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Pyrilampus

(92 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Πυρίλαμπος; Pyrílampos). Bronze sculptor, son of Agias from Messene. A preserved Exedra base with signature of P. was dated in the 2nd or 1st century BC. It is uncertain whether this refers to the same P. of whom Pausanias (6,3,13; 6,15,1; 6,16,5) saw three victory statues in Olympia. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Overbeck, no. 1565-1567  Loewy, no. 274  Lippold, 380  EAA 6, s. v. Pyrilampus, 1965, 572-573  G. Maddoli, Pyrilampes, dimenticato scultore di Sicione, e la cronologia di Pyrilampes di Messene, in: Dialoghi di archeologia 7, 2, 1989, 65-69.

Athenis

(41 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Sculptor from Chios, son of  Archermus. He worked in the late 6th cent. BC on Delos, in Iasos, Chios and in Athens with his brother  Bupalus. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Fuchs/Floren, 335-337 Overbeck, no. 314, 315, 318 (sources).

Theocosmus

(90 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Θεόκοσμος; Theókosmos). Sculptor from Megara in the late 5th cent. BC, father of Callicles [2]. With the help of Pheidias he created a gold-ivory cult image of Zeus (Gold-ivory technique) in Megara, which remained unfinished after 431 BC because of the Peloponnesian War. On the victory monument of Lysander [1] in Delphi (in 405 BC) T. made the statue of Hermon [3]. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Overbeck, Nr. 855; 979; 1035  Lippold, 203 f.  P. Moreno, s. v. T., EAA 7, 1966, 816  A. Jacquemin, Offrandes monumentales à Delphes, 1999, Nr. 322.

Bryaxis

(339 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Bρύαξις; Brýaxis) Sculptor of Carian descent. The traditional list of his works implies such a long period of creative activity, that even in antiquity, his works were divided between two homonymous artists. A signed relief base in Athens (NM) is dated to c. 350 BC. Also assigned to the same period is the collaboration of B. on the Mausoleum of  Halicarnassus (351 BC: death of Mausolus); however, there are also valid arguments for dating this after 333 BC. The allocation of sculpture fragments -- none of which were found in situ (today London, BM) -- to the north side…

Butades

(51 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Legendary sculptor of kouroi from Sicyon who in ancient sources is credited with the invention of figurative antefixes (7th cent. BC) and of portraiture. Until 146 BC, one of his works, probably a mask, was displayed in Corinth. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Fuchs/Floren, 196. 211 Overbeck, no. 259. 260 (sources).

Laocoon group

(858 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] A group of marble statues, found in 1506 in the area of the Baths of Trajan in Rome, highly regarded, widely received and academically controversial since its discovery (Rom, VM). It shows Laocoon and his two sons, entangled in sea snakes and nearing death. Its identity with a marble group praised by Pliny (HN 36,37: omnibus et picturae et statuariae artis praeferendum) of the artists Agesander, Athanodorus and Polydorus from Rhodes in the house of Titus, was recognized immediately. The first phase of reception stands under the influence o…

Branchidae

(81 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Term used, since their discovery in 1765, for statues from the oracle sanctuary of Apollo Branchos in  Didyma. The 15 extant statues of seated males date from 590-540 BC, record the names of their sculptors and were placed on the sacred road linking  Miletus to the sanctuary. They are significant examples of Ionian sculpture style and of the oriental influence on Greek iconography. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Fuchs/Floren, 374-375 K. Tuchelt, Die archa. Skulpturen von Didyma, IstForsch 27, 1970.

Agesander

(34 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Ἀγήσανδρος; Agésandros) (Hagesandrus), son of Paeonius, sculptor from Rhodes. Together with  Athanadorus and Polydorus, he produced famous groups of Hellenistic sculptures in Rome. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography B. Andreae, Praetorium Speluncae, 1994.

