Discus Thrower - Washington, D.C.
N 38° 53.692 W 077° 02.785
18S E 322527 N 4307100
This postage stamp depicts a marble copy of Myron's bronze Discobolus (Discus Thrower) statue located in Washington, D.C., USA.
Waymark Code: WMD6MZ
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 11/27/2011
Views: 10
"On July 19, 1996, the U.S. Postal Service released a new stamp to commemorate Discobulous(Discuss Thrower)the centennial of the modern-era Olympic Games. The stamp's design prominently features a marble copy of Myron's bronze Discobolus (Discus Thrower) statue. Myron, who lived in 5th-century B.C. Greece, was a well-known pioneer of a new school of art that incorporated motion into free-standing statues. In this case, Myron has caught a discus thrower at the peak of his backswing, poised for eternity just before spinning his body in powerful rotations to give the discus even greater speed at the moment of release. History does not record whether Discobolus recognized a particular Olympic athlete, but Myron is known to have produced other statues honoring specific heroes. In any event, it has evolved into a powerful symbol of the spirit of Olympic athletic competition. Myron's original bronze statue disappeared long ago, but fortunately a Roman artist made a copy in marble, which today is housed at the Italian National Museum in Rome."
-- Source
The Discus Thrower is a sculpture of a nude male with a discus in his right hand held behind his back in preparation for throwing. He's bent over in a discus throwing stance.
From Wikimedia Commons: "Discus Thrower, a replica of Discobolus, located at 22nd Street and Virginia Avenue, NW in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. The sculpture was a gift from the Italian government for U.S. assistance in recovering pieces of art that were stolen during World War II."
The following remarks are from the Smithsonian Art Inventory web page:
"Myron's fifth century B.C. bronze of the Discus Thrower has never been found, so to make this cast an unknown artist used one of the few surviving marble versions of the sculpture. After casting in Florence, the bronze was chiseled as it was done during the Renaissance and then buried in the ground for five months and kept in the open air for six months to give the statue a permanent finish resembling antique bronze. The sculpture is installed on top of an ancient Egyptian column made of African gray granite. The column was recovered from a Roman archaeological site. Beneath the column is a base made of travertine marble excavated from a medieval architectural site. The sculpture was a gift from the Italian government to celebrate the return to Italy of art objects taken by the Germans during WWII. IAS files contain an excerpt from Jannelle Warren-Findley's Aug. 1, 1985 report for the National Park Service entitled, "A Guide to Selected Statues, Monuments and Memorials," National Capital Parks - Central, National Park Service, Washington, D.C. (RFQ 3-4-1919) which includes a brief list of bibliographic sources, and notes to additional information found in National Park Service files."