Preliminary communication
Bronze statue of an athlete from the sea floor near Hvar
Marinko Petrić
; Hvar Heritage Museum, CROATIA, 21450 Hvar
Abstract
The article contains an analysis of a small Romanera
statue unintentionally removed from the sea-floor
by a fishing net in the waters off of the Pakleni islands
near the larger island of Hvar in 1979. The
statue depicts an athlete, most likely a discus-bearer
(discophoros) which generally resembles a variant
of the Discophoros by sculptor Polykleitos (Polycletus).
Even so, the slimness of the figure, the smaller
ratio between head and body and the more leisurely
contrapposto indicate a Hellenistic stylization of the
model. Judging by its high quality, it has been assumed
that the statuette was made in Italy during the period form the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD,
when so small bronze figures were favoured.
Inside the body of Roman bronze sculpture in Croatian
territory, the Hvar figure of an athlete belongs
to a modest, but also demonstrative group consisting
of small figurative sculpture with a profane character,
which, given the somewhat larger dimensions,
exhibits a sculptural quality worthy of much larger
formats. Furthermore, this is an exceptionally rare
find of a bronze sculpture on the sea-floor of the eastern
Adriatic (together with the magnificent Apoxyomenos
and the head of Kouros, which is published
herein for the first time in this article) and the only
one from waters surrounding the island of Hvar.
Unfortunately, no other items were found together
with the figure, and two explorations of the wider
area around the find site proved unfruitful. Thus, the
type of undersea find this is and the archaeological
and maritime context to which the figurine belonged
remain unknown.
Keywords
Hvar; Pakleni Islands; seafloor; sculpture; bronze; Discophoros; Polycletus
Hrčak ID:
193168
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2017.
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