At the beginning of December last year, a two-day conference (2-3.12.2022) was held in Athens on the topic of a single statue of Genioch of Delphi to present the results of a scientific study on the project, which was held from 2017 to November 2021 and was the result of the cooperation of four main bodies: the Louvre, the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France), the French School of Athens (EFA) and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Phocis. Monde devoted a whole page to this conference (December 3, 2022), apparently due to the special interest of the French, and the French school also made a documentary (“L’Aurige de Delphes. À la redécouverte d’un bronze exclusivity”), where the review and its participants are presented in detail.

Gnioch and his complex were a vow of Polisal, tyrant of Gela (Sicily). The initiator is said to have won the triple chariot race at the Pythians in 478 or 474 BC, but it is also believed that his brother Hiero’s victory in 470 BC is promised. This is a work of the so-called “harsh rhythm”, created in the 5th century (probably between 470 and 466 BC), buried in the ground by a landslide caused by an earthquake in 373 BC. and it came to light again in April 1896 during the so-called “Great Excavations” of Delphi, which began from 1892 under the auspices of the French School. It is one of five fully preserved bronze statues from the 5th century. There were thousands of them, but the ancestors melted them down for weapons and household utensils. Countless pages have been written about this masterpiece. I will note only one phrase of our great archaeologist Christos Karuzos: “However, he is depicted not in a certain moment of his action, but in his image – pose and expression together – concentrated effort and attention during the struggle and the confident pride of his winner” (“Delphi”, Hermes, 1974, p. 137). Chiniochos is a tall statue (1.80 m.), and when we, as ordinary visitors to the museum, study its proportions, we should try to imagine the work as a whole, because “it is obvious that here, with the large horizontal width of the entire composition (the chariot , horses), instead, a strong vertical was needed, which the artist knew how much it should be ”(“ Delphi ”, p. 140).

The statue that we see today, which fascinates us, is not the same as the one that was seen 2500 years ago.

The analysis of the statue with the most modern technical methods, presented at the conference, shed light with unprecedented precision on how it was built: it consists of about fifteen large parts, cast separately, which gave great opportunities to the sculptor, and were assembled so well that their seams not always visible. This analysis also told us a lot about the composition of the alloy, about the inlay materials, about its earthen core, the petrographic study of which will decisively help to establish the workshop of its manufacture. All this and much more worries mainly archaeologists. But there is something else that, along with the archaeologists, is of interest to the rest of us outside the archeological clergy: the polychrome of the statue, made from used metals, the composition of the alloy and the inlaid materials are now being revealed in a very specific way. The polychromy of ancient statues and temples is, of course, well known to us, but now, in this famous statue, it is concretized with great accuracy. Gnioch’s lips were red (because they were only made of copper), his teeth were silver, his reins and belt were reddish (because the alloy contained less tin), his tunic was golden (due to polished brass). The statue that we see today, which fascinates us, is not the same as the one that was seen 2500 years ago, and not only because we saw it in its entirety, the charioteer and the chariot in a single composition. Enioch, which we see (like other bronze statues), has rusted and therefore does not shine, but has acquired a dark green color. God bless! I would absolutely not like to see the outrageous statue in its original form. And I would not like to go through Delphi, as it was then. If I trust the archaeological record of the hundreds of buildings that were heaped up there, then I have no doubt that the holy site would present an unbearable picture. Time has done its best here!

The art of sculpture completed its development and reached its peak in ancient Greece. Everything great that has been done since then by great sculptors such as Michelangelo or even Rodin (as well as the successors of Bourdelle and Maillol) presupposes Greek sculpture and follows its path. We had to wait for the sculptors of modernism (Brancusi, Giacometti, Moore, Zadkine, and many others), who freed the sculptural form from the specific characteristics of the physical object, for sculpture to take its next step. Modern sculpture has even taught our eyes to appreciate the aesthetic—I don’t say archaeological—value of preclassical Greek sculpture, as well as that of other cultures. One of the contributors, not to the beauty of ancient sculpture, but to the emotion that it evokes in us, is probably also the time that freed it from bad taste, for modern sensibility, elements and retained only perfect form and harmonious proportions. Surrounded by the statues that we all see, sculptors and non-sculptors, over the centuries, and in front of some of them are breathtaking, are those that have been destroyed by time.