Bronze Sculpture Runner 19th Century

runner bronze sculpture, Giorgio Sommer foundry, first foundry in Naples, this bronze is one of the two famous runners. The original masterpiece is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
The statue was found with its twin inside the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, near Pompeii, Naples.
It depicts a victorious athlete in ancient Olympic disciplines in Greece.
There has always been a long-standing debate about the Olympic discipline that the athlete represents: whether it is a boxer in a defensive position, even if the torso tilted so much forward and the lack of mobility of the feet tend to exclude it. He is almost certainly a runner, as evidenced by his lean muscles and forward stance, as if he were starting to run. This bronze has silver eyes in imitation of the originals which were in glass paste, the marble base has two small holes, perhaps a donation plaque was lost, the sculpture is not signed, the first bronzes by G. Sommer were not signed around 1860.