At the time of the Hellenistic era, which was the period from the death of Alexander the Great until the founding of the Roman Empire in 31 BC, the medium of bronze defined the artistic novelty in Greece and all over the Mediterranean. Sculptors shifted from the Classical norms, enhancing customary themes and idealized shapes with pragmatic representations of emotional and physical states. Bronze is superior to marble in its tensile vigor, reflective effects, and capacity to grip the most excellent detail. Thus, the material was used for vibrant compositions, incredible exhibits of the unclothed body, and explicit expressions of character and age. The statue of Seated Boxer was found on the Quirinal Hill of Rome in the year 1885 near the very old baths of Constantine and is presently displayed at the Getty in Los Angeles. Since its discovery, it has amazed and thrilled visitors as an attractive masterpiece of prehistoric bronze sculpture.
Cast from alloys of lead, copper, and tin components, bronze statues were formed in the thousands during the Hellenistic world. They were located in public places and outdoor sites, honorific pictures of citizens and rulers occupied city squares, and images of heroes, mortals, and gods decorated the sanctuaries. Nevertheless, only a few statues continue to exist today, and they are spread all over the world, traditionally exhibited as isolated masterpieces. The crucial number of large-scale bronzes is conserved in the modern world in order to be perceived and exist in context. New findings are presented together with works acknowledged for hundreds of years, and may closely connect the statues, which are displayed side by side for the initial time. Several of the images were shaped by Lysippos of Sikyon, among them is Alexander’s much-loved sculptor and one of the most renowned artists. Lysippos appeared to have worked only in bronze, getting accustomed to the ancient typical methods for heroes, gods, and athletes and changing them into dynamic portrayals of powerful kings.
The vicious realism of the Seated Boxer displays a muscular man, who has received several violent blows and is prepared to tackle them himself. The statue is aimed to provoke compassion in the viewer. At the Getty Museum, the boxer’s line of sight lands directly on the life-size bronze sculpture of a victorious youthful athlete spanning a pedestal also referred to as the Getty Bronze. Copper inlays line the cuts of the skin and symbolize dripping blood. The inflamed right cheekbone was cast in a special alloy consisting of less tin, copying the staining of a hematoma. At the same time, the face articulates mental and physical fatigue following a fight, but the boxer’s body is toned and robust, displaying fewer signs of age, and his hair, as well as the beard, are carefully coiffed. Exhumed in the year 1885 on the south side of the Quirinal Hill in Rome, the sculpture was discovered cautiously placed in the foundations of a prehistoric building. Originally, the figure would perhaps have been put up in a Greek sanctuary or exhibited publicly in the hometown of the athlete to celebrate his memory.
The sculpture displays a boxer seated with his arms at rest on his knees, his head turned towards the right and a little bit raised with mouth open. The statue is nude apart from his boxing gloves that are of the very old Greek type consisting of leather strips fastened to a ring around the knuckles and fixed with woolen padding, and the infibulations of his penis by knotting up the foreskin that was both for defense and composition of modesty. The boxer is signified following a match. His muscular body and packed beard are those of a fully-grown athlete, and his broad neck, gangly legs, and long hands are well matched to the sport he plays. His face displays cuts and bruises, and his lips are drawn as though his teeth have been knocked out.
His broken nose and cauliflower ears are the ordinary conditions of boxers, possibly the outcome of the earlier fights. However, the manner in which he is breathing through the mouth and the bloody cuts on his face and ears show precisely the harm meted out by his most immediate opponent. The muscles of his legs and hands are tense as though, regardless of the tiredness of competition, he is prepared to bounce back in order to face the next opponent. The swift turn of his head is highlighted by the drops of blood showed by inlaid copper, which seem to have just fallen from his face onto his right hand and thigh. The dark patina has been formed over a long period of time through oxidation and is now being perceived as it was there initially when the bronze was shined to the color of an athlete’s tanned and oiled shiny skin.
In addition, the color of the sculpture is inlaid the rosy lips and nipples with copper: copper inlays also cover the streams of blood that seem to run from his several wounds and the cuts on the ungloved knuckles that landed the punches. Beneath the inflamed eye