Discophoros by Polyclitus from British Museum. Italian academic drawing. XIX century.

Discophoros by Polyclitus from British Museum. Italian academic drawing. XIX century.

Charcoal on paper.

H 59cm x L 45cm

Good conservation conditions with small defects on margins.

This drawing represents one of the many examples of academic exercises based on the most important plaster copies of Ancient Rome statues.

After ancient Roman copy , now in British museum.

The Discophoros was a bronze sculpture by the classical Greek sculptor Polyclitus.

it was created approximately 460 a.c. as an example of Polyclitus's "canon" of the ideal human form in sculpture. It features a young, muscular, solidly-built athlete in a moment of thought before throwing a discus.

This painting  is part of a 19th-century drawings collection which contains the student’s studies in Fine Art Accademia Albertina of Turin.

Executed in charcoal on paper, the artwork features an elaborate play of chiaroscuro that creates an almost illusionistic effect.

Students focused on the chiaroscuro effect and detailed representation of the anatomy.

In the academic depiction of a classical Roman statue representing of Discophorus, nude and athletic, the art emphasizes the youth's beauty and physical strength.