Charioteers of Delphi (1924)

These two limestone figures stand at 5’ high, and are modeled after Charioteer of Delphi of Greece, c. 470 BC.

Two erect stone figures, copies of a bronze Charioteer of Delphi made for the Art Institute of Chicago from the Greek original, stand on pillars at a park entrance. Each of the statues had just one arm at first, as does the ancient prototype, which shows remnants of an arm and a rein. But shortly after installation at the estate in 1924 Robert Allerton decided to have the remaining arms removed because, as he explained, “there was no chariot and there was this arm out, it just looked stupid.”

With the arms gone, the statues seem more attenuated than the original-despite their being rather stockier interpretations-as the vertical elements in the drapery stretch up to become in effect static fluted columns. This sort of artistic license lends credence to the supposition that for Robert Allerton, symmetry and balance came first and archaeological exactitude lacked relevance.

(To see a bronze replica with the arm still attached, visit the Workman Gallery of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures at the Spurlock Museum on the University of Illinois’ Urbana-Champaign campus.)

From A Guide to Art at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, Robert Allerton Park, and Chicago by Muriel Scheinman. Copyright 1995 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Used with permission from the University of Illinois Press.