Statues,” page 122), and FIG. 5-36), with inlaid eyes, silver teeth and
eyelashes, and copper lips and nipples (FIG. I-17). The weight shift is
more pronounced than in the Kritios Boy.The warrior’s head turns
more forcefully to the right, his shoulders tilt, his hips swing more
markedly, and his arms have been freed from the body. Natural mo-
tion in space has replaced Archaic frontality and rigidity.CHARIOTEER OF DELPHI The high technical quality of
the Riace warrior is equaled in another bronze statue set up a decade
or two earlier to commemorate the victory of the tyrant Polyzalos of
Gela (Sicily) in a chariot race at Delphi. The statue (FIG. 5-37) is al-
most all that remains of a large group composed of Polyzalos’s dri-
ver, the chariot, the team of horses, and a young groom. The chario-
teer stands in an almost Archaic pose, but the turn of the head and
feet in opposite directions as well as a slight twist at the waist are in
keeping with the Severe Style. The moment chosen for depiction is
not during the frenetic race but after, when the driver quietly and
modestly holds his horses still in the winner’s circle. He grasps the
reins in his outstretched right hand (the lower left arm, cast sepa-
rately, is missing), and he wears the standard charioteer’s garment,girdled high and held in at the shoulders and the back to keep it
from flapping. The folds emphasize both the verticality and calm of
the figure and recall the flutes of a Greek column. A band inlaid with
silver, tied around the head, confines the hair. Delicate bronze lashes
shade the eyes made of glass paste.
ARTEMISION ZEUS The male human form in motion is,
in contrast, the subject of another Early Classical bronze statue (FIG.
5-38), which, like the Riace warrior, divers found in an ancient
shipwreck, this time off the coast of Greece itself at Cape Artemi-
sion. The bearded god once hurled a weapon held in his right hand,
probably a thunderbolt, in which case he is Zeus. A less likely sugges-
tion is that this is Poseidon with his trident. The pose could be em-
ployed equally well for a javelin thrower. Both arms are boldly ex-
tended, and the right heel is raised off the ground, underscoring the
lightness and stability of hollow-cast monumental statues.
MYRON,DISKOBOLOSA bronze statue similar to the Arte-
mision Zeus was the renowned Diskobolos (Discus Thrower) by the
Early Classical master Myron.The original is lost. Only marble
copies (FIG. 5-39) survive, made in Roman times, when demand so5-38Zeus (or Poseidon?), from the sea off Cape Artemision, Greece,
ca. 460–450 bce.Bronze, 6 10 high. National Archaeological Museum,
Athens.
In this Early Classical statue of Zeus hurling a thunderbolt, both arms
are boldly extended and the right heel is raised off the ground,
underscoring the lightness and stability of hollow-cast bronze statues.5-39Myron,Diskobolos (Discus Thrower). Roman marble copy of
a bronze original of ca. 450 bce, 5 1 high. Museo Nazionale Romano–
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.
This marble copy of Myron’s lost bronze statue captures how the
sculptor froze the action of discus throwing and arranged the nude
athlete’s body and limbs so that they formed two intersecting arcs.1 ft. 1 ft.
Early and High Classical Periods 123