Body Beautiful
A few Classical Greek statues established the western paradigms of masculine and feminine (even bovine) beauty that have persisted for millennia…
Myron of Eleutherae was respected as being one of the earliest Greek sculptors to achieve complete realism, fused with perfect aesthetic balance. He worked toward an end result cast in bronze and produced figures that, to the observers of the time, looked as if they would actually complete the movement in which they had been cast. They were anatomically accurate. Their flesh and skin texture appeared supple and mobile, despite being made of hard metal.
The most famous of his works is Diskobolos, an athlete in the motion of hurling a discus. It’s believed that the Roman copies we know today as The Discus Thrower were carved from direct observation of Myron’s bronzes, originally sculpted and cast in bronze circa 460 BCE, all of which have been lost. It’s believed that many were later re-smelted by the Roman Catholic Church, to be recast into religious icons or used to make cannons and no original work of Myron is known to survive.
The Discus Thrower is perfectly balanced, as an athlete would be. The body is correctly proportioned and all the mechanics of muscle and underlying skeleton are correct. Bear in mind, though, this may…
