Diadumenos fragments Met 25.78.56 n01.jpg
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The ''Diadumenos'' ("diadem-bearer"), together with the '' Doryphoros'' (spear bearer), are two of the most famous figural types of the sculptor Polyclitus, forming a basic pattern of Ancient Greek sculpture that all present strictly idealized representations of young male athletes in a convincingly naturalistic manner. The ''Diadumenos'' is 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. Phidias was credited with a statue of a victor at
Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...
in the act of tying the fillet around his head; besides Polyclitus, his successors
Lysippos Lysippos (; grc-gre, Λύσιππος) was a Ancient Greek sculpture, Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Ancient Greece, Classical Greek era, bri ...
and Scopas also created figures of this kind.


Roman copies

Both
Pliny's Natural History The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. ...
and
Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore ...
's ''
Philopseudes ''The Lover of Lies'', also known as ''The Doubter'' or ''Philopseudes'' ( el, Φιλοψευδὴς ἢ Ἀπιστῶν), is a frame story written by the Greeks, Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata. It is written in the Attic dialect of ancient Gr ...
'' described Roman marbles of a ''Diadumenos'' copied from Greek originals in
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
, yet it was not recognized until 1878 that the Roman marble from Vaison-la-Romaine (Roman Vasio) in the British Museum and two others recreate the lost Polyclitan bronze original. Pliny recorded that the Polyclitan original fetched at auction the extraordinary price of a hundred talents, an enormous sum in Antiquity, as Adolf Furtwängler pointed out. Indeed, Roman marble copies must have abounded, to judge from the number of recognizable fragments and complete works, including a
head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
at the Louvre, a complete example at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, another complete example at the Prado Museum, and another complete example of somewhat different character, the somewhat below lifesize Roman marble
Farnese Diadumenos The Farnese Diadumenos is a 1st-century AD, slightly smaller than lifesize, Roman marble copy of Polyclitus's Diadumenos sculpture. Once in the Farnese collection, it is now in the British Museum.Accession number GR 1864.10-21.4 (Cat. Sculpture ...
at the British Museum, which preserves the end of the ribband falling from the right hand. Another version in the British Museum, slightly damaged but in otherwise reasonable condition, is from
Vaison Vaison-la-Romaine (; oc, Vaison) is a town in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Vaison-la-Romaine is famous for its rich Roman ruins and mediaeval town and cathedral. It is also unusual in ...
in France. Freer versions were executed in reduced scale as bronze statuettes, and the head of Diadumenos-type appears on numerous Roman engraved gems. The marble ''Diadumenos'' from
Delos The island of Delos (; el, Δήλος ; Attic: , Doric: ), near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island are ...
at the National Museum, Athens (''right'') has the winner's cloak and his quiver laid upon the tree stump, hinting that he is the victor in an archery match, with perhaps an implied reference to Apollo, who was conceived, too, as an idealized youth.


Modern reception

A mark of the continuing artistic value placed on the ''Diadumenos'' type in the modern era, once it had been reconnected with Polyclitus in 1878, may be drawn from the facts that a copy was among the sculptures ranged on the roof of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, when it was completed in 1889,Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, 1981. ''Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900'' (Yale University Press), p. 107. and that the
Esquiline Venus The Esquiline Venus, depicting the goddess Venus (i.e. Greek Aphrodite), is a smaller-than-life-size Roman nude marble sculpture of a female in sandals and a diadem headdress. It is widely viewed as a 1st-century AD Roman copy of a Greek orig ...
has sometimes been interpreted as a female version of the diadumenos type (a diadumene, or woman tying a diadem).


Notes


References

* Herbert Beck, Peter C. Bol, Maraike Bückling (Hrsg.): ''Polyklet. Der Bildhauer der griechischen Klassik. Ausstellung im Liebieghaus-Museum Alter Plastik Frankfurt am Main''. Von Zabern, Mainz 1990 * Detlev Kreikenbom: ''Bildwerke nach Polyklet. Kopienkritische Untersuchungen zu den männlichen statuarischen Typen nach polykletischen Vorbildern. "Diskophoros", Hermes, Doryphoros, Herakles, Diadumenos''. Mann, Berlin 1990,


External links


3D model of the Louvre's Diadumenos torso via photogrammetric survey


* ttp://www.bartleby.com/245/274.html Martial, ''Diadumenos''(Latin)
smARThistory: ''Diadumenos''
{{Polyclitean canon Ancient Greek sculptures Sculptures by Polyclitus Archaeology of Greece Ancient Greek athletic art Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures in the British Museum Archaeological discoveries in Italy