Athlete with a Strigil in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, October 2009

Athlete with a scraper (Apoxyomenos)
about A.D. 110–135

Dimensions: Height (with plinth): 71.5 cm (28 1/8 in.)

Material: Marble from Carrara, Italy

Classification: Sculpture

Accession Number: 00.304

On view in the Greek and Roman Sculpture Gallery - 211

This athlete uses a cloth to clean the strigil (scraper) he once held in his missing right hand. A strigil is a curved metal tool that Greek and Roman athletes used to scrape dirt, sweat, and oil from their bodies. In showing the athlete tidying his strigil rather than scraping, this sculpture differs from a more widely known version of the subject. It is unclear which type more faithfully reproduces a celebrated bronze statue by the fourth-century-B.C. Greek sculptor Lysippos.

Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/athlete-with-a-scraper-apo...