The Athlete Kreugas, Antonio Canova

Artwork Overview

1757–1822
The Athlete Kreugas, 1806
Where object was made: Italy
Material/technique: bronze
Dimensions:
Object Height (Height): 64.7 cm
Object Height (Height): 25 1/2 in
Credit line: Museum purchase
Accession number: 1955.0036
Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums The Athlete Kreugas, a bronze statuette cast from a gesso model after Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, embodies the three main hallmarks of the neoclassical style: an interest in the human nude, an insistence on simplicity and quiet grandeur, and a celebration of the noble and public gesture. As a proponent of neoclassicism Canova studied Greek sculpture and had classical texts read to him while working in his studio. This sculpture depicts the final moment in a fight between Kreugas and Damoxenus, who, wishing to end their stalemate, arrive at an agreement: each must face the other’s blow undefended. Canova heightens the drama by depicting Kreugas after he has failed to strike down his opponent. Facing Damoxenus and certain death with a determined glare, our hero courageously readies himself by assuming a firm and open stance that makes his body vulnerable to attack. Archive Label 1999: Canova’s sculpture, The Athlete Kreugas, represents the neo-classical trend in eighteenth-century sculpture. During Canova’s lifetime, the world of the Greeks became an ideal model for the eighteenth century to imitate. Wisdom, friendship, good citizenship, piety, national ceremonies, and tragedy all seem to combine into one harmonious society. The bronze statuette The Athlete Kreugas is a free replica of a life-size marble statue by Canova, which is now in the Vatican Museum. Canova’s work was inspired by a reading of the “Descriptions of Greece” of Pausanias, a handbook on travel from the second century A.D. The particular passage describes the heroic death of Kreugas, the boxer of Epidamus.

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 220. I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. In about 400 BCE at the Nemean Games of ancient Greece, the boxers Kreugas and Damoxenos, locked in a draw as darkness descended, agreed to settle their match by each striking the other with one undefended final blow. First Kreugas struck Damoxenos in the head, with no effect. Then the ruthless Damoxenos, using claw-like fingers, killed Kreugas by penetrating his torso below the ribs. A 19th-century bronze sculpture in the Spencer collection shows Kreugas bravely awaiting his opponent’s blow. His body smooth and idealized, like that of a Greek god, Kreugas stands with feet spread apart and a fixed gaze of concentration on his face. While he clenches his left fist on top of his head, his right arm extends tensely to the side, exposing his torso. This bronze is a smaller version of a marble statue by the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, a leading artist of the neo-classical movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, which was strongly inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art. With thanks to Nancy Hernandez for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.

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