Diadoumenos, copy

Hellenistic Age, ca. 100 B.C.E.

Found on the island of Delos, Greece, in 1894. Found within the building known colloquially as the "House of the Diadoumenos." Height: 1.94 meters. Inventory No. 1826, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece.

When the statue was found, the hands were missing. The arms were detached. The left leg was broken at the knee. The right leg was broken nearly at the ankle. The support was detached as was the plinth. The penis was missing. The tip of the nose was missing. The top of the head above the ribbon was detached. There were various surface damages.

Two photographs were taken shortly after the discovery in 1894 on Delos. One shows the statue standing on the stubs on its legs, leaning slightly onto a partially hidden support covered with a basket. Nearby is the statue of the "Pseudo-Athelete of Delos" with one of the laborers standing next to it.

The second photograph shows the Diadoumenos with the two laborers holding up its arms in the approximate position they would have been in originally. The two men are listed as being from either Mykonos or Delos. Both photographs were taken inside the ruins of the "House of the Diadoumenos."

This particular copy of the Diadoumenos is a Hellenistic Age copy, with a support in the form of a tree laid over with a himation and a quiver leaning against it.

Scholars have speculated that this might be a slightly modified version of the original statue made to transform the athlete into a recent sporting contest winner. There is also speculation that the addition of the quiver might be a reference to the god Apollo or that it might be an idealized portrait of Alexander the Great.

This marble copy can be seen today at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece.

The original Diadoumenos is thought to have been sculpted by Polykleitos around the 5th century B.C.E. It, along with the Doryphoros, were the two most famous figural types that formed the basic pattern of Ancient Greek sculpture that present idealized representations of young, handsome male athletes in a convincingly naturalistic manner.

The Diadumenos represents the winner of an athletic contest at a games, still nude after the contest and lifting his arms to knot the diadem, a ribbon-band that identifies the winner and which in the bronze original of about 420 BCE would have been represented by a ribbon of bronze. The figure stands in contrapposto with his weight on his right foot, his left knee slightly bent and his head inclined slightly to the right, self-contained, seeming to be lost in thought.

Other ancient versions of the original statue are hosted here at Scan the World. You can find them at the following links:

mmf.io/o/105805

mmf.io/o/17097

mmf.io/o/49774

Other ancient copies of works by Polykleitos are also hosted here at Scan the World. You can find them here:

https://www.myminifactory.com/scantheworld/

For more information about the Diadoumenos, please see the Wikipedia entry here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diadumenos

An entry from the book "Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens" is here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA312&lpg=PA312&dq=diadoumenos+delos+1894&source=bl&ots=YtshEWJ-GB&sig=ACfU3U0l93F8DEy7EABrcnOzZf-xNNPrIA&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxsrKqlZjnAhXDW80KHa96BssQ6AEwA3oECC4QAQ#v=onepage&q=diadoumenos%20delos%201894&f=false

This model stands 170.6 x 91.2 x 50.0 mm

Jerry Fisher

Jerry Fisher