Discobolus of Myron
- Title:
- Discobolus of Myron
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown (Roman copy)
Myron of Eleutherai (Greek original)
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
2nd c. CE (Roman copy)
c. 450 BCE (Greek original)
- Site:
- Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, Italy (discovery site of Vatican Discobolus, 1791)
Esquiline Hill, Rome, Italy (discovery site of Lancelotti Discobolus, 1781) (original) - Location:
- Goldwin Smith Hall lobby, SE niche
Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, Italy (discovery site of Vatican Discobolus, 1791)
Esquiline Hill, Rome, Italy (discovery site of Lancelotti Discobolus, 1781) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0686
- Accession Number:
- Appears in Sage catalog, but no number is assigned.
670 - File Name:
- CCC_0686.tif
- Original Measurements:
- Lancelotti: 155 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Roman, after Greek
- Style/Period:
- Roman Imperial, after Greek Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Discus throwing in art
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 169 x 74 x 44 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a composite cast incorporating parts from two Roman marble copies of Myron’s lost 5th c. BCE bronze Discobolus (Diskobolos, discus thrower). The heavily-muscled, nude athlete stands poised to throw his discus, facing the viewer's right. He twists his torso and head toward the viewer, placing his weight on his right leg and drawing the left leg back. His right hand is lifted up and back and in it he grasps a large discus, decorated with concentric rings. His wavy hair is cropped and his facial features are characteristic of the high Classical style, with thick-lidded, almond-shaped eyes, full lips, and a calm expression. The muscles and rib cage are well-articulated, as are the tendons of the athlete's right hand, in which he holds the discus. The cast has been painted a shiny brownish black to mimic Myron’s bronze original, even though it is derived from Roman marble copies of that lost statue. Several Roman copies of Myron's Discobolus are known, complete and incomplete. This cast is a composite of two separate Roman marble copies of Myron's original in bronze. It includes the body of the Vatican Discobolus (Pio Clementino no. 2346) and the head of the Lancelotti Discobolus in the Museo Nazionale Romano (no. 126371). The left hand of the statue also appears to have come from the Lancelotti Discobolus. The entry for this cast in the Sage catalog gives the Vatican statue as the original. A cast in the Ashmolean Cast Gallery (C 25) is identified as a composite of these same two originals, but there the left hand clearly belongs to the Vatican statue.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 126371, (Museo Pio Clementino no. 2346) - Bibliography:
- Rune Frederiksen and R. R. R. Smith, The Cast Gallery of the Ashmolean Museum. Catalogue of plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculpture (Oxford: The Ashmolean Museum, 2011), 143, C 25
Andrew Stewart, Greek Sculpture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 148-149, 255-257, fig. 300
Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 199-202 - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Rome, Vatican Museums and Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.