Possibly Giuseppe Boschi (1783-1824) | Italian, Rome, early 19th century | After the Antique | Pair of Discus Throwers

This elegant pair of Grand Tour bronzes after the antique Discobolus (Discus thrower) and Discophoros (Discus carrier) were probably made in Rome around 1800. The most famous Roman marble version after the Greek original Discobolus by Myron was found in 1781 on the Esquiline Hill and is now in the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome. The model is here paired with a copy of the marble Discophoros formerly in the Borghese Collection, Rome, which was transferred to the Louvre in 1807, where it remains today. The quality of the present bronze reductions indicates the possible authorship of Giuseppe Boschi, who alongside the better-known workshops of Righetti and Valadier was one of the leading bronze sculptors copying antique models around 1800 in Rome. 

RELATED LITERATURE
N. Penny, Catalogue of European sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum. 1540 to the present day. Volume I: Italian, Oxford, 1992, pp. 19-20, nos. 15 and 16; F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London, pp. 199-202, no. 32