In the last material of the new series of articles of the cycle "Ancient civilization" ("Homer's poems as a historical source. Ancient civilization. Part 1"), it was about how the study of Homer helps historians and the connection of his texts with archaeological finds. Logically, the second material should have been devoted to the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann and Arthur Evans, but it just so happened that among the last articles there was a material about the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. And in Zagreb there is a wonderful Mimara Museum, the official name of which sounds like this: "Art collection of Ante and Viltruda Topić Mimar", and this art collection is of a very high, one can say without exaggeration, world level. And just there is one unique antique statue, which simply cannot be ignored (and not told) if we are talking about ancient Greek culture. This is the so-called "Croatian Apoxyomenus" - a bronze sculpture depicting an ancient athlete cleansing his body after a competition. Such sculptures received the name Apoxyomenos (from the word "Scraper"), and their plot is more than banal and was an illustration of one of the most common elements of ancient Greek culture: the figure of an athlete was depicted at the very moment when he scraped off with a special scraper, which the Romans called a shear skin, sand adhered to it, mixed with fat, with which it was customary to butter up the body before any sporting event.
Croatian Apoxyomenos (Mimara Museum)
It is believed that the most famous sculpture of Apoxyomenos in the ancient world was the statue of Lysippos of Sicyon, the court sculptor of Alexander the Great, which he sculpted from bronze around 330 BC. Its bronze original was lost, but in his Natural History, Pliny the Elder wrote that the Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa put this masterpiece of Lysippos in Rome at the Baths of Agrippa, around 20 BC. It's funny that the emperor Tiberius was so carried away by contemplation of this sculpture that he even took it to his bedroom. However, the people of Rome did not like this. During the gladiatorial battle, which was attended by the emperor, shouts were heard: "Give us back our Apoxyomenos" and the emperor replaced it with a copy.
Mimara Museum.
Pliny also mentioned that a similar statue was made by the sculptor Polycletus, or one of his students. So it turns out that two sculptures were created on this topic, and maybe in fact there were many more. For example, in 1896, where there was ancient Ephesus in Turkey, a bronze statue was found, which today is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. And it is so good that experts cannot decide in any way that it is a copy or an original. Fragments from different Apoxyomenos are kept in various museums, so it is quite possible that it was the most popular statue of antiquity. There is a “head” that is kept in the Hermitage, and another bronze head is in the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas). The famous Vatican Apoxyomenus, which changes position, is possibly a variation from the original by Lysippos.
Sculpture at the bottom of the sea
And then it happened that on July 12, 1997, Belgian diver Rene Wouters spent his vacation in Croatia, Istria (which once again characterizes him as an intelligent and practical person!),dived deeper and at a depth of 45 meters saw a body lying at the bottom! He later said that his hair stood on end in horror, and he literally jumped out of the water to the surface. But curiosity overcame fear, and it sank a second time. And when he plunged, he saw a statue half-buried in sand and covered with algae and shells in the height of a man, which looked so realistic that he took it for a corpse. Now he was able to examine the entire statue he had found. Everything was in place: arms, legs, and head - it turned out that nothing had been lost. However, touching the head, he realized that it was not attached to the body, but was located on the ledge of the rock, although very close to the torso. The height of the sculpture, as it was measured later, was 192 cm.
Head at the bottom of the sea
It is clear that the diver said “where to” that the statue was examined by experts, but it was only in April 1999 that they were able to lift it to the surface. Moreover, a special expedition explored the bottom around the place of discovery for the purpose of discovering something else, say, the site of a possible shipwreck, but apart from a bronze base with an ornament in the form of a meander, they did not find anything. Well, the base, apparently, broke off from the statue when it fell into the sea. That's just how it fell into it, where it fell from and why it fell - these are the questions to which we will never get answers. On the other hand, there are no answers - but there is a statue!
The figure taken from the bottom
True, it turned out that the found sculpture needs a very serious restoration, since its back surface, which was directly lying on the sand, was badly damaged. The front one was preserved by a layer of shells that covered it, and it was they, the shells, that preserved the “noble patina” that covered it from the effects of sea water, which naturally protects all bronze objects from the destructive effects of air oxygen.
Head covered with a crust of sediment
Simultaneously with the work on the restoration of the statue, research was carried out on the composition of its metal and the technology of its manufacture was studied. It turned out that it was made of seven separate parts, separate fabricated legs and arms, the torso itself, the head, the genitals, and, of course, the base. After all of them were connected into one whole, holes formed in some places were stamped with additional metal parts.
Head after cleaning. Lips are red copper!
Most of the analyzes were carried out in the scientific laboratories of Florence and also at the Croatian Institute for Heritage Preservation. They attracted, as is now widely practiced, specialists from various fields, including physicists, chemists and even biologists. For example, biologists, having conducted research, "also had their say": it turns out that small rodents lived inside this statue for some time and even built a nest for themselves there. Since the presence of biological material from these rodents dates back to the 1st-2nd centuries AD, it was concluded that even then the statue was clearly damaged and undoubtedly lay on the ground. That is, she had not yet drowned in the sea. But does that mean she drowned later? And here's another question - who was the manufacturer and who was the customer of this sculpture?
Full-length sculpture
The same question is constantly asked when looking at the marble sculpture of Apoxyomenos stored in the Vatican: was it not from the figure of Lysippos's creation that it was made? And, it is believed that yes - from his sculpture. It takes into account the characteristic dynamism of his work, characteristic of the era of the 4th century BC, and the similarity with such statues as "The Youth of Antikythera" and "Athena of Piraeus". And besides, this marble copy is truly unique, since it is not repeated in Roman copies.
Hand position
But a bronze statue found in Croatia just shows us the characteristic type of athlete, known from many Roman copies. So back in 1886, the "Apoxyomenus from Ephesus" was found, which is kept in Vienna. But the question arose, what, in fact, he was doing, because the shear was lost from her. A statue from Croatia gives an answer to this question: the athlete squeezes the handle of the shear with his right hand, but with his left he holds the end, which can be seen from the position of the fingers of his hands, although the shear itself has not been preserved in this statue either. True, much else in this statue does not match the figure and marble.
Legs and base of the sculpture
Interestingly, there is very little lead in the alloy of the Croatian statue, which is typical for alloys of the 4th century BC than the later alloys of the Hellenistic or Roman times. The casting itself is of poor quality, with many cracks and seams. With a good wax model, several copies could be made, and scientists assume that a better quality casting has already been made from the same model. Naturally, the question arises whether this is not the Apoxyomenus of Lysippos himself. He has elaborate hair and a smaller head than what was the standard for the 4th century BC. Although his physique is "stronger" than other sculptures and his right arm is stretched out somehow awkwardly. Maybe this is the author's copy or one of his experiments? Who knows?
Here he is, handsome!
In 2015, a large-scale international exhibition project "Power and Pathos" took place, dedicated to the bronze sculpture of the Hellenistic world. Once again, it was noted that no other type of Greek sculpture has reached us at once in three bronze copies, two of which are full-length statues, supplemented by several marble copies. That is, for some reason, this particular sculpture was especially popular, both in Greece and in Rome! Moreover, it can be assumed that all three bronze sculptures were made in the Eastern Mediterranean, while the marble ones were made in Italy. Be that as it may, the Croats are now very proud that they also have their own Apoxyomenus, and of very good quality.
However, there are many other interesting exhibits …
