ivory. If Plutarch tells us that he superintended the great works of Perikles on the Acropolis, this phrase is very vague.
Of his death we have two discrepant accounts. According to Plutarch he was made an object of attack by the political enemies of Perikles, and died in prison at Athens. According to Philochorus, he fled to Elis, where he made the great statue of Zeus for the Eleans, and was afterwards put to death by them. For several reasons the first of these tales is preferable.
Ancient critics take a high view of the merits of Phidias. What they especially praise is the ethos or permanent moral level of his works as compared with those of the later “pathetic” school. Demetrius calls his statues sublime and at the same time precise.
31. Anonymous, Riace Bronze B, Roman copy after a Greek original created by Phidias, c. 450 B. C. E. Bronze, h: 197 cm. Museo Nazionale, Reggio Calabria (Italy).
A sunken treasure, this bronze statue was pulled from the sea, having been lost in a shipwreck in Antiquity. Ironically, its loss in the sea resulted in it being one of the few bronze statues to survive from Antiquity, since it was never melted down for its valuable metal. The warrior is one of a pair that has been attributed to the fifth century B. C. E., or High Classical Period. In this piece we can see the ideals of High Classical period sculpture fully realised. At the same time realistic and idealistic, the sculpture shows a lifelike, but perfect, body, each muscle articulated, the figure frozen in a relaxed, life-like pose. The solid, athletic body reflects the ideal of a young athlete, although this figure represents an older warrior, who once would have held a spear and a shield. The nudity of the figure also alludes to the athlete, who in Greece would have practised or competed in the nude, and also to the mythical hero, a reminder that the man represented here was no ordinary warrior, but a semi-divine hero, an appropriate offering for one of the great sanctuaries of the Greek world.
32. Anonymous, Male Torso, in the style of the Diadoumenos, copy after a bronze original created by Polykleitos, c. 430 B. C. E. Marble, h: 85 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France).
33. Anonymous, Apollo Sauroktonos, Hellenistic copy after a Greek original created by Praxiteles, 4th century B. C. E. Marble, h: 149 cm. Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican (Vatican).
PRAXITELES
(Active between c. 375 – c. 335 B. C. E.)
Greek sculptor, Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephissodotus, is considered the greatest of the fourth century B. C. E. Attic sculptors. He left an imperishable mark on the history of art.
Our knowledge of Praxiteles received a significant contribution, and was placed on a satisfactory basis with the discovery at Olympia in 1877 of his statue of Hermes with the Infant Dionysos, a statue that has become world famous, but which is now regarded as a copy. Full and solid without being fleshy, at once strong and active, the Hermes is a masterpiece and the surface play astonishing. In the head we have a remarkably rounded and intelligent shape, and the face expresses the perfection of health and enjoyment.
Among the numerous copies that came to us, perhaps the most notable is the Apollo Sauroktonos, or the lizard-slayer, a youth leaning against a tree and idly striking with an arrow at a lizard, and the Aphrodite of Knidos of the Vatican, which is a copy of the statue made by Praxiteles for the people of Knidos; they valued it so highly they refused to sell it to King Nicomedes, who was willing in return to discharge the city’s entire debt, which, according to Pliny, was enormous.
The subjects chosen by Praxiteles were either human or the less elderly and dignified deities. Apollo, Hermes and Aphrodite rather than Zeus, Poseidon or Athena attracted him. Under his hands the deities descend to human level; indeed, sometimes almost below it. They possess grace and charm to a supreme degree, though the element of awe and reverence is wanting.
Praxiteles and his school worked almost entirely in marble. At the time the marble quarries of Paros were at their best; for the sculptor’s purpose no marble could be finer than that of which the Hermes is made.
34. Anonymous, Diomedes, c. 430 B. C. E. Marble, h: 102 cm. Glyptothek, Munich (Germany).
35. Anonymous, Hermes Tying his Sandal, Roman copy after a Greek original created by Lysippos, 4th century B. C. E. Marble, h: 161 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France).
LYSIPPOS
(c. 395 – c. 305 B. C. E.)
The Greek sculptor, Lysippos, was head of the school of Argos and Sicyon in the time of Philip and Alexander of Macedon. His works, some colossal, are said to have numbered 1500. Certain accounts have him continuing the school of Polykleitos; others represent him as self-taught. He was especially innovative regarding the proportions of the human male body; in contrast to his predecessors, he reduced the head size and made the body harder and more slender, producing the impression of greater height. He also took great pains with hair and other details. Pliny and other writers mention many of his statues. Among the gods he seems to have produced new and striking types of Zeus, the Sun-god and others; many of these were colossal figures in bronze. Among heroes he was particularly attracted by the mighty physique of Heracles. The Heracles Farnese of Naples, though signed by Glycon of Athens, and a later and exaggerated transcript, owes something, including the motive of rest after labour, to Lysippos. Lysippos made many statues of Alexander the Great, and so satisfied his patron, no doubt by idealising him, that he became the king’s court sculptor; the king and his generals provided numerous commissions. Portraits of Alexander vary greatly, and it is impossible to determine which among them go back to Lysippos.
As head of the great athletic school of Peloponnese, Lysippos naturally sculptured many athletes; a figure by him of a man scraping himself with a strigil was a great favourite of the Romans in the time of Tiberius; it has usually been regarded as the original copied in the Apoxyomenos of the Vatican.
36. Anonymous, Meleager, copy after a Greek original created by Skopas, c. 340 B. C. E. Marble, h: 123 cm. Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge (United States).
SKOPAS
(Active during first half of the 4th century B. C. E.)
Probably of Parian origin, Skopas was the son of Aristander, a great Greek sculptor of the fourth century B. C. E. Although classed as an Athenian, and similar in tendency to Praxiteles, he was really a cosmopolitan artist, working largely in Asia and Peloponnesos. The existing works with which he is associated are the Mausoleum of Halicarnassos, and the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. In the case of the Mausoleum, though no doubt the sculpture generally belongs to his school, it remains impossible to single out any specific part of it as his own. There is, however, good reason to think that the pedimental figures from Tegea are Skopas’ own work. They are, unfortunately, all in extremely poor condition, but appear to be the best evidence of his style.
While in general style Skopas approached Praxiteles, he differed from him in preferring strong expression and vigorous action to repose and sentiment.
Early writers give a good deal of information on the works of Skopas. For the people of Elis he made
