Discobolus of Myron

The Discobolus of Myron ("discus thrower", Greek: Δισκοβόλος, Diskobólos) is a Greek sculpture
completed at the start of the Classical period at around 460–450 BC. The sculpture depicts a youthful
male athlete throwing discus. The original Greek bronze is lost but the work is known through numerous
Roman copies, both full-scale ones in marble, which was cheaper than bronze such as the first to be
recovered, the Palombara Discobolus, and smaller scaled versions in bronze.

The discus thrower depicted is about to release his throw: "by sheer intelligence", Kenneth Clark
observed in The Nude, "Myron has created the enduring pattern of athletic energy. He has taken a
moment of action so transitory that students of athletics still debate if it is feasible, and he has given it the
completeness of a cameo. The moment thus captured in the statue is an example of rhythms, harmony and
balance. Myron is often credited with being the first sculptor to master this style. Naturally, as always in
Greek athletics, the Discobolus is completely nude. His pose is said to be unnatural to a human, and today
considered a rather inefficient way to throw the discus. There is very little emotion shown in the discus
thrower's face, and "to a modern eye, it may seem that Myron's desire for perfection has made him
suppress too rigorously the sense of strain in the individual muscles," Clark observes. The other
trademark of Myron embodied in this sculpture is how well the body is proportioned, the symmetria.

The potential energy expressed in this sculpture's tightly wound pose, expressing the moment of stasis
just before the release, is an example of the advancement of Classical
sculpture from Archaic. The torso
shows no muscular strain, however,
even though the limbs are outflung.
 Portonaccio Sarcophagus
The sarcophagus is one of a group of about twenty-five late Roman battle sarcophagi, with one exception
all apparently dating to 170–210, made in Rome or in some cases Athens. These derive
from Hellenistic monuments from Pergamon in Asia Minor showing Pergamene victories over the Gauls,
and were all presumably commissioned for military commanders. The Portonaccio sarcophagi is the best
known and most elaborate of the main Antonine group, and shows both considerable similarities to
the Great Ludovisi sarcophagus, the late outlier from about 250, and a considerable contrast in style and
mood.
The chest is very high, with the entire front covered in high reliefs of combat between Romans and
barbarians. The complex battle is divided into four sections: two above with Roman cavalry, one with
Roman infantry, and the last and lowest with the overwhelmed barbarians. At the center, forceful lines
converge on the one figure, the cavalry general charging and who does not have a carved face. The face
of the general is unfinished, either because the sculptors awaited a model to work from, or they had
produced the work speculatively with no specific commission. There might either have been time to
finish it before the burial or the sculptor might not have been able to learn the buyer's face. Some modern
studies believe that the sculptors would create biographical scenes that would serve as illustration for
anyone's life.[3] The general and his wife are also each shown twice on the lid frieze, together holding each
other's hands at the center, and singly at the ends, again with unfinished faces. [4]

Pairs of figures of an older man and a woman stand beneath trophies at either end of the main face,
uninvolved in the battle. The barbarian at right is probably Suebian (Marcomanni, Quadi, or Buri) based
on his hairstyle (a Suebian knot). The barbarian on the left is either a High German or a Samartic Iazyges.
These are at the same scale as the general, and all other the battling figures are smaller; indeed, in
defiance of any attempt at perspective, the soldiers and horses at the "front" of the scene in the lower part
are somewhat smaller than their equivalents at the "back" in the upper part. The sarcophagus
representations don't exhibit any sympathy for the conquered
peoples—they are represented as coarse and despicable, crushed
under the superior Romans.
 Charioteer of Delphi
The Charioteer of Delphi, also known as Heniokhos (Greek: Ηνίοχος, the rein-holder), is one of the best-
known statues surviving from Ancient Greece, and is considered one of the finest examples of ancient
bronze sculptures. The life-size (1.8m) statue of a chariot driver
was found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi.
It is now in the Delphi Archaeological Museum.

The figure is of a very young man, as is shown by his soft

side-curls. Like modern jockeys, chariot racers were chosen for
their lightness, but also needed to be tall, so they were
frequently teenagers. It seems that it represents a teenager
from a noble family of his time; aristocratic chariot racers
selected their drivers from glorious noble families in the
Panhellenic Games. The Charioteer wears the customary
long tunic, (the xystin), reaching down to his ankles. A wide belt
tightens the tunic high above the waist, while two other bands
pass as suspenders over the shoulders, under the arms and
criss-cross in the back. This is the analavos which keeps the
garment from billowing in the wind during the race. The deep
vertical pleats in the lower part of the tunic emphasize the
Charioteer’s solid posture, resembling also the fluting of
an Ionic column. On the upper part of the body, however, the
pleats are wavy, diagonal or curved. This contrast in the garment representation is also followed by the
body’s contrapuntal posture, so that the statue does not show any rigidity, but looks perfectly mobile and
almost real. The entire statue is as if it is animated by a gradual shift to the right starting from the solid
stance of the feet and progressing sequentially through the body passing the hips, chest and head to end
up at its gaze. The hands are spread out holding the reins, with the long and thin fingers tightening –
together with the reins – a cylindrical object, the riding crop. The Charioteer is not portrayed during the
race, as in this case his movement would be more intense, but in the end of the race, after his victory,
when – being calm and full of happiness – he makes the victory lap in the hippodrome. His attractive
gemstone eyes evoke what Classical period Greeks called ethos and greatness. His motion is
instantaneous. The face and the body do not have any instability, those have a great self-confidence
 Winged Victory of Samothrace
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a marble Hellenistic sculpture
of Nike (the Greek goddess of victory) that was created in about the 2nd century BC. Since 1884, it has
been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. H. W.
Janson described it as "the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture". The sculpture is one of a small
number of major Hellenistic statues surviving in the original, rather than Roman copies. Only Winged
Victory's right wing is not original, and was added by mirroring the left wing.
The statue is 244 centimeters (8.01 ft.) high. It was created not only to honor the goddess, Nike, but
probably also to commemorate a naval action. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as
portraying artful flowing drapery, as though the goddess were descending to alight upon the prow of a
ship.

