Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
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Lot 118*
A Greek bronze statuette of a boxer
3 July 2019, 10:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£15,000 - £20,000
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Siobhan Quin
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A Greek bronze statuette of a boxer
Hellenistic Period, circa 3rd-2nd Century B.C.
Standing with legs apart mid-stride, his right arm tucked close to his torso, the gloved hand clenched, his left arm extended with open palm, the fighter wearing a short tunic, rolled at the waist and raised at the front to reveal his scrotum, the exaggerated phallus now missing, his chest exposed, with large rounded stomach and slender, muscular arms, his face pointed, a wart on his chin, with locks of hair at the crown of his otherwise shaved head, 10.2cm high
Hellenistic Period, circa 3rd-2nd Century B.C.
Standing with legs apart mid-stride, his right arm tucked close to his torso, the gloved hand clenched, his left arm extended with open palm, the fighter wearing a short tunic, rolled at the waist and raised at the front to reveal his scrotum, the exaggerated phallus now missing, his chest exposed, with large rounded stomach and slender, muscular arms, his face pointed, a wart on his chin, with locks of hair at the crown of his otherwise shaved head, 10.2cm high
Footnotes
Provenance:
Nasli M. Heeramaneck (1902-1971) collection, New Haven.
Melba Whatley collection, Austin, TX.
with Merrin Gallery, New York.
Private collection, USA, acquired from the above in July 1990.
Boxing as an athletic sport was practiced by the Greeks as early as the Minoan and Mycenaean periods, though the hero Theseus was widely credited as having invented the sport. The distinctive hairstyle of this boxer is known from other depictions of athletes, and marks him as a professional fighter. The boxer is dynamically rendered, depicted in the act of parrying a partner, while he readies his right hand to punch. The right hand is bound in leather, a technique used primarily to protect the hand, rather than to increase the severity of its punch.
The veristic style of this statuette is typically Hellenistic, as is the exaggerated phallus the figure would have once been exposing. For an Alexandrian bronze figure of a boxer or wrestler sporting a similar ponytail hairstyle, see the Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. no. 1985.137. See also the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acc. no. RES.08.32k for a dwarf represented as a boxer, again with an exaggerated phallus.