Discobolus (The Discus Thrower)

myminifactory

The sculpture depicting a discus thrower is described in surviving accounts from Antiquity, but it took a long time before archaeologists were able to reconstruct the original on the basis of fragments from a range of copies from Antiquity. For example, the head was placed in several different ways before settling on a final version; this is evident in the two versions housed at the Royal Cast Collection. The strange horns in the figure’s forehead are the remnants of a device used to support a victory wreath. The Discobolus has been the object of great admiration for its ability to depict a body in movement, yet also remain perfectly balanced and in keeping with a stringent formal language. Copies of the figure enabled Adolf Hitler’s filmmaker Leni Riefensthal to have naked athletes assume the figure’s position in her film about the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, and Hitler acquired the best preserved antique version from Mussolini in 1938. - Henrik Holm, senior research curator at SMK   This is a 3D scan of a plaster cast of the sculpture ‘Discobolus (The Discus Thrower)’ made by sculptor Myron of Eleutherae dated circa 450 BCE. The scan is made from the cast (ref. KAS1549) in The Royal Cast Collection at SMK – National Gallery of Denmark. This is a downscaled (ca. 10 mb) version. To read more about the 3D scans of casts in The Royal Cast Collection and download all the high ress 3D models go to: www.smk.dk/3d If you produce new work with the model and want to share it with us, drop us a line at web@smk.dk