Moishe Pipick's World of Wonders

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The Bronze Athlete of Ephesos (Ephesian Apoxyomenos), 1-90 A.D.. Roman imperial copy of a Greek statuary type of 4th century B.C.. Bronze and copper H: 205.4 x W: 78.7 x D: 77.5 cm (80 7/8 x 31 x 30 ½ in.) Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien,

Among the few preserved bronze statues from antiquity, the Athlete from Ephesos is an outstanding case. With the discovery of a “twin” statue in the sea near the coast of Croatia exactly 100 years later, it has become part of an intriguing case study for archaeology and art history. Getty

Otto Benndorf (1838–1907) and his crew discovered it in the ancient Greek -Ionian- city of Ephesus, at Harbor Baths Palaestra site, in 1896-97 - The Bronze Athlete, or the “Schaber,” of Ephesos

The Restoration of the statue was realised by sculptor Wilhelm Sturm in 1897-98. He solved the complex three-dimensional puzzle of 234 fragments. Due to the size and deformation of the fragments, it is remarkable that only ten fragments could not be allocated to a precise position.

[Sturm was also invited to Greece in 1901 to consult on the restoration of the Antikythera sculptures, but he declined]

The single fragments were arranged in groups and fixed to brass strings with screws; an invoice from Sturm kept in the Museum’s archive mentions no less than 1,800 brass screws used in the conservation project! The single groups were mounted onto a “skeleton” consisting of three square iron bars. To close the gaps and to stabilize the entire construction, Sturm decided to fill the hollow statue with a special cement up to the level of the neck. – Georg A. Plattner

The statuary type (of an assumed Greek original) as a masterpiece of the Late Classical period, scholars connected it to the Apoxyomenoi (scrapers) mentioned in ancient literature as works of Polykleitos and his successors.

Interpreting the concentrated gaze down toward the hands, the Ephesian Athlete was reconstructed as cleaning his left arm—more precisely, the back of his left hand—with a stlengis, or scraper.

At around the same time, in 1896, a smaller-than-life-size sculpture was found in Frascati, Italy, now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The statue follows the same type as the athletes from Ephesos. This Athlete is cleaning the stlengis using the thumb of his left hand.

The Bronze Athlete from Ephesos: Archaeological Background and Aspects of Conservation - Georg A. Plattner