Bronze statue of a young athlete. "The Marathon boy"
The statue probably depicts an ephebe victor in a contest, as suggested by the band on his head with the leaf-shaped ornament in the centre.
He fixes his gaze at an object which he possibly held in the left hand, while it is also unknown what he might have held in the right one. The eyes are inlaid with white stone and the iris with yellowish glass paste. The harmonious proportions of the body, the mild, fluid musculature, the smooth transitions from one surface to the other, the almost crosswise pose of the body, and the free, but quiescent movement of the figure in space associate the work with the School of Praxiteles and place it among the masterpieces of the Late Classical period.
- Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. n. X 15118
- Ca 340 – 330 BC
- H. 1.30 m.
- Bronze
- Provenance: Found in 1925 in the sea off Marathon (Attica).
Bibliography
- Dafas, K. A., (2019). Greek Large-scale Bronze Statuary, The Late Archaic and Classical periods, BICS Supplement 138, pp. 83-95, pl. 72-81, London: Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London.
- Finn, D. & Houser, C. (1983). Greek Monumental Bronze Sculpture, 103, New Yorκ: Vendome Press.
- Καλτσάς, Ν. (2001). Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο. Τα γλυπτά, αρ. 509, 242, Αθήνα: Εκόδεις Καπόν.
- Καλτσάς, Ν. & Δεσπίνης, Γ. (Επιμ.), (2010). Πραξιτέλης, Έκθεση στο Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο, αρ. 16, σσ. 100-103 (Ρ. Προσκυνητοπούλου), Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Καπόν.
- Ρωμαίος, Κ. (1924/1925). Ο Έφηβος του Μαραθώνα, ΑΔ 9, 145 κ.εξ.