Phidias

(1,377 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
(Φειδίας/ Pheidías, Latin Phidias). [German version] I. General remarks Son of Charmides, Athenian sculptor. In Antiquity,  Hegias [1] was named as P.' teacher, others suggested Ageladas. P.' artistic efforts were seen as closely associated with the Athenian statesman Pericles [1] and lasted from about 460 to 430 BC; main period of productivity: 448-445 BC. Ancient reports of P.' life and work are rife with scandal (sources in [1]). Between 438/7 and 433/2 BC, P.' connections with Pericles resulted in ch…

Damocritus

(82 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Δαμόκριτος/ Damókritos; also: Democritus [Δημόκριτος/ Dēmókritos]). Sculptor from Sicyon, active during the first half of the 4th cent. BC. Pausanias saw a victor's statue of his in Olympia. Pliny chose the Attic form of the name, for a Democritus, who made statues of philosophers. In Rome his name was found on the statue of Lysis from Miletus in a lost collection of copies of 4th cent. works. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Overbeck, no. 463, 466-468 (sources) Loewy, no. 484 Lippold, 247-248.

Menophantus

(80 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Greek sculptor. A statue of Aphrodite (Rome, MN) bears his signature, with the additional note that the model is in the Troad. The work, which is a variation on the type of the Capitoline Venus, dates from the 1st cent. BC. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography G. Cressedi, s.v. Menephanto, EAA 4, 1961, 1026 Loewy, Nr. 377 B. S. Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture, 1, 1990, 356 O. Vasori, Museo nazionale romano. Le sculture, 1, 1, 1979, 109-111, Nr. 81.

Zenas

(74 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Ζηνᾶς/ Zēnâs). Sculptor's name on two Roman portrait busts from the early 2nd cent. AD. The addition to the signature of the father's name Alexander (IG XIV 1241) in the one case and of β in the other (IG XIV 1242) suggests two different sculptors. The name points to a connection with sculptors from Aphrodisias (Aphrodisias [1], sculptors' school). Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Loewy, Nr. 383 a-b P. Moreno, s. v. Z., EAA 7, 1247 f.

Boedas

(79 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (also Boidas). Sculptor, son and pupil of  Lysippus. He worked in Byzantium around 300 BC. Pliny was aware of his fame but mentioned only the statue in Rome of a worshipper. For a long time the statue of the so-called ‘Praying boy’ from Rhodes in Berlin (PM) was erroneously identified with it. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography R. Kabus-Preisshofen, Der ‘Betende Knabe’ in Berlin, in: AA 1988, 679-699 Overbeck, no.1516. 1521 (sources) B. S. Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture, 1, 1990, 227-228.

Statue

(1,377 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] I. Term and general Derived from the Latin statuere ('to set up'), in sculpture, 'statue' denotes a completely three-dimensionally designed figure. This form of stand-alone depiction of people, animals and the more than human is at the centre of Greek artistry. In archaeological usage, statues which are integrated into architecture are also included in the term (pediment, akroterion ), but reliefs are not. Individual statues can be combined in a group in content and execution. The format of the statue ranges from sm…

Dameas

(135 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] [1] (also: Demeas) Sculptor from Croton (also: Demeas). Sculptor from Croton. In 532 BC he created the victor's statue of Milon in Olympia that is described by Pausanias; there is a base with fragmentary inscriptions that is seen as going together with it. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Fuchs/Floren, 428 Loewy, no. 414 Overbeck, no. 484 (sources). [German version] [2] Bronze sculptor from Cleitor, c. 405 BC Bronze sculptor from Cleitor, student of Polycletus. In Delphi he created, for the victory statue of the Spartans who went to Aigosp…

Herms

(610 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Hermai (ἕρμαι/ hérmai, ‘Hermes heads’), also hermádion (‘small Hermes’), schêma tetrágōnon, tetráglōchis, describes in Graeco-Roman art a special form of anthropoid freestanding sculpture. The herm consists of a pillar with a head, mostly with wooden lateral beam stumps instead of arms ( cheîres, cunei) and a male sexual organ attached at the front that is always ithyphallic in early herms. Double herms bear two heads turned away from each other. Three- and four-fold herms on one pillar are also to be found. In Arcadian he…

Calon

(250 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
(also Callon; Kά(λ)λων, Kál(l)ōn). [German version] [1] Sculptor from Aegina Sculptor from Aegina. C. was considered a contemporary of  Hegesias and a pupil of Tectaeus and  Angelion; his style was seen as archaic compared to that of  Canachus. An extant base from the Acropolis is dated to c. 500 BC. Pausanias describes a bronze tripod made by C. at Amycae -- a Spartan dedication after a victory against Messene -- featuring Kore as its support. It appears that other tripods, by  Gitiades, were also part of the offering, so that this tripod c…

