Fragment of a Statue of Diomedes

Roman art

This torso belongs to a standing male figure wearing only a chlamys, or cape, draped over his left shoulder, and a baldric, a leather belt, hanging from the right. This subject of Polykleitian inspiration is probably a replica of the so-called ‘Cuma Munich Diomedes’ type, which has been dated to the last years of the fifth century BCE and attributed to the sculptor Kresilas. The figure is depicted while stealing the Palladium, a wooden sculpture dedicated to Athena and preserved in the goddess’s temple in Troy; the subject was likely clasping the effigy in his left hand, while his right arm was bent and holding a sword. This iconographic model was very widespread, especially in the Hadrianic period, to which the Borghese replica is plausibly ascribable. It likely comes from the dig carried out in 1833 in Mentana and is mentioned as being present in the Portico of the Palazzina in 1841. 

Object details

Commentary

This headless torso is also lacking its arms, from the armpit of the right arm and from the mid-bicep of the left; it is preserved down to the knees. The genitals have been mutilated and the pubic hair is barely observable as the surface is so worn. The figure was originally standing with its weight on the right leg, while the left was slightly advanced. The torso is larger than life, its anatomical features solid and athletic: broad chest, bulging pectorals, prominent ribs and visible abdominal muscles, the linea alba slanted to second this movement, the iliac crest raised. The body’s nudity is only partially concealed by the chlamys, or cape, covering the left shoulder and by the baldric, or leather belt, falling from the right shoulder down the left side of the body. You can still make out traces of the sheath that once hung perpendicularly from the baldric. The left arm was probably turned backwards, the right extended. The remains of a support are visible near the thigh.  

The position of the legs is reflected in the structure of the bust, turned slightly to the right, in which we can perceive the arching of the left flank and the lifting of the left shoulder. The head is broken off at the base of the neck, but the position of the muscles suggests it was turned to the left. The figure must have been wearing a helmet, of which we can make out the remains of the lophos, or crest, on the right shoulder blade.  

This iconographic model belongs to the so-called ‘Cuma Munich Diomedes’ type, its name derived from the specimen present in the Glyptothek hailing from the Albani Collection (Vierneisel-Schlörb 1979, pp. 78-98, no. 9), its wholeness restored thanks to the one found in Cuma (Maiuri 1930). The two copies depict the hero wearing only a chlamys thrown over his left shoulder but not wrapped around the left arm. The identification of the subject with Diomedes is attributed to Hermann Brunn, who, referencing a passage of the Little Iliad, interpreted the rotation of the figure as the turning of the hero pursued by Odysseus, captured in the act of drawing his sword to prevent the other from seizing the Palladium (Brunn 1887, pp. 215-216, no. 162). The iconographic model is clearly Polykleitian in inspiration, the bronze archetype variously ascribed to Lykios, son of Myron (Lippold 1950, p. 184) or Kresilas. In the latter’s production there is a clear phase of Polykleitian influence that can be placed chronologically between 440 and 430 BCE (Furtwängler 1893, p. 32; Vierneisel-Schlörb 1979, pp. 82–84). The torso is a faithful reproduction of the prototype in the overall stance of the figure and in the vigorous construction of the nude following the model defined by Maderna (1988, pp. 58–63). The author considers this figure one of the most faithful copies of the original archetype, ascribable to the Hadrianic age (1988, p. 213 no. B 23; pp. 56–62). 

The iconographic theme of Diomedes, as seen in many replicas, was first reproduced in the Augustan era, but its greatest diffusion seems to be ascribable to the Hadrianic age when, according to Maderna’s theory, the propaganda surrounding the hero from Argos was more strongly felt. The slender proportions of the limbs and the dynamic structure of the anatomical parts of the Borghese sculpture have led it to be dated to this period.   

Moreno posits the finding of the sculpture in the dig carried out in Mentana in 1833: ‘the torso of a naked statue larger than life with a piece of drapery over the left shoulder’ (2003, p. 82, no. 34). The fragment is apparently identifiable with one cited in the Portico by Nibby in 1841 and later, in 1893, mentioned in the same location by Venturi (1842, p. 909, no. 7; 1893, p. 11).   

 Giulia Ciccarello