Although Stuck made far fewer bronzed than paintings, the form of expression fascinated him no less. A longer stay in Rome with his artist colleague Max Klinger was a formative artistic experience for him. Under the influence of the ancient sculptures he saw in the Vatican’s collections, for example, and their ideal, classical forms, Stuck created one his earliest fully sculptural figures, the "Athlete". Although no direct models for the figure can be identified, the ancient sculptures of discus throwers and wrestlers may come to mind, which express the ideal of harmony of body and mind in the tense motion dynamics. Stuck exhibited the plaster model of the figure with great success for the first time at the VI International Art Exhibition in Munich's Glaspalast, and the first bronze was probably cast at the end of 1892, to which Otto Julius Bierbaum devoted several pages in his first major Stuck monographs of 1893 and 1899: "He felt the need to depict the human body from all sides, physically and massively, and so he created sculptures such as the 'Athlete', which breathe a bright joy in the human body." The physicality of the athlete, rendered with anatomical precision and yet idealized, shows him in a confident pose and heroic nakedness; he seems to lift the ball with ease, and is not pressed down by the weight like Atlas or Sisyphus by the globe or the stone block. Not least because of the resemblance to Stuck's own physiognomy, but also because of his enthusiasm for weight training, it is reasonable to assume that the artist identifies with his work. Stuck's initial successes as a painter had strengthened his artistic self-confidence and Bierbaum already recounted that he kept weights at his studio and was quite proud of his athletic body. In context of the increasing popularity that physical exercise experienced at the end of the 19th century, this corresponded to the ancient ideal of a healthy mind in a healthy body, also to be understood as an expression of artistic creativity. Always placed in prominent positions in the studio, Stuck finally integrated the figure into the new ensemble of the artist's altar, which was redesigned in 1901/02. The "Athlete" is given a prominent place in the right-hand golden niche of the predella zone, where it made for a counterpart to the "Tänzer" (1897/98). In combination with the "Sünde" that thrones above everything else, the two figures can be understood as archetypes of man and woman, bound together by erotic attraction and expressing one of Franz von Stuck's most fundamental design principles: "The strength of man and the softness of the woman" (cf. Raff 2011, p. 52). He had the names of the Greek sculptor Phidias and the greatest sculptor and universal artist of the Renaissance, Michelangelo, affixed to a golden plaque in his studio as leading sculptural figures. Stuck was presumably also interested in executing the "Athlete" as a large sculpture and planned a view from below, as a later drawing suggests (Raff 2011, p. 27, fig. 29). The early casts were made by Leyrer in Munich, later copies were also produced by Priessmann Bauer & Co. The small sculpture was shown in numerous exhibitions, including international ones, as well as in the most important monographs on the artist. It can be found in many renowned museum collections. [KT]