marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
Vaison
Vaison-la-Romaine (; oc, Vaison) is a town in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.
Vaison-la-Romaine is famous for its rich Roman ruins and mediaeval town and cathedral. It is also unusual in ...
, southern France. Since 1870, it has been part of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
Diadumenos
The ''Diadumenos'' ("diadem-bearer"), together with the ''Doryphoros'' (spear bearer), are two of the most famous figural types of the sculptor Polyclitus, forming a basic pattern of Ancient Greek sculpture that all present strictly idealized ...
was discovered in the late nineteenth century in the Roman Theatre at Vaison-La-Romaine, department of
Vaucluse
Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.the Louvre, but the national museum refused to buy it on the grounds of the exorbitant price. It was later purchased by the British Museum in 1870, where it has remained ever since.
Description
The sculpture is one of a series of
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
statues found across the
empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
that were modelled on a lost original made in bronze by the sculptor
Polykleitos
Polykleitos ( grc, Πολύκλειτος) was an ancient Greek sculptor in bronze of the 5th century BCE. Alongside the Athenian sculptors Pheidias, Myron and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the most important sculptors of classical an ...
in about 440 BC. The Diadumenos was the winner of an athletic tournament at a games, still nude after the contest and lifting his arms to knot a ribbon-band across his head. The Vaison statue is missing his left hand and ribbon but is otherwise in good condition. The statue would have been displayed in a prominent position in the theatre, proudly demonstrating the sophistication of the local Roman citizenry and their commitment to the ideals of
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...
Image:Diadumenos Vaison BM GR1870.7-2.1 n2.jpg, View of the face and body of the statue
Image:Diadumenos Vaison BM GR1870.7-2.1 n3.jpg, Close-up of the torso
Image:Diadumenos Vaison BM GR1870.7-2.1 n4.jpg, Image of the statue from another angle
Image:Diadumenos Vaison BM GR1870.7-2.1 n5.jpg, Detail of the upper part of the sculpture