Modern excavations suggest that the Victory occupied a niche above a theater and also suggest it
accompanied an altar that was within view of the ship monument of Demetrius I Poliorcetes (337–283
BC). Rendered in grey and white Thasian and Parian marble, the figure originally formed part of the
Samothrace temple complex dedicated to the Great gods, Megaloi Theoi. It stood on a rostral pedestal of
gray marble from Lartos representing the prow of a ship (most likely a trihemiolia), and represents the
goddess as she descends from the skies to the triumphant fleet. Before she lost her arms, which have
never been recovered, Nike's right arm is believed to have been raised, cupped round her mouth to deliver
the shout of Victory. The work is notable for its convincing rendering of a pose where violent motion and
sudden stillness meet, for its graceful balance and for the rendering of the figure's draped garments,
compellingly depicted as if rippling in a strong sea breeze. Similar traits can be seen in the Laocoön group
which is a reworked copy of a lost original that was likely close both in time and place of origin to Nike,
but while Laocoön, vastly admired by Renaissance and classicist artists, has come to be seen [by whom?]
as a more self-conscious and contrived work, Nike of Samothrace is seen as an iconic depiction of
triumphant spirit and of the divine
momentarily coming face to
face with man.
 Grande Odalisque

Grande Odalisque, also known as Une Odalisque or La Grande Odalisque, is an oil painting of 1814 by
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres depicting an odalisque, or concubine. Ingres' contemporaries considered
the work to signify Ingres' break from Neoclassicism, indicating a shift toward exotic Romanticism.
Grande Odalisque attracted wide criticism when it was first shown. It is renowned for the elongated
proportions and lack of anatomical realism. The work is owned by the Louvre Museum, Paris which
purchased the work in 1899.

The painting was commissioned by Napoleon's sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples,and finished in
1814. Ingres drew upon works such as Dresden Venus by Giorgione, and Titian's Venus of Urbino as
inspiration for his reclining nude figure, though the actual pose of a reclining figure looking back over her
shoulder is directly drawn from the 1800 Portrait of Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David.

Ingres portrays a concubine in languid pose as seen from behind with distorted proportions. The small
head, elongated limbs, and cool color scheme all reveal influences from Mannerists such as Parmigianino
whose Madonna with the Long Neck was also famous for anatomical distortion.

This eclectic mix of styles, combining classical form with Romantic themes, prompted harsh criticism
when it was first shown in 1814. Critics viewed Ingres as a rebel against the contemporary style of form
and content. When the painting was first shown in the Salon of 1819, one critic remarked that the work
had "neither bones nor muscle, neither blood, nor life, nor relief, indeed nothing that constitutes imitation.
This echoed the general view that Ingres had disregarded anatomical realism.[5] Ingres instead favored
long lines to convey curvature and sensuality, as well as abundant, even light to tone down the volume.[5]
Ingres continued to be criticized for his work until the mid-1820s.
 Ludovisi Throne
The Ludovisi Throne is an ancient sculpted block of white marble hollowed at the back and carved with
bas-reliefs on the three outer faces (it is not actually a throne for sitting on). Its authenticity is debated; the
majorities, who accept it, place it as Western Greek from Magna Graecia and date it from the Severe style
it manifests (transitional between Archaic and Early Classical) to the period about 460 BCE. The
Ludovisi Throne has been conserved at the Museo Nazionale Romano of Palazzo Altemps, Rome, since
its purchase for the Italian State in 1894.

Main panel: "Aphrodite rising from the sea".

The central relief is most customarily read as Aphrodite rising from the sea, a motif known as Venus
Anadyomene (height 0.9 m, length 1.42 m). The goddess, in clinging diaphanous draperies, is helped by
two attendants Horae standing on the shore, who prepared to veil her with a cloth they jointly hold, which
hides her from the waist down. The two reliefs on the flanking sides discreetly turn their backs to the
mystery of the central subject. The right relief shows a crouching veiled woman who offers incense from
a thymiaterion held in her left hand, in an incense burner on a stand. The right slab's dimensions are
height 0.87 m, length 0.69 m. The other shows a young nude girl, seated with one knee thrown over the
other who plays the double flute called the aulos; her hair is bound in a kerchief. The dimensions of the
left slab are height 0.84 m, length 0.68 m.

