Neapolitan school; late twentieth century.

Neapolitan school; late twentieth century.
"Corridors of Herculaneum".
Patinated bronze and marble eyes.
Measurements: 117 x 43 x 94 cm (x2),
Pair of sculptures that reproduces the model of the "Runners of Herculaneum". Two bronze sculptures found in 1754 in the Villa of the Papyri, in Herculaneum, next to the peristyle of the house. These figures represent young athletes in a starting position, and are believed to be 1st century BC Roman copies of 4th century BC Greek originals, made in the Hellenistic tradition. Their dynamic and anatomically precise character reveals the high technical level of Roman sculpture and their eagerness to preserve the Greek legacy. Today on display at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, these sculptures not only celebrate physical strength and the athletic ideal, but also illustrate the continuity of a classical visual language that, centuries later, would continue to be revalued and reproduced.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such findings generated a veritable fever for antiquity, materialized in the reproduction of classical sculptures for museums, academies and private collections. The replica of mythological busts or athletic figures such as the Runners of the Papyri became a means of aesthetic education, cultural affirmation and a symbol of prestige.