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Apollonius, Boxer at Rest

Aman Shahi

HUM 221: The Impact of Art: Visual, Design, & Media

Westcliff University

Professor Bhatta

November 27, 2021

Apollonius, Boxer at Rest

Figure 1 [ CITATION ApoCE \l 1033 ]

Boxer, or Boxer of the Quirinal is a Hellenistic Greek bronze sculpture portraying a seated nude

boxer (one who take part in boxing sports or fight) at rest, wearing his himantes (a Greek word

which is an item of clothing worn by a boxer to protect hand or knuckles while fighting/ a form

of leather hand-wrap) [ CITATION The13 \l 1033 ]. It was made between the period of about 330 to

50 BC between the death of Alexander the Great and the birth of the Roman Empire. It was

made by Greek sculpture Apollonius the Athenian [CITATION The98 \l 1033 ]. This paper includes

the methodological approaches of Post-colonial, Feminist & Queer approaches to analyze the

above art. It also includes similarities and differences of the methodological approaches.

Post-Colonial Approach
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This sculpture was made in the Ancient Mediterranean (the civilization of Greek city-

states and Phoenicians), made by the Ancient Greeks in the Hellenistic time period. This is the

time period of the influence of Greek art into Roman art and the diffusion of the principle of

Greek art upon the death of Alexander. [ CITATION Fer16 \l 1033 ]. The main features of Greek

sculpture were humanism, realism, and idealism which can be seen in the above boxer at rest

bronze sculpture. This sculpture was made during the movement from idealism philosophy to

realism philosophy of Greek art. Greek art was famous for its idealism (making one beauty and

perfection with unrealistic belief) and humanism philosophy (human as prime importance) in art

which was later moved into realism philosophy (portraying accurate or realistic person) which

was heavily influenced by Roman in their arts. We can see that the muscular beauties of the

boxer in the sculpture represent idealism but the seated position or rested position that indicates

the boxer is tired and lost after the fight and the real face of the boxer represents realism. This

change of idealism into realism was taken or influenced by Roman in their arts. The sculpture

portraying the full body or half body humans worldwide are all influenced by Greek sculpture.

This masculine body and proper body structure of humans are influenced in today’s world where

many people think that a proper body is considered as a true beauty.

Feminism Approach

The above bronze sculpture is the sculpture of a man who is a boxer resting after a fight

defeated. In Ancient Greek, males were mainly focused and the fighter or boxer consist of the

only male gender in both reality and in art. We can find that there are mainly male sculptures or

paintings having fewer females which shows that mainly Greek focuses on men showing their

heroic and idealistic features. However, Hellenistic art was the start of realism that constructed
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lots of female portraits or sculptures starting the act of feminism in ancient Greek. Despite the

patriarchal nature of society, a woman's position throughout the Hellenistic period was not

limited to the home, reproduction, and rearing of children. Women had better opportunities to get

education throughout the Hellenistic period, as evidenced by poetesses who traveled around the

Hellenistic world to perform their works and were frequently publicly acclaimed. Female

painters were also present, the majority of whom were daughters of artists who had learned the

craft from their fathers [ CITATION Rid87 \l 1033 ].

Queer Approach

In the above, the boxer at rest bronze sculpture is the sculpture of a man having a

muscular body resting after a fight or boxing match. The sculpture is a heterosexual person art

not showing any signs of queer or LGBTQ (homosexual person). But in the Hellenistic period of

Greek art, there were few artists such as Herodotus, Plato, Xenophon, and Athenaeus, etc.

explored or portrait homosexuality in Greek society [ CITATION Wad81 \l 1033 ]. Homosexuality

and related behaviors were still common in the Hellenistic period since some city-states

permitted it while others were equivocal or outright forbade it. Many of the world's best

museums include Greek vases depicting queer themes in their collections. Older guys loving

younger males are shown in these beautiful vases.

Compare and Contrast

The Greeks precisely depicted what they regarded to be attractive males. Their features of

masculine perfection in their art have influenced how men are portrayed today. Dark eyes, a

straight nose, high cheekbones, a wide chest and shoulders, a slender waist, and powerful,
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muscular legs come to mind when the phrase "built like a Greek god" is used.  Many queer-

oriented periodicals nowadays, such as "Mandate" and "Blueboy," include illustrations of this

physique [ CITATION Wad81 \l 1033 ]. In the Hellenistic art period, both women (concept of

feminism) and queer concepts were portrayed in the form of arts. We can find many arts that

include queer and women where Greek art used to portray mainly men sculpture before. These

were later influenced or copied by Romans then after that including women and queer in the

form of art has become popular. In the boxer at rest sculpture, we can clearly analyze the

sculpture in post-colonial approaches where this type of realism sculpture was influenced by

Romans and are also used by current artist around the world. We can less analyze the feminist

approach where the sculpture is of men and during that time women were less portrayed than

men. But Hellenistic period was also the starting phase of the creation of women’s sculptures and

paintings. And we can’t clearly analyze with a queer approach where the sculpture symbolizes

heterosexual humans. But researching in that period we can find that some artists included queer

themes in their art. We see that during this period both feminism and queer were included in the

arts which were later influenced and copied by Romans and other people worldwide. So, the

concept of queer and feminism was already started in this time period and the post-colonial

concept was later established or people later copied the Greek art concept.
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Conclusion

From analyzing the Boxer at rest bronze sculpture in post-colonial, feminism and queer

approaches, we can find that feminism and queer concept were already started in the Hellenistic

period when the boxer at rest was made. This feminism, queer concept, and other features of

Greek art were later influenced and copied by Romans and then copied by many artists around

the world in the modern period. We can see that in the modern period portraying people in the

form of art in both idealistic and realistic ways is the influence of Greek art.
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References

Apollonius. (100 B.C.E.). Boxer at Rest. Palazzo Massimo. Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome.

Ferguson, J. (2016, October 7). Hellenistic age. Retrieved Novemeber 27, 2021, from

Encyclopedia Britannica: [Link]

Ridgway, B. S. (1987). Ancient greek women and art: the material evidence. American journal

of archaeology, 91(3), 399-409. doi:[Link]

The editors of encyclopedia. (1998, July 20). Apollonius The Athenian. Retrieved November 27,

2021, from Britannica: [Link]

The Met. (2013, July 1-18). The boxer: an ancient masterpiece. Retrieved November 27, 2021,

from [Link]: [Link]

Wade-Salisbury, J. P. (1981). Homosexuality in Art. Charleston, Illinois: Eastern Illinois

University. Retrieved from [Link]