The "Uffizi Wrestlers" is an appropriate introduction to The Art of Wrestling, due to its historical
implications, and the fact that it was the first painting of wrestlers done by Ostrovsky.

The original work was sculpted in the 4th Century BC by the Greek sculptor Cephisodotus and currently resides in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy. The right hand of the top wrestler is clenched in a fist, suggesting that the artist created the work depicting pankration, a combat sport in ancient Greece. (Introduced into the 33rd olympiad in 648 B.C., pankration combined striking
and submission grappling, akin to MMA today.)  However, art and sport historians have demonstrated that the top wrestler's clenched fist is not the work of Cephisodotus but was added two hundred years after
the original sculpture was completed.  As a result, it is uncertain whether the original sculpture
was created as a monument to pankration or wrestling.