APOXIOMEN (2nd – 1st c. BC) – a masterpiece of Croatian and world cultural heritage (2nd – 1st c. BC)

An ancient bronze statue of an athlete, 192 cm tall, taken from the underwater sea between the islands of Vela Orjula and the island of Losinj on April 27, 1999, is the only large bronze on the eastern Adriatic coast so far. He is believed to have reached the sea at the beginning of the 1st century, where he was thrown during severe storms because of the danger of the ship tipping over or as a sacrifice to the gods to continue his journey through the Osor Channel to some rich destination in the northern Adriatic.

Statue of Apoxiomen

The statue represents an athlete, a young athlete, as he cleans a strigil (scraper) with which he scrapes oil, dust and sweat from his body after a competition. During the restoration, which lasted for almost seven years, the statue was dated from 2 to 1 by exploring the materials and the style of craftsmanship. century BC The prototype on which it was made is much older, dating from the mid-4th century BC. Cr.

Of the nine known variations of the prototype Apoxyomenos (the most famous bronze statue from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, discovered in Ephesus in 1896), the Lošinj statue is the most complete and best-preserved. The author of the statue is unknown, but classic beauty and craftsmanship speak of a master.

The original statue is housed in the Apoxyomenos Museum, it’s a new permanent home, in the centre of Mali Losinj (formerly the Kvarner Palace).

Source: Visitlosinj.hr