Theke

(104 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (θήκη; thḗkē) is a term for any kind of container. In particular, from the 5th/4th cent. BC onwards it is used in texts and inscriptions for niche-shaped burial places, whether for burials in funerary buildings (Melos, 4th cent. BC) and vaults (Hdt. 1,67,3; 2,148,5), or for storing cinerary urns (Alexandria), but not sarkophagoi (Sarcophagus). Latin theca , in contrast, refers exclusively to holders for objects, primarily writing implements. Loculi Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography E. Saglio, s. v. loculus, DS 3.2, 1904, 1292-1295  A. Hug, s. v. T., RE …

Aphrodisius

(93 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Ἀφροδίσιος; Aphrodísios) Son of Lybius, sculptor from Athens; in Augustan times, he worked in the copyist workshop of Baiae. A copy, bearing his initials, of the type ‘Hera Borghese’ used for portrait statues has been found. A sculptor of the same name, however, whose statues filled the emperor's palace on the Palatine, came from Tralles. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography C. Landwehr, Die ant. Gipsabgüsse aus Baiae, 1985, 88-94 Overbeck, no. 2300 (sources) P. Zancani Montuoro, Repliche romane di una statua fidiaca, in: Bullettino della Commissio…

Copies

(1,211 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] A. Original and copy In archaeological literature, any reproduction of classical and Hellenistic sculptures that is faithful in form to the original is regarded as a copy, even if the copy does not completely correspond in size, material, or degree of completion. Copies in the broadest sense are a main characteristic of ancient art production which was based on slow change of style, on the familiarity with the iconography of passed epochs and a deep respect towards them: innovations w…

Daitondas

(51 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Bronze sculptor from Sicyon. He created victors' and portrait statues in Olympia and Thebes in the later 4th cent. BC, as well as one of Aphrodite in Delphi. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Lippold, 299 J. Marcadé, Recueil des signatures de sculpteurs grecs, 1, 1953, no.25 Overbeck, no. 1582 (sources).

Gold-ivory technique

(548 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (also called Chryselephantine technique). The naked parts of a statue were primarily worked from  ivory; and the garments and hair from sheet-gold, and materials like glass, precious stones and coloured metals were also used. Chryselephantine works were rare because of the value of their materials and are only extant in fragmentary form. The manufacturing technique is therefore not known in detail and appears to be mainly dependent on the size of the work. If the work was life-siz…

Antignotus

(67 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Bronze sculptor in Athens. Preserved are his initials of the memorial statues for the Thracian kings Raskouporis (around 13 BC) and Kotys. Making statues of philosophers and athletes, an A. mentioned in Pliny is more likely to be a sculptor of the 4th cent. BC when taking a dated base into account. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Loewy, no.314-316 s. v. A., EAA Suppl. 61.

Sthennis

(136 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Σθέννις/ Sthénnis). Bronze sculptor from Olynthus, active in Athens from 348 BC. According to surviving inscribed bases, he and Leochares created a family group on the Acropolis in Athens in the late 4th cent. BC, and a statue for Lysimachus [2] in Oropus in the early 3rd cent. There is literary evidence for several statues by S. of gods and one of a philosopher, which were later moved to Rome, one of flentes matronae et adorantes sacrificantesque (‘weeping, adoring and sacrificing women’, Plin. HN 34,19,90) and victor statues in Olympia. Although none…

Lycius

(152 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Bronze sculptor from Eleutherae, son and pupil of Myron. According to written tradition, he created a votive offering in Olympia with single combats from the Trojan War (Achilles and Memnon, among others) and an Argonaut group. Notes about a boy with a votive water vessel, a puer sufflans and a statue of the pancratiast Autolycus ( Pankration) have been too damaged to allow for identification. From the Athenian Acropolis an autographed plinth for equestrian statues is extant, which is dated historically to around 430-420 BC. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Over…

Caecosthenes

(101 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Καικοσθένης; Kaikosthénēs). Son of Apollonides, bronze sculptor from Athens. Eight bases from the early 2nd cent. BC are inscribed with his and his brother Dies' signature. Some originate from portrait statues, which is why C. is usually identified as Chalcosthenes, who, according to Pliny, is supposed to have mostly sculpted statues of actors and athletes. In the Athenian Kerameikos, one could find ‘rough’ statues of gods and goddesses made of terracotta, perhaps the clay models for bronze statues. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Overbeck no. 1380-1381 Lo…

