A Complete Morphological Study of the Right Hand of Bronzo "A" DI Riace

Abstract

The Riace Bronzes represent one of the most important masterpieces of Magna Graecia archaeology, and of the whole world artistic heritage. The Bronzes, other than for their exquisite workmanship, are also interesting for the mysteries which surround their history. The countless hypotheses about their identity, origin and authors are supported by many studies of historical and iconographic nature. This paper describes a complete morphological study of the Riace Bronzes in order to provide to the archaeologists some objective data about the shape of the most interesting and controversial part of the Bronzes: the right hand of Bronzo "A". This study aims to provide a series of geometrical data which could help to identify the object that the A Bronze was gripping. This questions is, in fact, one of the fundamental steps for the individuation of the Bronze A's identity.