Bringing the Doryphoros home

Thanks to the many copies the Romans made of Greek original sculptures, the initial artist of most works can be traced back. It is the case of the unique marble Doryphoros by Polycleitus, created in bronze around 440 BC. The bronze original was a little larger than life-size. 

The best-preserved copy of a Doryphoros or Spear Bearer was retrieved from the volcanic ashes of Vesuvius in the buried city of Stabiae on the Gulf of Naples. The Roman copy was created between 27 BC and 68 AD, which is shortly before the eruption of 79 AD. It was looted in the 1970s and ended up in Minneapolis' Institute of Arts. 

Investigations led to reconstructing the trail followed by this important artifact after being stolen from Castellammare. This occurred between the end of 1975 and the beginning of 1976. 

The looters sold the statue to an antique dealer in Basel, Switzerland. From there, it made its way to the USA and hence to Germany. It was exhibited at the Glyptothek of the Antikenmuseum in Munich for several years, labeled as “Doryphoros aus Stabia.” When identified by the Italia investigators in 1984, it was seized by the Naples Public Prosecutor. However, a year later, it was released and disappeared again to be sold in 1985 to the MIA in Minneapolis.  

It makes one wonder how it is still possible to drag around illegal antiquities without being detected, especially in the present case of a full-sized statue! 

The Doryphoros stands out because of the perfection of its proportions, as Polycleitus is the first artist to establish the absolutely balanced and harmonious dimensions of the human body in his sculptures. He described its mathematical proportions in a lost treatise, the Canon of Polycleitus. His particular attitude was called contrapposto, in which the weight of the body rested on one leg, the other leg relaxed. Apparently, the sculptor has created 1500 works, none of which have survived. 

Polycleitus’ search for perfection fits entirely with the common mentality of the Greeks in his time in which artists, intellectuals, and statesmen strived for excellence. This idea lived on long afterward since it was still practiced by Alexander and his contemporaries. 

Together with PhidiasandPraxiteles, Polycleitus is considered one of the most important sculptors of the Classical Greek era. So significant was his influence that later artists like SkopasandLysippos (Alexander’s personal sculptor) worked using the same references.

[Bottom picture from Positano News]