Dipoenus

(123 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Sculptor from Crete. Like his brother Scyllis, assumed to be a pupil or son of the legendary  Daedalus and one of the original exponents of the art of marble sculpture. Tales of his flight from Cyrus and his first commissions in Sicyon reflect the fact that the ‘Daedalic’ marble-sculpture of the Greek islands preceded that of the mainland and date its arrival on the mainland to the earlier half of the 6th cent. BC. Even in ancient literature, some archaic works were attributed to …

Bathycles

(131 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Legendary sculptor and architect from  Magnesia on the Maeander, famous for his so called ‘throne’ of Apollo in Amyclae near Sparta, which is described in great detail by Pausanias (3,18,6-3,19,6): as a structure, it combined the grave of Hyacinthus, an  altar, and a colossal  cult image, decorated with 45 mythological scenes, statues, and a depiction of his co-workers dancing in a circle. Since we have no surviving remnants at all, we must regard its numerous reconstructions and its dating to the late 6th cent. as speculative. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography A.…

Sphyrelaton

(247 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Archaeological term for a metal-working technique ('embossed with a hammer'), not documented in Antiquity. As described in Paus. 3,17,6, sheets hammered out of bronze or precious metals are joined together with nails over a wooden core. The technique is an attempt in the 7th cent. BC - before the invention of hollow casting at the beginning of the 6th cent. BC - to make large-scale free-standing bronzes. Accounts of sphyrelata emphasize the great age of such cult images, e.g. the …

Silver hoards

(206 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Compound hoards composed predominantly of ancient silver objects. As treasure these were hidden to protect them from theft or plundering (known as hoarding). As grave goods or thesauroi in sanctuaries or church treasures the treasure was collected and deposited in fact or ideally as an investment. In the private domain at all times and generally it acted simultaneously as both house contents and an investment. SH were predominantly composed of valuable eating and drinking utensils. Their importance to schol…

Ageladas

(155 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Ἀγελάδας; Ageládas). (Hageladas), bronze sculptor from Argus, was considered to be the teacher of  Phidias,  Myron,  Polycleitus. Victors' statues by A. are recorded since 520 BC. His votive offering by the Tarantines in Delphi has been dated to before 474 BC. His Heracles Alexikakos was erected in Athens after a pestilence (not necessarily 430 BC). From this, Pliny deducted the date for his zenith to be 432 BC. However, since this makes the postulated active period too long, ther…

Praxiteles

(1,173 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
(Πραξιτέλης/ Praxitélēs). [German version] I. Biography Sculptor from Athens, active c. 370-320 BC. Since Timarchus and Cephisodotus [5] were P.’ sons, Cephisodotus [4] is assumed to be his father. By using later namesakes, a family of sculptors can be pieced together extending into the 1st cent. BC. However, this is just as controversial as the suppositions about the wealth and political influence of the family in the 4th cent. P.’ anecdotal biography and fame sound a note of caution with regard to c. 55 named works. Even so, the abundance of sources has led to many, often i…

Grylloi

(214 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] According to Pliny (HN 35,114), the name for caricature depictions in painting since Antiphilus [4] of Alexandria represented a certain Gryllus in that way. Originally these were dancers with grotesque physical proportions and contortions. As gryllographeîn and grylloeídēs later generally referred to ridiculously proportioned bodies, small-format free-standing sculpture representations can also be described as grylloi. Today the genre is no longer attributed to Alexandrian art only. To cover all animal caricatures and monstrous figur…

Heraclidas

(115 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Sculptor from Atrax in Thessaly, active in the 4th cent. BC. Together with Hippocrates he signed a victory votive of the Pharsalians in Delphi, where it was set up in the mid 4th cent. BC. Because of the measures at the base, it may have been the bronze group of Achilles on horseback and Patroclus, which Pausanias (10,13,5) describes. However, because the base bears a rededication to Claudius there can be no certainty. Pausanias may not have seen the original work. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography G. Daux, Pausanias à Delphes, 1936, 141-143 J. Marcadé, Recueil de…

