[music]
Beth Harris: We're in the Getty Villa, and
Beth Harris: we've walked into a gallery, and
Beth Harris: we're immediately confronted by
Beth Harris: this idealized male nude.
Kenneth Lapatin: This rare, stunning, ancient
Kenneth Lapatin: Greek bronze looks very
Kenneth Lapatin: different today than he did in
Kenneth Lapatin: antiquity. He's a mottled,
Kenneth Lapatin: greenish, brownish, reddish,
Kenneth Lapatin: orangish color where in
Kenneth Lapatin: antiquity he was a golden,
Kenneth Lapatin: metallic yellow. He's designed
Kenneth Lapatin: to stand outdoors. We don't
Kenneth Lapatin: know exactly where he stood, but
Kenneth Lapatin: victor statues of this type
Kenneth Lapatin: stood either in the place where
Kenneth Lapatin: they won their victory such as
Kenneth Lapatin: the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia
Kenneth Lapatin: where the Olympic Games were or
Kenneth Lapatin: in their hometowns where they
Kenneth Lapatin: were culture heroes like Olympic
Kenneth Lapatin: victors today go on the covers
Kenneth Lapatin: of Wheaties boxes. He's a
Kenneth Lapatin: different color. He's lost his
Kenneth Lapatin: feet. They were torn off at some
Kenneth Lapatin: point in his long history. He's
Kenneth Lapatin: lost his eyes, which would have
Kenneth Lapatin: been inlaid in colored glass, or
Kenneth Lapatin: polished stone, or ivory. Those
Kenneth Lapatin: would have given him vivacity.
Beth: These are the result of the fact
Beth: that he spent years, we're not
Beth: sure how long, under the water.
Kenneth: He was found by fishermen in the
Kenneth: Adriatic Sea in the 1960s. He
Kenneth: was covered with barnacles and
Kenneth: other marine growth which have
Kenneth: all been removed by conservators,
Kenneth: and that's why he has this
Kenneth: mottled skin. He does preserve
Kenneth: metallic inserts. His nipples
Kenneth: and lips were covered in copper,
Kenneth: so he would have had this golden-
Kenneth: yellow brownish skin and bright
Kenneth: red nipples and lips, inlaid
Kenneth: color eyes, and his hair and his
Kenneth: wreath would have probably been
Kenneth: patinated a darker color. The
Kenneth: wreath maybe was gilded. It's
Kenneth: from the wreath, only fragments
Kenneth: of which survive, but we can
Kenneth: identify as an olive wreath,
Kenneth: makes us think he was a victor
Kenneth: at the games at Olympia. Here,
Kenneth: either he's just put it on his
Kenneth: head or maybe he's reaching for
Kenneth: it to take it off because this
Kenneth: is something victors did. They
Kenneth: dedicated their victories to the
Kenneth: gods. This was a form of
Kenneth: humility. Although he doesn't
Kenneth: look very humble, he still has
Kenneth: to be humble to the gods.
Beth: Although bronze sculptures of
Beth: athletes are very rare today,
Beth: they were very common in
Beth: antiquity.
Kenneth: We have literary descriptions
Kenneth: from ancient authors of hundreds
Kenneth: if not thousands of them. We
Kenneth: have statue bases with the
Kenneth: footprints of bronze statues
Kenneth: that have been taken and over
Kenneth: the years melted down to reuse.
Kenneth: They were turned into shields,
Kenneth: and spears, and buckets, and
Kenneth: hinges, and so the ones that we
Kenneth: have today, paradoxically we
Kenneth: have because of disaster,
Kenneth: earthquake, landslide, shipwreck.
Beth: This immediately raises the
Beth: question why he was in transit.
Beth: At some point, his location, his
Beth: context, his reason for being
Beth: changed.
Kenneth: We can come up with various
Kenneth: scenarios without answers. Was
Kenneth: he taken from Greece to Italy
Kenneth: as plunder, as a great work, of
Kenneth: art and the ship went down?
Kenneth: Maybe he was knocked off of his
Kenneth: statue base and broken at the
Kenneth: ankles and he was being
Kenneth: transported to be melted down. A
Kenneth: lot of information originally
Kenneth: would have been contained on his
Kenneth: base. The base would have had
Kenneth: an inscription that would give
Kenneth: us his name, his father's name,
Kenneth: where he was from, probably what
Kenneth: event he won the games in. His
Kenneth: body tells us a little bit. He
Kenneth: was maybe a runner, or a
Kenneth: wrestler, or javelin thrower. He
Kenneth: doesn't seem to be a boxer. Of
Kenneth: course, the base could even have
Kenneth: given us the name of the artist.
