TheFarnese Diadumenos is a 1st-century AD sculpture in theBritish Museum formerly inFarnese collection.[1]
It is usually said that it is the late Roman marble copy ofPolyclitus'sDiadumenos sculpture. But, despite the same subject, it differs from the statue of Polykleitos.
It represents nude standing youth, tying a band or 'taenia' round his head. Arms were raised, but the left arm and shoulder are now lost. The hair is blurred due to weathering. The right leg has been altered and repaired. By the side of the statue are the remains of a palm-support.[2] The statue was acquired from the Farnese Collection in 1864.
Some scientists say that Famese Diadoumenos actually should be associated with aPheidian athlete of the same iconography calledAnadoumenos (The ribbon-wearer) known from ancient sources.
According toPausanius, Pheidian ivory relief with same name made c. 430 BC stood nearTemple of Zeus, Olympia. The youth looked likePantarkes, the Eleian boy thom Pheidias loved (he won the boy's wrestling competition in the 86th Olympiad: 436 BC). He said there was also round bronze statue with same name, also by Phidias, but it represented unknown athlete. Also in Olympia stood athlete Pantarkes' statue by unknown author.[2]
With this statue of Phidias researchers (afterGiovanni Becatti)[3] associate two types of late copies:
"Nevertheless, as the temple image has now been dated in the 430s BC on external evidence - the finds in the workshop - Becatti's complicated attribution of both statue types to Pheidias and to two different athletes has to be rejected" is written in 1990s article.[2]
The fact that only one mediocre example of Farnese Diadumenos exists has led P. Zanker to identify the statue as a Roman reproduction of a classical original from the early 1st century BC, inspired by Polykleitos' Diadoumenos (particularly the replica from Delos now in Athens).[2][4]
John Boardman believes the Diadoumenos Farnese is a copy of an earlier work from around 450-440 BC, displaying a pre-Polykleitan style with both heels on the ground, possibly linked to Pheidias or Polykleitos.[2]
A. Corso concurs with this dating for the original, suggesting that the statue has been overly polished, resulting in a softer line that aligns more with the tastes of the copyist than the original design. By comparing the pose's rhythm with that of figure V from the west frieze of the Parthenon and examining the hair and fillet styles alongside those of the Copenhagen Anakreon, Corso argues that the work likely derives from a Classical statue possibly created by Pheidias.[2][5]
