What a guy, Now that ever other lot coming up for auction at Christie's and Sotheby's is being touted as a masterpiece the word has lost its meaning so me just say that if you can get to New York in the next four or five weeks, go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and take a good long look at The Boxer.This is bronze is larger than life sized and is Hellenistic, created sometime between the late 4th and 2nd century B.C. when Greek influence on art was at its height. For many that will be easier than visiting its usual home in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome's National Museum.
Check out his boxing gloves; Greek style boxing concentrated on smashing your oppenent's face; the victor after a brief pause went on to do the same again--or try to.
Copper inlays represent the blood and scars on this boxer's face. It is his expression above all--noble and resigned--that makes this a moving, sobering emblem of a man imprisoned by the gifts that made him a champion. The wear marks on his hands were made by generation of living viewers touching them--an act of veneration; an attempt to gain some of his strength but presumably none of his pain.
This loan is on view only until July 15. It is part of a celebration of 2013, Year of Italalian Culture in the United States.
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