Kenneth: The height of the base is also
Kenneth: important because it would tell
Kenneth: us how he was designed to be
Kenneth: seen. Personally, I think he
Kenneth: looks better if we bend down and
Kenneth: look up at him.
Beth: His face appears so idealized,
Beth: but from the side it seems more
Beth: individualized.
Kenneth: That has led some people to try
Kenneth: to identify him as a specific,
Kenneth: historical individual, which is
Kenneth: in some ways very optimistic.
Beth: One of the questions that art
Beth: historians have raised is could
Beth: this sculpture be by the great
Beth: 4th-century sculptor that we
Beth: know about from literary sources,
Beth: Lysippos.
Kenneth: Lysippos was the favorite
Kenneth: sculptor of Alexander the Great,
Kenneth: and he's reported to have made
Kenneth: over 1,500 statues in bronze,
Kenneth: which is a staggering number.
Beth: None of which survive.
Kenneth: Although there are ancient
Kenneth: replicas of his works. One of
Kenneth: the things that Lysippos is
Kenneth: known for is coming up with new
Kenneth: proportions, of thinner figures,
Kenneth: of representing movement, of
Kenneth: having figures with smaller
Kenneth: heads. This statue conforms to
Kenneth: Lysippan ideals and proportions
Kenneth: as we know them, but to say that
Kenneth: it is an original by Lysippos is
Kenneth: a stretch. We don't even know
Kenneth: his date. He might be from the
Kenneth: late 4th century, the period of
Kenneth: Lysippos, but he could be from
Kenneth: the 3rd or the 2nd century.
Kenneth: These statues were made in molds.
Kenneth: From what we know about this
Kenneth: statue and other bronzes, it
Kenneth: seems that someone like Lysippos
Kenneth: would have a lot of models and
Kenneth: body parts in different
Kenneth: positions. That's how he and his
Kenneth: workshop could produce 1,500
Kenneth: statues.
Beth: Let's talk about his life
Beth: likeness, his sense of movement.
Kenneth: There are a couple of factors
Kenneth: that lead to that. One is the
Kenneth: subtle and accurate
Kenneth: understanding and depiction of
Kenneth: anatomy, not only the soft bulge
Kenneth: of his abdomen or the firmness
Kenneth: of his biceps but the way these
Kenneth: muscles seem to respond to one
Kenneth: another as the body shows
Kenneth: movement but also as they
Kenneth: respond to gravity. This is
Kenneth: very much an illusion. Our
Kenneth: bodies are chaotic. They're
Kenneth: imperfect. What Greek sculptors
Kenneth: did is they filtered that chaos,
Kenneth: and they selected certain
Kenneth: attributes and highlighted them,
Kenneth: and they suppressed others.
Kenneth: He's shown at this flower of
Kenneth: youth, this period the Greeks
Kenneth: praised. He's very toned. We can
Kenneth: see traces in his hands of
Kenneth: tendons and veins under the skin.
Kenneth: These elements, when you catch
Kenneth: one or two, they trigger your
Kenneth: brain. You think this is
Kenneth: accurate. It's not accurate. We
Kenneth: would say realistic rather than
Kenneth: real.
Beth: There's this smooth transition
Beth: between the parts of his body.
Kenneth: We have to remember the Greeks
Kenneth: did their athletic events in the
Kenneth: nude. The gymnasium comes from
Kenneth: the Greek word gymnos, meaning
Kenneth: nude. They saw a lot more nude
Kenneth: bodies, and so they would have
Kenneth: done a lot simply by observation.
Beth: Let's talk about his left hand.
Kenneth: The left hand may have held a
Kenneth: palm branch. It's a very common
Kenneth: attribute of victors. This hand
Kenneth: could have also in the
Kenneth: sculptor's workshop been applied
Kenneth: to a statue of a young warrior
Kenneth: and could have held a sword.
Kenneth: This is how flexible and
Kenneth: pragmatic the sculptors'
Kenneth: workshops were.
Beth: To me, this epitomizes this
Beth: Greek love of the male nude.
Kenneth: If we go back a few centuries,
Kenneth: we still had nude male figures,
Kenneth: the very stiff frontal so called
Kenneth: kouroi standing with arms at
Kenneth: their sides, and those were used
Kenneth: for victory statues, for
Kenneth: funerary statues, for
Kenneth: commemorative statues. With time,
Kenneth: there was almost a race to make
Kenneth: things more naturalistic, and
Kenneth: more idealized, and beautiful.
Kenneth: He seems to really reach that
Kenneth: height where he's confident in
Kenneth: his own beauty, his own youth,
Kenneth: his own prowess. He's just won
Kenneth: the games. He has his olive
Kenneth: crown, and he's submitting to
Kenneth: the gods but to no one else.
Kenneth: [music]