The iconography of the subject is without a parallel in Antiquity, thus the very subject of the relief is in
doubt. Alternative views, since the flanking attendants stand on pebbled ground, have been offered: that
the emerging figure is that of the ritual robing of a chthonic goddess, probably Persephone, rising from a
cleft in the earth[2] (Pandora is similarly shown in Attic vase-paintings) or of Hera emerging reborn from
the waters of Kanathos near Tiryns as Hera Parthenos.

Doryphos
The Doryphoros (Greek Δορυφόρος Classical Greek Greek pronunciation: [dorypʰóros], "Spear-Bearer";
Latinised as Doryphorus) of Polykleitos is one of the best known Greek sculptures of Classical antiquity,
depicting a solidly built, muscular, standing warrior, originally bearing a spear balanced on his left
shoulder. Rendered somewhat above life-size, the lost bronze original of the work would have been cast
circa 440 BC, but it is today known only from later (mainly Roman period) marble copies. The work
nonetheless forms an important early example of both Classical Greek contrapposto and classical realism;
as such, the iconic Doryphoros proved highly influential elsewhere in ancient art.

The Doryphoros is a marble copy from Pompeii that dates from 120–50 BC. The original was made out of
bronze in about 440 BC but is now lost (along with most other bronze sculptures made by a known Greek
artist). Neither the original statue nor the treatise has yet been found; it is widely considered that they
have not survived from antiquity. Fortunately, several Roman copies in marble—of varying quality and
completeness—do survive to convey the essential form of Polykleitos' work. Head of Doryphoros
excavated at the Villa of the Papyri in Pompeii. The sculpture stands at approximately 6 feet 11 inches
tall. Polykleitos used distinct proportions when creating this work; for example, the ratio of head to body
size is one to seven. The figure's head turned slightly to the right, the heavily-muscled but athletic figure
of the Doryphoros is depicted standing in the instant that he steps forward from a static pose. This posture
reflects only the slightest incipient movement, and yet the limbs and torso are shown as fully responsive.
The left hand originally held a long spear; the left shoulder (on which the spear originally rested) is
depicted as tensed and therefore slightly raised, with the left arm bent and tensed to maintain the spear's
position. The figure's pose is classical contrapposto, most obviously seen in the angled positioning of the
pelvis. The figure's right leg is straightened, depicted as supporting the body's weight, with the right hip
raised and the right torso contracted. The left leg bears no
weight and the left hip drops, slightly extending the torso on the
left side. The right arm hangs positioned by the figure's side,
bearing no load. It is perhaps the earliest extant example of a free-
hanging arm in a statue.

Apoxyomenos
Apoxyomenos (plural apoxyomenoi:[1] the "Scraper") is one of the conventional subjects of ancient
Greek votive sculpture; it represents an athlete, caught in the familiar act of scraping sweat and dust from
his body with the small curved instrument that the Romans called a strigil. The most renowned
Apoxyomenos in Classical Antiquity was that of Lysippos of Sikyon, the court sculptor of Alexander the
Great, made ca 330 BCE. The bronze original is lost, but it is known from its description in Pliny the
Elder's Natural History, which relates that the Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa installed
Lysippos's masterpiece in the Baths of Agrippa that he erected in Rome, around 20 BCE. Later, the
emperor Tiberius became so enamored of the figure that he had it removed to his bedroom. However, an
uproar in the theatre, "Give us back our Apoxyomenos", shamed the emperor into replacing it.
The sculpture is commonly represented by the Pentelic marble copy in the Museo Pio-Clementino in
Rome, discovered in 1849 when it was excavated in Trastevere (illustration, right). Plaster casts of it soon
found their way into national academy collections, and it is the standard version in textbooks. The
sculpture, slightly larger than life-size, is characteristic of the new canon of proportion pioneered by
Lysippos, with a slightly smaller head (1:8 of the total height, rather than the 1:7 of Polykleitos) and
longer and thinner limbs. Pliny notes a remark that Lysippos "used commonly to say" - that while other
artists "made men as they really were, he made them as they appeared to be." Lysippus poses his subject
in a true contrapposto, with an arm outstretched to create a sense of movement and interest from a range
of viewing angles. Pliny also mentioned treatments of this motif by Polykleitos and by his pupil or
follower, Daidalos of Sicyon, who seems to have produced two variants on the theme.[3] A
fragmentary[4] bronze statue of the Polycleitan/Sikyonian type,[5] who holds his hands low to clean the
sweat and dust from his left hand,[6] was excavated in 1896 at the site of Ephesus in Turkey; it is
conserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Its quality is so fine that scholars have debated
whether it is a fourth-century original, in the sense that workshop repetitions are all "originals" or a later
copy made during the Hellenistic period
Saint Andrew Academy
San Antonio, Sagnay Camarines Sur
S/Y 2021-2022

Portfolio
In
M.A.PE.H 9
Submitted by:
John Ezeckiel C. Vergara
(Student)

Submitted to:
Ms. Mary Joy C. Toralde
(Subject Teacher in M.A.PE.H 9)