.

Polykleitos was one of the most celebrated sculptors of the ancient world and author of the Kanon, which means “rule.” This text—now lost—was the most renowned ancient treatise on art. Polykleitos’s male figures are shown in poses of arrested movement that achieved perfect balance between weight-bearing and relaxed limbs. This compositional scheme is called chiasmus or contrapposto. It became a standard formula in Greek and Roman, as well as later Western European art.