Myron was one of the greatest sculptors of Early Classical Greek sculpture. He was famed for his sculptures of powerful athletes and life-like animals. He produced mainly bronze sculpture and was considered a versatile and innovative artist in his time. His most famous statue, which exists only in the form of copies by Roman artists, is the famous bronze figure of a disc thrower known as Discobolus (c.425 BCE).
Biography
The original Greek Discus-Thrower statue was made in bronze and only known to have existed because of later copies made by Romans. Created by the sculptor Myron in the 5th century BCE, the original captured the moment in which an athlete was about to release a heavy disc, or discus, in an attempt to throw the farthest. The twisted torso is filled with potential energy, a departure from the stable and static forms of the past (see Archaic Greek sculpture). The sculpture found at the Chrysler Museum is a copy of Myron’s, carved by the Italian artist Antonio Frilli over 1,000 years later. During the 19th century, many artists, including architects, decorative artists, and writers were looking to ancient Greece and Rome to both inspire and inform their own work. This period of interest in classical ideals was a movement known as neoclassicism.