Calamis

(634 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Greek sculptor; ancient sources praise his horses and female figures, refer to him as the sculptor who made the transition to the classical period. He endowed his works with both ‘hardness’ and ‘grace’. He is linked with  Onatas,  Praxiteles and  Scopas. Many researchers have tried to solve the chronological contradictions by assuming that there were numerous sculptors of the same name with various surviving works ascribed to them. Since no work can be sufficiently proven to originate from C., the extent of his work is not known. From the famous C. originated a stat…

Reproduction techniques

(677 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] were used in antiquity from the Geometric Period on for the serial production of art. It exists when a model created specifically for the purpose is used to manufacture a not always specified number of repetitions. The intention may be economic, aesthetic (if identical products are desired) or, in the particular case of coins, dictated by the very purpose of the objects. It is crucial to distinguish this from the subsequent repetition of an original which is itself of value, as se…

Tisicrates

(155 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Τεισικράτης; Teisikrátēs). Bronze sculptor from Sicyon in the early 3rd cent. BC. There is literary evidence of portrait statues of Demetrius [2] Poliorcetes, Peucestas [2] and an otherwise unknown Senex Thebanus ('elderly Theban man') and inscriptional evidence of others in Thebes, Eretria [1] and Oropus as well as a mythological group. T. and Piston created a chariot and pair (Plin. HN 34,89). None of his works survives; attempts to identify his Demetrius in copies are questionable. T.'s teacher was Euthycr…

Vulca

(132 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Etruscan terracotta sculptor from Veii. According to Plin. HN 35,157, V. made the clay cult image of Iuppiter Capitolinus in Rome commissioned by Tarquinius [11] Priscus (first half of the 6th cent. BC) for a temple which was not, however, dedicated until 509 BC. Ascribing to V. the rest of the building sculpture of this temple and that of the temple of Veii is hypothetical. A Hercules fictilis by V. in Rome (Plin. HN loc.cit.) is not more closely defined and is not identical with a statuette mentioned in Mart. 14,178. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography M. Pallottino …

Smilis

(155 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Σμῖλις/ Smîlis). Son of Euclides, a sculptor from Aegina, probably 6th cent. BC. Pausanias (5,17,1) saw S.' enthroned Horae in the temple of Hera at Olympia and gives an account of his cult image of Hera in Samos (7,4,4). A late source (Athenagoras, Legatio pro Christianis 17,4 Schoedel) ascribes to S. a cult image of Hera in Argos. Ancient tradition places him among the mythical artists of the period of Daedalus [1]; Plin. HN 36,90 ascribes architectural marvels to him. His name can be derived from  σμίλη ( smílē, ‘chisel’). Speculation on S.' technical inventions …

Eumares

(128 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Εὐμάρης; Eumárēs). Painter in Athens. He was considered to be the inventor of the distinction between male and female figures, probably by means of the skin colour, and of a new flexibility of the bodies. If he can be correctly associated with this stage of development achieved around 600 BC, he cannot be equated with the bearer of this common artist's name who appears as the father in a signature of  Antenor and his brother and who himself placed his signature on a work on a base of the Acropolis around 520 BC. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Fuchs/Floren, 295 Overbeck…

Theocles

(88 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Θεοκλῆς; Theoklês). Son of Hegylus, sculptor from Sparta. T. was a pupil of Dipoenus and Scyllis and thus was active in the mid-6th cent. BC. A representation in cedar wood of 'Heracles with the Hesperids' in the treasury of Epidamnus in Olympia were by him and his son; at the time of Pausanias the Hesperids were in the Temple of Hera (Paus. 6,19,8). Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Overbeck, No. 328 f.  P. Moreno, s. v. T., EAA 7, 1966, 816  H. Marwitz, Hegylos?, in: AA 1969, 106 f.  Fuchs/Floren, 215.

