Ancient Greek Art: Riace Warriors

To conclude the early classical period I've decided to do one more extra credit example. Now these are known as the Riarchi warriors, sometimes the Riarchi bronzes and they've got that name because of where they were found off the coast of Riarchi in southern Italy, they were actually found by a freediver. So they must have been part of a shipwreck and therefore their original context has been lost. However there are some theories that they might have been part of a group of 13 bronze statues that stood at Delphi to commemorate the Athenian victory at Marathon that was made by Phidias. So if they are they'd be a really great example for Greek religion because then we could have a look at a votive offering from a state as a way of thanking the gods for their victory in a major war. Now I want to start by talking about Riarchi warrior A because if we look at them individually we can see some really exciting things have happened in the early classical period. For a start he's got an age so he's bearded showing he's an older male. In the archaic period our Coroi were all beardless they were all youths that's what the name Coros means young man. His muscles also reflect his age in a moment when we compare him to warrior B you'll see what I mean but this is a man who is in his prime probably somewhere between 35 and 45. He's got very defined iliac crest here in fact it's too defined it goes all the way around the back of the statue which would be impossible and also he's got the cuirass aesthetic as well. On top of that he's got bared teeth he's showing aggression in warfare and this is a real sign of personality individuality that we hadn't seen in the previous period. Now if we come to Riarchi warrior B he's also a mature male in the sense that he's got a beard but is meant to be older than Riarchi warrior A so there's some individuality to these statues even amongst the same group of bronzes. So if we look at his muscles while still very defined you know the cuirass aesthetic is still there the heavy iliac crest is apparent around that kind groin and hip region but just slightly less taut shall we say than the muscles on Riarchi warrior A. Also if we look at his expression that's a giveaway too because whereas Riarchi warrior A had those teeth bared in a really kind of aggressive move showing that he's still very much ready for warfare Riarchi warrior B looks more cautious perhaps even weary of warfare having been part of it for a lot longer. There's a few other things worth noting about these statues as well so they're a really good example to talk about for the use of bronze because not only have they got added metals on top just like the Delphi charioteer so they've got the copper on the nipples the Riarchi warrior A has got silver teeth there's the inlaid eyes as well but we can see how the bronze has led to increased movement. So we've got that dynamic equilibrium again where we've got a bent arm versus a bent leg and a straight arm versus a straight leg and we've also got the relaxed pose if we look at the hips we can see that they are tilted because of the bent leg so marble has really given some much more fluid movement to these statues making them much more naturalistic. Finally the use of exaggeration in the early classical period is there not just in the muscles but the fact that the ingoil ridge or the iliac crest goes all the way around the back impossible and they've got no coccyx bone they wouldn't be able to sit down.