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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005Italian Perspectives:By“The Riace Statues”John IorioThrough the warm water of the IonianSea on an August day in 1972, he saw it –an arm emerging from the sandy bottom25 feet down off Riace on the Calabriancoast. Stefano Mariottini, the amateurdiver-archaeologist, knew it was animportant find. Verification and researchconfirmed Mariottini’s view that he hadglided into one of the most significantartistic discoveries of the century.Layered by the accrual of nearly 2000years of sea life, two statues of Greekwarriors emerged from the sea bottom.This discovery added significantly to thehandful of bronze statues left to us fromthe Classical period.Now it was time for museums, tourism,economies, regional pride, andtechnology to take over. Preliminarywork was done at Reggio. Then thestatues were sent to Florence where thetechnology was available to restore theworks to their primitive brilliance. Thedelays, showings, and distrust ofFlorentine motives ignited a conflictbetween Reggio and FlorenceHad this been the Renaissance therewould have been war, and we would bereading a history as follows:Reggio persuaded Sicily to join in therecovery of the statues. Caesar Borgia,who had a Florentine negotiator killedwhen he recognized him as his halfbrother, led the Southern armies.Florence formed an alliance with Genoaand Milan and chose Caterina Sforza tocommand the Northern armies. Romegave its blessing to both sides. Da Vinciwas commissioned to paint the battle, andthere was hope that perhaps he wouldfinish something for a change.But the idea of unraveling was thesubtext of all Renaissance adventures. InPalermo, the bastard son of the duketreacherously killed his uncle andwithdrew support for Reggio. Spainattacked Palermo for no reason. CaterinaSforza, seduced by Borgia, decided thestatues were not worth it and relinquishedher command to Andria Doria, who knewnothing about land warfare. The evilduke of Mantua witnessed the seductionand reported it to the Pope, whereuponthe Pope urged Lucrezia to do what shedid best with her brother. Caesar died thefollowing weekend. The alliance wasbadly strained.The confrontation took place inCampania. The Neapolitans hosted thebattle and offered to supply the food, butthe offer was rejected after tenNeapolitan testers died of foodpoisoning. After a major battle, a dozenor so knights were killed. The statues,meanwhile, had been forgotten anddisappeared.All seriousness aside, the statues werereturned to Reggio, thanks to democraticconventions and agreements.We took the students in three buses tostudy the works. We waited until themuseum opened and waited longer untilthe museum was able to accommodate us.I saw Reggio as an attractive city. I hadread that it was a center of production ofessence oils used in the manufacture ofperfumes and this fact might have giventhe shops along the Corso Garibaldi asophisticated edge. The city was bustlingand hustling, leading me to wonder whator where was the prime mover in all thisactivity. We and all other busloads ofvisitors coming and going would nothave been here had it not been for thestatues, and it gives support to those whosee the arts as economic stimulus,evidence that where the arts flourish, theeconomy thrives.We were treated to two remarkable lifesizestatues. And both statues, as Scholarsbelieve, are from the 5 th century B.C. Onestatue is of a young warrior, strong, withcurly beard and a gaze worthy of a ClintEastwood. The youthful head is turnedslightly to the right. Parted lips revealsilver teeth. His straight right leg speaksPAGE 16of stability and strength while his bentleft leg reminds one of the contrapostalgrace of Michelangelo’s “David.” Hisweapon and shield are missing, butthanks to art his body remains tense,ready for combat and self assured. Theother statue is an older man, dubbed “TheOld Man.” What else? Also minus hisheadgear, weapon and shield, he exudesmore of an inner serenity, his life perhapsmolded by years of combat. For me thestatues seem to bridge the self containedspiritualty of 5 th century B.C. works andthe commanding presence of much laterand Roman works.Some scholars see the two as works fromdifferent hands. The youth may be a workby Phidias from about 460 BC, while theold man is ascribed to Polyclitus of about430 B.C.. Look up the Doryphorus ofPolyclitus (440 B.C) and you will findthe resemblance astounding (except forthe face). Some have suggested that theyare commemorative statues dedicated tothe victory at Marathon.Yet others claim with equalpersuasiveness that they are the work ofPythagorus who worked in Reggio in the5 th centurt B.C. Pythagorus was the firstto depict the kind of detail( the showingof veins, for example) found in thestatues. Yet I find veins in theDoryphorus as well.Mysteries remain. Many questions beganswers. Both mysteries and questionsmay always be unsolved and unanswered.