[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: Ancient Greek
sculptures, bronze or marble, are frozen. But that doesn't mean
that the ancient Greeks didn't want to convey movement. SPEAKER 2: In this case,
movement that you couldn't even see with the naked eye. SPEAKER 1: What
we're looking at, is a sculpture by an
artist whose name is Myron. We've lost his original, but
we have a later Roman marble copy of the "Discus Thrower." SPEAKER 2: The original was in
bronze from the fifth century BCE. SPEAKER 1: About 450, 460. SPEAKER 2: And what
we're looking at is one of many Roman copies. In fact, there's one
next to the other in this museum, a
testament to how popular these were among the Romans. SPEAKER 1: The
sculpture shows a man who is at that moment where
his body is fully wound. Look at the way
that his right leg is bearing the
weight of his body. His left leg, the toes are
bent under, dragging slightly, and he's about to
throw that discus. This is a moment of
tremendous tension, but it's also this moment
stasis, of stillness, right before the action. SPEAKER 2: Athletes
and art historians have debated whether this
is even an actual pose that the discus thrower
takes in the process. SPEAKER 1: It's so interesting,
because when we think back about the history
of the Greek figure, we think first of the
Archaic Kouros, who is so stiff and so stylized. And then we have the
tremendous breakthroughs of people like
Polykleitos who developed an understanding of the body,
and showed in a contrapposto. But here we have
something that's so dynamic, and so
complex, I mean just look at the arc of the
shoulders and the arms, and the way that
they reverse the arc of the twist of the hips. SPEAKER 2: That is
the overriding concern of Myron, the sculptor, to
capture the aesthetic qualities here. The sense of
balance and harmony, and the beauty in the
proportions of the body. SPEAKER 1: There is
kind of anti-realism here, for all of its
careful naturalism. There is no real
strain within the body. It is absolutely at
rest, and ideal, even in this extreme pose. SPEAKER 2: If you
think about a figure from much later, but in a
similar pose of movement, of athletic energy,
like Bernini's "David." SPEAKER 1: Well, that's got
all this torsion, absolutely. SPEAKER 2: That
figure expresses all of the physical
power in the face. He's clenching his teeth, right? SPEAKER 1: That's true. And his brow is
really knit forward. But here, the face
is absolutely serene. And it reminds me
of the consistency with which the Greeks always
maintain their nobility, even in battle, even in terrible
situations with monsters. And here, even at
this moment when he's about to
release the discus. SPEAKER 2: Right, that
nobility, that calm in the face, is a sign of a nobility
of the human being. SPEAKER 1: Well,
this is a sport, and the man is naked, which
is what the Greeks did. But there was a
real logic there. Why would you
cover up the beauty of the body in sport, which
is, of course, a celebration of what the human
body can achieve. This is really a way to remind
ourselves of the Greeks concern with the potential of humanity,
the potential of the mind, and the potential of the body. SPEAKER 2: Taking
that extra step to become even more ideal,
more heroic, more noble, than even the finest athlete. SPEAKER 1: It is a perfect form. [MUSIC PLAYING]