The Boxer of Quirinal

[marbleheadmaui]

Google Image Result for http://notesfromringside.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/boxer_head.jpg

This bronze sculpture was found in Greece in 1885 and the best guess seems to be it is from the first century BC. The gritty realism always gets me and we can learn a fair bit about ancient boxing from the work.

If you examine the top picture, of the fighter's face, you'll see blood seeping from at least four spots on the face. The fighter has a broken nose, scar tissue over both eyes and his left ear is cauliflowered. His eyes look swollen. It is pretty clear that this is supposed to be after a fight, that this is an experienced guy, that he is exhausted and that ancient boxing was pretty brutal.

The second photo shows the whole work and now we can see the fighter is responding to someone calling his name by looking over his shoulder. His pose is one of fatigue. Interestingly he is barefoot.
The third photo gives us an up close of the cestus, the wraps and gloves of the day. The leather wraps move well up the forearm but it is what is on the hands that is most telling. That strip across the knuckle looks sort of like a pad. Nope, that is where the piece of bronze slid in. In ancient Greece the gloves were intentionally loaded.

With apologies to Michelangelo and Rodin this is my favorite piece of sculpture and a miniature sits on my desk.

How enduring is the sport? A 2000 year old figure is readily recognizable to us fans as one of our own.

[roberto duran legend]

Good post , just curious about where you can get one of those miniature sculpture,s if u could let me know i would be very happy indeed .

[Cressa121]

That is a very nice sculpture. So am I understanding this correctly in thinking it was sculpted in first century BC but not discovered until 1885? Amazes me to look at something like that and see what boxing used to be. Thanks for sharing, I'd never seen this before

[marbleheadmaui]

Good post , just curious about where you can get one of those miniature sculpture,s if u could let me know i would be very happy indeed .

Geeze I got mine in London years ago. Couldn't tell you where. There's gotta be a sculpture site on the intar-web-thingy that sells stuff like that.

[roberto duran legend]

I seen a picture in a boxing book years ago of the sculpture and its history , fascinating stuff , thanks for the tip .

[marbleheadmaui]

That is a very nice sculpture. So am I understanding this correctly in thinking it was sculpted in first century BC but not discovered until 1885? Amazes me to look at something like that and see what boxing used to be. Thanks for sharing, I'd never seen this before

Yup. Sculpted 1800 years before it was found.