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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-…

Urn

(621 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] I. Definition Originally a round water container, the Latin urna denotes the sepulchral vessel in a cremation (ashes and bones). Morphologically speaking, urns are not always distinguishable from vessels of everyday life or cult. They sometimes imitated furniture and building designs. The gathered bones and ashen remains were gathered ( ossilegium) for storing in cloth or vessels inside urns of terracotta, metal or stone. Because of the prevalence of cremation in the ancient Mediterranean, the urn was the usual vessel for contain…

Xoanon

(305 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (ξόανον; xóanon). Greek term, attested from the 6th cent. BC, for gods' images (derived from ξεῖν/ xeín, 'to polish') made of wood, ivory and stone, regardless of size or artistic period. The modern archaeological usage, however, often limits the term xoanon to an ancient cult figure made of wood, which goes back to the restricted use of the term by Pausanias, who has handed down most of the information on xoana. The most famous wooden xoana were created in the 8th-7th cents. BC. In ancient literature, their sculptors (Theocles, Angelion) were considered…

Canachus

(280 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
(Κάναχος; Kánachos). [German version] [1] Sculptor from Sicyon Sculptor from Sicyon, lived and worked in the late archaic period. Sources describe his style as hard and strict. His most famous work, the bronze statue of Apollo Philesios in Didyma holding a movable deer in one hand, was looted in 494 BC by the Persians. C. created a copy out of cedar wood for the temple of Apollo Ismenios in Thebes. Reliefs and coins depict the statue which was also recognized in Roman reproductions. In Sicyon, C. create…

Naucydes

(242 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Ναυκύδης; Naukýdes). Bronze sculptor from Argos, son of Patrocles, teacher of Polyclitus and Alypus. The position of  N. in Polyclitus's family tree is a matter of dispute; two sculptors of the same name are also postulated. Daedalus [2] and Periclytus are recorded as the brothers of N., the latter also as ‘Polyclitus’. Pliny gives N.'s prime as  400-397 BC. N. created several  victor statues (after  448 BC). The most famous was a discobolus (discus thrower), which is commonly identified with the ‘discobolus at rest’ (Rom, VM), dating from c. 400 BC, which survives …

Angelion

(77 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Sculptor in archaic times who, together with  Tectaeus, is regarded as a pupil of  Dipoenus and Scyllis. Plutarch describes the wooden cult statue of Apollo on Delos with a discus in his hand on which the three Charites stood; it was produced together with Tectaeus. Later, gold wreaths were added to the Charites by queen Stratonice. The statue is shown on later Athenian coins. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Fuchs/Floren, 179-180 Overbeck, no. 334-337 (sources).

Bupalus

(166 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Sculptor and architect from Chios, son of  Archermus. The anecdote about a pejorative portrait by the poet  Hipponax dates him around 550-525 BC. With his brother Athenis he created statues of  Artemis in Iasos, Delos and Athens and an Artemis mask with ‘changing facial expression’ in Chios. From the Charites, which were erected later in Pergamum under King Attalus, the base signature has possibly been preserved. The Tyche in Smyrna was apparently first represented by B. with a cr…

Alypus

(95 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Bronze sculptor from Sicyon, pupil of  Naucydes. By collaboration on the Delphic monument of the Spartans after Aegospotami (‘Lysander-anathema’, 405 BC,  Delphi), he is categorized under the so-called Polyclitus succession. Signature and base with traces of its support are preserved. Identifications of the four victors' statues by A., as seen by Pausanias in Olympia, are hypothetical. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography D. Arnold, Die Polykletnachfolge, JDAI supplement 25, 1969, 84-85, 187-188 J. Marcadé, Recueil des signatures de sculpteurs gr…

Dontas

(78 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Sculptor from Sparta, active as an alleged student of  Dipoenus and Scyllis about the middle of the 6th cent. BC. The treasury of the Megarians at Olympia contained a wooden relief set in gold by him depicting Hercules and figures of the gods. According to Pausanias it was clearly older than the late 6th cent. building. The treasury's sculpture therefore cannot be attributed to D. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Fuchs/Floren, 215 Overbeck, no. 330-331 (sources).

