Bronzes of Riace

The warlike or bronzes of Riace are two Greek sculptures in bronze fifth century BC (towards 460 for the warrior and towards for the warrior B) and preserved 430 at the National museum of Reggio of Calabria. A little larger than natural (1,98 meters in height for the warrior has, 1,97 meters for the warrior B), they were discovered in 1972 with broad of Riace, in Calabria, in a boat shipwrecked man in Antiquity and they count among five Greek bronzes of big size still preserved in their entirety, with the Aurige de Delphes, and the God of Artémision.

Description and dating

The two warriors are men naked, debouts and bearded. They are in a posture of contraposto , and show its evolution well: whereas the chest of the warrior has is still vertical in spite of its support on only one leg, that of the warrior B is curved, the line of the shoulders being opposed to that of the hips. This difference makes it possible to affirm that the two sculptures are not contemporary: the warrior has, who can be for example close to small the Éphèbe of David-Weill (v. 470 av. J. - C., Museum of Louvre), is datable of 460 av. J. - C., is approximately twenty or thirty years before the warrior B, nearer to works of Polyclète ( Diadumène , Doryphore ).

Technical considerations

The two warriors are witnesses of the evolution which takes place in the bronze techniques as of the end of sixth century BC: they are carried out according to the technique of the cast iron to the lost Cire on negative, technique which makes it possible to preserve the model and the mould, and to obtain a more regular thickness of bronze.

The warrior has

At the warrior has, one notes joints of welding on the level of the neck, under the shoulders, with the wrists, semi-foot and for the median toes. The body in itself was molten of only one jet.

The hair, extremely plastic and full is made up only of melted wicks with share (with wax lost on positive) and brought back by welding. It thus seems that the founder, who was to also be the sculptor, used an auxiliary model to take the print of the body without the hair, then worked the mêches and adjusted them with the principal model before cutting out them to melt them.

As in the case of the god of Artémision, the weldings, on the level of the wrists, the shoulders and the median toe at least, were made out of basin. For that, the bronzier dug in extreme cases of each part to assemble a half-basin, where it then ran bronze. This technique, which increases the surface of contact, also makes it possible to have with the basins of a tank heat and thus better heating the two parts to be assembled.

The reinforcement in Fer of the statue exceeds foot, and was used for fixing it on its basis out of stone. Plomb was introduced into the cavity to maintain it.

The treatment of the face of the warrior has indicates a search of polychromy and a great technical refinement. One finds thus for the lips of the incrustations of an alloy rich in Cuivre, therefore very red and left gross casting, without polishing, while on the teeth is deposited a sheet of money. It is noted in addition that the lips themselves are covered with the hairs of the bronze moustache. It was thus necessary first of all to model the beardless wax head, to remove the mouth, to melt it of it then to reintegrate it in the model, before laying out the hairs of the moustache and the beard with the top. Several examples of layers, found with Olympie, show that this practice of incrustation was relatively frequent.

The ocular spheres of the warrior has are in Ivoire, hollowed out again to introduce there the iris (disappeared), which undoubtedly laid out itself of a cavity for the Pupille.

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