The Wrestler (sculpture) - Appraisals

Appraisals

Superlatives abound in descriptions of this sculpture by archaeologists and art historians alike. Richard Diehl says it is the "most spectacular" Olmec three-dimensional sculpture while Hugh Honour finds it "the finest of all Olmec sculptures". For Ignacio Bernal it is "one of the greatest of Olmec works of art", a thought later echoed by Michael Coe who says it is "one of the supreme examples of Olmec art" with a "feeling for individual character and for human physique could only come from long study of anatomy".

Comparing it to other pre-Columbian art, archaeologist Mary Ellen Miller describes the Wrestler as "among the most powerful three-dimensional portraits of the ancient New World".

Art historian George Kubler discerns few rivals anywhere, stating that "the spiraling motion of the body, the multiplicity of profile, the coherent muscles, and the expressive restraint of the work set it apart as among the great works of sculpture of all ages". In 1996, the government of the United Mexican States issued a one-ounce silver coin bearing the image of the sculpture on its obverse, one of six in the Olmec cultural set.