Tectaeus

(134 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Τεκταῖος; Tektaîos). Greek sculptor of the mid-6th century BC. Like his brother Angelion, T. is supposed to have been a pupil of Dipoenus and Scyllis and teacher of Calon [1] (Paus. 2,32,5). He and Angelion created a cult statue of Apollo on Delos; on the basis of  literary (Plut. Mor. 1136a; Paus. 9,35,3) and pictorial evidence of seals and reliefs Apollo was represented as a kouros with Charites on one hand and a Sphinx. A later account (Athenagoras, Legatio pro Christianis 17,4 Schoedel) of an Artemis by T. in Delos is of doubtful veracity. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibl…

Cypselus chest

(251 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Container ( kypsélē, kibōtós, lárnax) made from cedar wood decorated with ivory and gold plaques and carvings, described by Pausanias (5,17,5-19,10) as a votive gift from  Cypselus [2] or the  Cypselides in the temple of Hera in Olympia. Legend declared the chest to be the vessel in which Cypselus [2] was saved from the Bacchiadae as a child, or rather as its replica. It was probably manufactured in the mid 6th cent. BC. Because of the description provided by Pausanias, the Cypselus chest is an important source for the exploration of archaic imagery. A…

Eucheir

(88 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (called E. II). A sculptor in Athens, the son of  Eubulides [4], called Eubulides II. Together with his son  Eubulides [5], also called Eubulides III, he signed honorary statues and votives in Attica, Euboea and Megara during the 1st half of the 2nd cent. BC. His Hermes in Phenea, which Pausanias described, is perhaps depicted on coins. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography G. Becatti, Attika, in: RIA 7, 1940, 14-17 H. Brunn, Gesch. der griech. Künstler, 1, 1857, 551-552 Loewy, 134, 135, 222-227 P. Moreno, Scultura ellenistica, 1994521, 554

Akrolithon

(149 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Archaeological term for statues where the exposed body parts are made of marble and the robes of metal, both attached to a wooden core. The term first occurs in temple inventories in the 2nd cent. BC, later in Vitruvius for colossal statues. The technique can be traced back to the earliest cult idols with clothing and, since the classical period, is often used for cult statues. Numerous descriptions of akrolitha are contrasted by just a small number of preserved fragments, such as…

Eutychides

(185 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Εὐτυχίδης; Eutychídēs) Sculptor and painter from Sicyon, pupil and son of  Lysippus. His acme was dated to 296-293 BC. His fame is based on the bronze statue ─ known in many replicas and copies ─ of Tyche of Antioch on the Orontes, which he created not long after the city's refoundation in 300 BC. It is one of the keystones for the chronology of Hellenistic sculpture, and was trendsetting in its composition in the round and its iconography of personifications of cities. E.'s work …

Phradmon

(187 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Φράδμων; Phrádmōn). Bronze sculptor from Argos. Plinius (HN 34,49) gives 420-417 BC as his prime. P. is known primarily for his participation in the competition over the statues of Amazons in Ephesus, among the copies of which the 'Doria Panfili' type (Rome, Galleria Doria Panfili) are attributed without adequate reason to him. Victors' statues by P. were to be seen in Olympia (according to Pausanias 6,8,1), and in Delphi (according to a restored inscription). An inscription in Os…

Marble sculptures

(417 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Crystalline limestone marble was the preferred stone material in Graeco-Roman sculpture. Marble was partially painted or gilded, otherwise impregnated with a coating of wax and oil ( gánōsis). Coloured marble was used to match the colour of clothing and hair; painted effects were achieved by adding metals to jewellery, weapons, hairpieces and eyes. The term akrolithon is used for elaborate mixed techniques. Stucco was often added to economize with material or time. The proportions of the blocks often called…

Portraits

(1,884 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] I. General remarks By the modern definition, a portrait is a rendering of an individual person's appearance. Typological and physiognomic characterizations serve this end. However, portraits recognizable as portraits only through their intention or by furnishing a name lack such characteristics. A typological portrait uses canonical features to indicate that its subject belongs to a certain group. A physiognomic portrait guarantees the identification of its subject by reproducing phy…

Chaerestratus

(105 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Son of Chaeredemus; Attic sculptor from  Rhamnus. On a prosopographical basis, his creative period has been deduced to have been in the early 3rd cent. BC, but by some to c. 320 BC. This is significant for the chronology of early Hellenistic developments in style, as the statue of Themis in the sanctuary of Nemesis at Rhamnus (Athens, AM) is signed by C. Further works are attributed to him by way of style. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography J. Marcadé, Recueil des signatures des sculpteurs grecs, 1, 1953, no. 11-12 P. Moreno, Scultura ellenistica, 1994, 168-172 fig. B.…

