Brinkmann statues

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

The muscled cuirass was meant to be the wearer's body in bronze literally. So what is humanly impossible in real bronze the sculptors were almost alwasy idealizing it. In the majority of later statues,usually of hellenistic rulers and roman emperors,the cuirass follows the slight curve of the torso,that the artists didn't want to sacrifice and break the harmony of the posture.
Now even if the cuirass was meant to be leather of any reasonable thickness,it still couldn't bent in two directions since it's like a cylinder wrapped around the body. The leather would be formed once to take its shape and afterwards it wouldn't bent again. Not that i believe there are any chances that this sculpture represents a leather musculata.
Khairete
Giannis