Apoxyomenos

Lysippos: Apoxyómenos, Roman marble copy in the Vatican Museums

Quotes on the Apoxyómenos, bronze statue of Lysippus is a subject of Greek votive sculpture; representing an athlete.

Quotes on Apoxyomenos:

• Yet despite this calm attitude, the figure throbs with movement; we can already see it passing from the left leg to the right and back to the left, swinging, elastic; it seems to prevent the action of her arms. And so the contour lines, the planes of the surface from the tips of the feet to the head with a slightly tired and nervous expression, up to the curls of the hair, all appear moved, fluctuating, continually varying direction and relief.
  Movement in rest: this is how the impression produced by this figure could be summed up. (Emanuel Löwy)
• Lysippus makes the head smaller, but at the same time gives the whole figure tall, slender proportions. And the move is devoid of refinement, everything is casual and easy, and the whole exudes a noble elegance: he is an athlete of noble birth, of refined education, of high conscience, of ready, lucid intellectuality. (Pericle Ducati)
• The attitude of the apoxyómenos is posed, with the body supported by the left leg and with the right stretched slightly backwards; yet the whole figure is crossed by a nervous throb of movement, since one gets the very vivid impression that, even with the simple action of wiping oneself with the strigil, the athlete continually changes in the support of the right leg to that of the left and so on . And the impression of lively liveliness of the arms also arises. Everything in this nervous elasticity is fluctuating, moved, agitated; yet the figure is at rest! (Pericle Ducati)

Related entries:

• Lysippus