Archermus

(139 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Sculptor from Chios like his sons  Boupalus and Athenis. His active period falls into the middle of the 6th cent. BC. Pliny (HN 36,11-14) refers to works in Lesbos and Delos where a base with his initials was found. A winged Nike in the archaic kneeling-running ( Knielauf) pose, found nearby, was dated to 560-550 BC and justifiably connected to a note attributed to  Antigonus of Carystus (Sch. Aristoph. Av. 574), stating that A. had been the first to produce a Nike figure with wings. A later signature of A. was found on the Ac…

Pasiteles

(289 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Πασιτέλης; Pasitélēs). Sculptor, from Magna Graecia, Roman citizen probably from 89 BC and according to the sources active there at the time of Cn. Pompeius Magnus in the middle of the 1st cent. BC. Of P.'s work nothing has survived apart from one signature on the base of a statue, but his significance in the artistic expression of late Republican Rome seems to have been great, not in the least because of his treatise on opera nobilia (mirabilia) totius orbis ('noble (wonderful) works of the whole world'), which is not preserved. Since P. is mentioned as t…

Archaism [II]

(694 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] II. Archaeology The definition and application of this term, which has been transferred by modern scholars from Hellenistic literary criticism (ἀρχαισμός/ archaismós, ἀρχαίζειν/ archaízein = 'to archaize') to the fine arts, are disputed. Archaism exists where works of art from the Classical period and later (from c. 480 BC) intentionally adopt aspects of the Late Archaic period (2nd half of the 6th cent. BC). Such aspects are especially hair and beard styles, garments (zigzag folds) and motifs of gesture (splayed fingers, mo…

Myrmecides

(94 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Μυρμηκίδης; Myrmēkídēs). Sculptor in marble and toreutics . His creative period is not known, it probably lay in the 6th cent. BC. Mostly named in conjunction with Callicrates [2], he had a legendary reputation for producing microscopically small works in marble, iron and ivory. There are descriptions of a quadriga small enough to fit under the wings of a fly, a ship the size of a bee and a sesame seed enscripted with Homeric verses. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Overbeck, No. 293, 2168, 2192-2201  P. Mingazzini, s.v. M., EAA 5, 1963, 313-314.

Damophon

(190 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Δαμοφῶν; Damophôn) Sculptor from Messene. Based on prosopographic and historic evidence, it would seem that he was active from the end of the 3rd cent. BC until 168 BC; most of his divine statues known from written records must have been produced in Arcadia prior to the earthquake in 183 BC. He worked on colossal acroliths and was entrusted with the repair of Phidias' Zeus in  Olympia. Of a group of gods in the Asclepius shrine in Messene, the head and foot of the statues of Apollo…

Leochares

(431 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Λεωχάρης; Leōchárēs). Greek sculptor; his surviving works date from the mid 4th cent. BC to 320 BC; the period of main activity given by Pliny, 372-369 BC, is therefore too early. L.'s reputation rested on idols and portraiture, and led to a corruption of the evidence. Among the literary inventions are a statue of Apollo attributed to the still young L., which Plato is said to have sent to Dionysius II (around 365 BC). In 354 BC at the latest (death of work's commissioner Timotheu…

Busts

(652 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] From the Renaissance, the word bust (from Italian busto) refers to a three-dimensional free-standing human image, which is restricted to head and chest ( Portrait). There is no ancient technical term, because busts were predominantly classified as portraits ( imagines). The term  bustum, on the other hand, meant gravesite, which in Italic cultures was marked by a  cippus or a stele, contouring a human head; in some instances as early as the 6th cent., but more commonly by the 4th and 3rd cents. BC, these developed int…

Strongylion

(176 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Στρογγυλίων/ Strongylíōn). Bronze sculptor (last third of the 5th cent. to the first third of the 4th cent. BC). None of his works attested in literature survives. Parts of the base of a detailed depiction of the Trojan horse, named δούριος ( doúrios, ‘The wooden one’, Paus. 1,23,8), have been identified on the Acropolis in Athens; it can be dated to before 414 BC. As well as some devotional images, S. and Cephisodotus [4] created some statues of the Muses on Mt Helicon. Small bronzes by S. were famous among Roman collectors, such as the so-called Puer Bruti and an Amazon, o…

Frontality

(258 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] The term introduced by J. Lange in 1892 as in the ‘law of frontality’ originally referred to a pre-Greek mode of portrayal, which, developed from the plane, displays all the essential individual forms paratactically in front view. Frontality was a label for an allegedly primitive form, which in evolutionary statements on style also seemed applicable to the early, pre-classical portrayal of people in Greek sculpture. In archaic statues frontality was supposedly expressed by mirror-…
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