Les Bronzes De Riace

Kept in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Reggio Calabria, the Riace bronzes or  warriors are two of the very few original statues that have survived from antiquity. Dated to the 5th century BC and discovered in 1972 off the coast of Riace, they are among the very few large Greek bronzes (almost 2m each) still preserved in their entirety.

This book, published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the warriors of Riace, combines text and photographs. It offers a direct photographic comparison of the two sculptures, named A and B, highlighting the corporeal reading of the subjects and the three-dimensionality of their bronze bodies, often masked by the two-dimensional character of the photographic images.

The text analyses the two bronzes from the point of view of the ancient work of art and their significance in contemporary culture. It traces the adventure of the bronzes from their discovery and studies their position within Greek art, the stylistic questions they raise, and the practices and knowledge of classical sculpture workshops.