"Images of Victorious Athletes" - Reception of the Ancient Greek Image of Athletes in Roman Art

A leading motive of Greek culture is the athlete. Victorious athletes were thus present in the public lives of cities and sanctuaries. Many of those often famous Greek sculptors are only passed on to us as Roman copies. By this, the reception of athlete images underwent am important change of perspective. In the Greek world, the athlete and his achievement were celebrated, just as in the Roman world the sculptor and the opus nobile.

The focus of research of the Greek athlete images, the question on a preexisting model, problems on dating and interpretation of the statues still leans towards the interpretations of the time the object was first analyzed. Time specific contexts of exhibition and use are going to be investigated with a synoptic overview. In order to do this, a double-tracked methodical approach has been chosen. First, the reception-historically important aspects of the depiction of athletes and their statues in Roman images (Campana-reliefs, mosaics, wall paintings, etc.) will be called into question. On top of this, the newly gained insights will be checked for their contextual use during the imperial age, corrected and supplemented.

Supervision: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Werner Oenbrink