Wrestlers (sculpture) - Description, Style and Authorship

Description, Style and Authorship

The two young men are engaged in the sport called Pankration, a kind of wrestling similar to the present-day sport of "Mixed Martial Arts". The two figures are wrestling in a position now known as a "cross-body ride" in modern freestyle wrestling. The upper wrestler has his left leg entwined with his opponent's left leg, with his body across the opponent's body, lifting the opponent's right arm. In a well known modern series of wrestling moves, the upper wrestler would now try to lift his opponent's arm above his head to force a pinning move called the "Guillotine." Their muscular structure is very defined and exaggerated due to their physical and sustained effort.

Neither of the two heads are original to the group, though that of the lower figure is older and is as advanced sylistically as the sons in the "Niobe Group". The heads were added after the sculpture was rediscovered.

The group are considered to be finest quality Roman copies of a lost bronze. The sculpture has previously been variously attributed to Myron, Cephisodotus the Younger or Heliodorus - the last two are mentioned by Pliny as creators of a sculptural format called symplegmata, signifying sculptures of figures closed in struggle, whether purely physical or amatory. Currently the sculpture is considered to be the best quality Roman copy from a lost original Hellenistic bronze of the third century BCE, either of the Pergamene school or the circle of Lysippus.