(copied on the coins of Elis); a Maenad at Athens, running with head thrown back and a torn kid in her hands, was ascribed to him. Another type of his was Apollo as leader of the Muses, singing to the lyre. The most elaborate of his works was a great group representing Achilles being conveyed over the sea to the island of Leuce by his mother Thetis, accompanied by Nereids.
Jointly with his contemporaries Praxiteles and Lysippos, Skopas may be considered to have completely changed the character of Greek sculpture; they initiated the lines of development that culminated in the schools of Pergamum, Rhodes and other great cities of later Greece. In most modern museums of ancient art their influence may be seen in three-fourths of the works exhibited. At the Renaissance it was especially their influence which dominated Italian painting, and through it, modern art.
37. Anonymous, Athenian Tombstone, c. 340 B. C. E. Marble, h: 168 cm. National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Athens (Greece).
38. Anonymous, Aphrodite of Knidos, copy after a Greek original created by Praxiteles, c. 350 B. C. E. Marble. Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican (Italy).
39. Anonymous, Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman copy after a Greek original created by Praxiteles, c. 350 B. C. E. Marble, h: 122 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France).
40. Anonymous, Crouching Venus, Roman copy after a Greek original created in the 3rd century B. C. E. Marble, h: 96 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France).
41. Anonymous, Dionysos and Ariadne (detail from the Derveni Krater), c. 340–330 B. C. E. Copper, h: 91 cm. Archeological Museum, Thessaloniki (Greece).
42. Anonymous, Venus and Cupid, Roman copy after a Greek original, 4th century B. C. E. Restored at the end of the 17th century C. E. by Alessandro Algardi. Marble, h: 174 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France).
Aphrodite became a common subject for Greek sculptors in the fourth century B. C. E. and later, because her renowned beauty provided an acceptable excuse for an erotic representation of the female body. She is sometimes shown, as here, with her son Eros, known to the Romans as Cupid, and in later art as “putti,” the winged babies symbolising earthly and divine love. In Roman art and mythology, Aphrodite became Venus, goddess of love. To the Romans she had a more elevated status, seen as the progenitor of the line of Caesar, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudian emperors, and by extension as an embodiment of the Roman people. This playful depiction of Aphrodite and Eros, or Venus and Cupid, is more suggestive of the Greek view of Aphrodite, who saw her not only as the symbol of sensual beauty, but also as occasionally silly and humorous.
43. Anonymous, Capitoline Venus, Roman copy after a Greek original created by Praxiteles, 3rd century B. C. E. Marble, h: 193 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome (Italy).
44. Anonymous, Wounded Amazon, Roman copy after a Greek original created by Polykleitos, c. 440–430 B. C. E. Marble, h: 202 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome (Italy).
45. Anonymous, Belvedere Apollo, Roman copy after a Greek original created by Leochares, c. 330 B. C. E. Marble, h: 224 cm. Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican (Italy).
The Belvedere Apollo has long enjoyed fame, known as the prototypical work of Greek art. This fame springs from its rediscovery during the Renaissance of the fifteenth century. At that time, wealthy Italian nobles began to collect ancient sculpture that was being discovered in the ruins of Roman Italy. The Belvedere Apollo went to the collection of the Pope, and was displayed in the courtyard of the Belvedere villa in the Vatican. There, it was seen by countless visitors and visiting artists, who sketched the piece. Copies were made for various courts of Europe. The proud, princely bearing of the figure, along with the delicate beauty of Apollo’s face, had great appeal among the aristocratic classes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and to the Romantics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
LEOCHARES
(Active between 340–320 B. C. E.)
A Greek sculptor who worked with Skopas on the Mausoleum around 350 B. C. E. Leochares executed statues in gold and ivory of Philip of Macedon’s family; the king placed them in the Philippeum at Olympia. Along with Lysippos, he made a group in bronze at Delphi representing a lion-hunt of Alexander. We hear of other statues by Leochares of Zeus, Apollo and Ares. The statuette in the Vatican, representing Ganymede being carried away by an eagle, originally poorly executed, though considerably restored, corresponds closely with Pliny’s description of a group by Leochares.
46. Anonymous, Apoxyomenos, copy after a bronze original created by Lysippos, c. 330 B. C. E. Marble, h: 205 cm. Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican (Italy).
In the fourth century, standing male statues of idealised athletes remained a popular subject for sculpture. The poses became more varied, however, as sculptors experimented with forms that could be viewed from multiple angles. The Apoxyomenos, or Man scraping Himself, is an example of innovation of pose. His right arm extends forward, reaching out of the plane in which the rest of his body lies. Before exercising, a Greek athlete would apply oil to his body. He would then return to the bath house, after engaging in sport, and scrape the oil off himself. The subject of the Apoxyomenos is in the process of scraping himself clean.
47. Anonymous, Ludovisi Group, Roman copy after a bronze original erected by the Kings of Pergamon Attalus I and Eumenes II, c. 240 B. C. E. Marble, h: 211 cm. Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome (Italy).
48. Anonymous, The Three Graces, Roman copy of a Greek original created during the 2nd century B. C. E., restored in 1609. Marble, 119 × 85 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France).
The Graces, or Charities, were three goddesses named Beauty, Mirth, and Cheer. They oversaw happy events such as dances and banquets. They were companions to Aphrodite, providing the happiness that accompanies love. Like Aphrodite, they were often depicted in the nude, and often, as in this example, dancing in a circle. In each, we see the familiar shift in weight, or contrapposto, developed in the fifth century. However, the composition of this piece is far more elaborate than any High Classical sculpture. It was not until the Hellenistic period that complex groups of multiple figures were depicted in free-standing sculpture. The figures are tied together by their embrace, unifying the piece, yet they face different directions, so that the sculpture would be interesting from any angle from which it was viewed.
49. Anonymous, Dying Gaul, Roman copy after a bronze original erected by the Kings of Pergamon Attalus I and Eumenes II, c. 240 B. C. E. Marble, h: 93 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome (Italy).
50. Anonymous, Zeus and Porphyrion during the Battle with the Giants, Pedestal Frieze, Great Altar of Zeus, Pergamon, c. 180
