This superlative bronze embodies the highest achievements of the early classical period. The athlete is about to swing the diskos forward and over his head with his left hand, then transfer it to his right hand, and release it with the force of the accumulated momentum. The beauty of the statuette lies in the calm and concentrated physiognomy that forms part of a perfectly developed and disciplined body.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bronze diskos thrower
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 480–460 BCE
Culture:Greek
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:H. 9 5/8 in. (24.51 cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1907
Object Number:07.286.87
Said to be from the Peloponnese (Mertens 1985, p. 37).
Acquired October 1907, purchased from Jean P. Lambros.
Robinson, Edward. 1908. "New Accessions in the Classical Department: II. The Diskos-Thrower." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3(2): pp. 31–36.
Bates, William N. 1908. "New York. Acquisitions of the Metropolitan Museum." American Journal of Archaeology, 12(3): pp. 377–79, fig. 8.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes. no. 78, pp. 48–51, New York: Gilliss Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 89–90, figs. 52-53, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hyde, Walter Woodburn. 1921. Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art. pp. 220 n. 5, 221, fig. 46, Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 101–2, 104, figs. 64-65, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 101–2, 104, figs. 64-65, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Alexander, Christine. 1933[1925]. Greek Athletics. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1933. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 5th ed. pp. 97, 99, fig. 123, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1936[1934]. A Guide to the Collections, Part 1: Ancient and Oriental Art, 2nd edn. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1941. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 6th ed. pp. 97, 99, fig. 123, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1950. Small Sculptures in Bronze: A Picture Book. p. 19, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. pp. 55, 352, figs. 31–32, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 66, 207, pl. 47a, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Cole, Nancy. 1968. Greek Athletic Games. no. 9, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: pp. 75, 79, fig. 9.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. pp. 291, 666 n. 241, pl. 68d, Cambridge, England.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1978. Antichnoe iskusstvo iz muzeia Metropoliten, Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki: Katalog vystavki. no. 49, Moscow: Sovetskii Khudozhnik.
Mertens, Joan R. 1985. "Greek Bronzes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 43(2): no. 21, pp. 10, 15, 36–38.
Rolley, Claude. 1986. Greek Bronzes. pp. 158–9, pl. 140, London: Sotheby's Publications.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. p. 9, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mertens, Joan R., Dr. 1989. "Timeas's Scarab." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 24: p. 9.
Mertens, Joan R., Dr. 1989. "Timeas's Scarab." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 24: p. 9.
Berges, Dietrich. 1990. "Eine Statue des Poseidon in römischen Privatbesitz." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung, 97: p. 273 n. 26.
Buitron-Oliver, Diana. 1992. The Greek Miracle: Classical Sculpture from the Dawn of Democracy--The Fifth Century B.C.. Washington: National Gallery of Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Barbanera, Marcello. 1995. Il Guerriero di Agrigento: una probabile scultura frontonale del Museo di Agrigento e alcune questioni di Archeologia "siceliota". p. 72, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 105, pp. 99, 427, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. pp. 28, 30, fig. 15, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
