Monday, March 02, 2020

The Boxer at Rest

Click any image to enlarge
The Boxer at Rest is a bronze Hellenistic sculpture dating from somewhere between 330 - 50 B.C. Rather than showing a heroic figure, it shows a battered boxer. His nose is broken, his lip is split and he has cauliflower ears as well as numerous cuts. The statue also has copper inlaid to represent splattered blood.


4 comments:

Borepatch said...

Wow, that's awesome. It took until Michelangelo for art to get back to that level after Rome fell.

ambisinistral said...

Thanks for the link and helloooo visitors from Borepatch's realm.

It is surprising, down even to the pose, how naturalistic is The Boxer at Rest. And, as you pointed out in your post, modern sculpture is pretty much complete crap in comparison. Blame it on the institutional buyers -- committees with no taste at all.

Andrea Charles said...

Dear Ambisinistral, thank you for this wonderful post. I never knew that art of that time would be so much intricate into detail! And your observations helped me in coming to this conclusion. The detailing in the nose, lips, ears and even blood is remarkable. Yes the boxer is at complete rest even after taking such a beating, this maybe because the boxer actually won and is resting in victor.

VasanthMusicCoimbatore said...

The sculpture looks stunning. Hats off to the talent of the sculptor. The intricate details of the boxer have come out very well. I am really amazed at the imagination power of the sculptor. One of my friends in my Music class in Coimbatore.