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Commentary by Stephen Getsy (2004)

Though Leighton's idea for the Athlete may have been casual and experimental, his decision to execute it as a life-size statue was not. Drawing on the technical assistance of Thomas Brock, Leighron first exhibited the statue fully finished in bronze by the 1870s, bronze was seldom considered a desirable material for imaginative or ideal statues and was largely used for monuments or small-scale works. For the genre of the ideal or imaginative statue, the canonical connotations of white marble appeared more amenable to aspirations to ideality and exemplarity. Customarily, imaginative statues were exhibited as (white) plaster casts and, once commissioned, translated to marble with the aid of a pointing machine and specialist carvers. Integrating the traits of bronze into his composition, Leighton capitalized on its malleability and strength to capture the complex and active movements of his wrestler. . . . The use of bronze allowed him to display and emphasize his attention to the refined rendering of surface anatomy. Significantly, by going through the expense of having the work cast, Leighton also pointed to his confidence in his sculpture. He translated his work into a durable and permanent material without relying on the affirmation of a commission, exhibiting not a preliminary conception in plaster but a fully finished sculpture.

Bibliography

Beattie, Susan. The New Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.

British Sculpture 1850-1914. A loan exhibition of sculpture and medals sponsored by The Victorian Society. London: Fine Art Society, 1968. no. 101.

Getsy, David. Body Doubles: Sculpture in Britain, 1877-1905. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

Ormond, Léonie and Richard. Lord Leighton. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975.

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