Cippus

(273 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] As a stone monument with or without inscription, the cippus was used in particular for territorial delineation. Made as a free-standing sculpture, it marked burial sites and was linked as reference to the dead to magical ideas and should not be confused with steles. The basic form was phallic, 30-50 cm high and it was represented in diverse ways especially in Etruria ( Etruscan Archaeology). Mostly onions, spheres or eggs top a pillar or cylinder. Special regional types in the 6th…

Corinthian alloy

(247 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Corinthium aes, according to Plin. HN 34,6-8 an alloy of  copper,  gold and  silver, with an artificial patination that made it gleam like gold. Attempts to identify Corinthian alloy (CA) with so-called ‘black gold’ and ‘niello’ are not convincing, as only a lesser sort of CA was dark in colour. The term CA was always associated with legendary invention, names of old masters, and dubious authenticity. Juridical sources (Dig. 32,100,3), however, distinguish CA from plain bronze, ref…

Appliqués (pottery)

(158 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Term for attached decorative items representing figures or plants. On bronze vessels of the 7th cent. BC, they are attached as protome (e.g. griffin cauldron). In Hellenistic and imperial times, crustae on tableware are highly valued masterpieces of  toreutics, and also on clothing, luxurious armour such as gladiators' helmets, on horse harness and carriage components. On kline rests ( fulcra), bronze animal protomes can be found, appliqués of ivory on furniture. Wooden sarcophagi in Taranto and south Russia of the 4th cent. BC had relief…

Hermathena, Hermeracles

(98 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Cicero called the  Herms of Athena and Hercules, which Atticus had obtained in 67-65 BC for Cicero's Tusculanum (Cic. Att. 1,1; 4; 8; 9; 10), Hermathena and Hermeracles. The bronze heads were set on marble pillars and were considered an appropriate ornamentum for his peristyle, which was compared to the Academia and a gymnasium. These terms are Cicero's creation. Setting up Herms of this type in the gardens of Roman villas became a common practice. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography R. Neudecker, Die Skulpturenausstattung röm. Villen in Italien, 1988, 11-18 H. Wr…

Styppax

(83 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Bronze sculptor from Cyprus in the 5th century BC. He was famous for his statue of a splanchnoptes (Plin. HN 34,19,81), a slave who blows on the fire to roast the entrails at a sacrifice. It was erected on the orders of Pericles [1] as a votive offering after his slave was injured during the building of a temple and miraculously healed. The work does not survive. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography Overbeck, Nr. 868-869  P. Moreno, s. v. S., EAA 7, 1966, 535-536.

Agoracritus

(246 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Ἀγοράκριτος; Agorákritos). Sculptor from Paros, master of the high-classical period in Athens. Uncertain attributions to A., his rival  Alcamenes and their teacher  Phidias are reflected in anecdotes of ancient literature, which makes attributing the œuvre difficult. When it came second in a contest with Alcamenes, A. is said to have sold a statue of Aphrodite to a buyer in Rhamnus as one of Nemesis, or that Phidias had one of his own statues signed by A. The signature was discove…

Tabula Iliaca

(155 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] Archeological technical term for marble plates with illustrations of the Homeric epics (Homerus [1]). The small plates with a height of up to 25 cm are covered on both sides with low reliefs in miniature with accompanying texts. Most of the 22 extant plates refer to the Iliad, one to the Odyssey. The most complete plate, the so-called Tabula Capitolina (Rome, KM), contains parts of the Aethiopís as well. The plates are dated to the early Imperial Period and were all found in Rome. Some are attested to have been produced by T…

Phyromachus

(686 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] (Φυρόμαχος/ Phyrómachos). Sculptor of Athens, teacher of the painters Heraclides [30] (active 168 BC) and Milon. The written and archaeological traditions, which are controversial, reveal at least the existence of a famed artist who was active under the Attalid kings (Attalus) of Pergamum. The Laterculi Alexandrini (late 2nd cent. BC) place him in a list of artists, and Pliny (HN 34,84) has the same in mind when documenting the sculptors who worked for Attalus and Eumenes. As Pliny only makes a generalized reference to the monumenta Attalidum, it cannot be demonstr…

Apellas

(117 words)

Author(s): Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
(Ἀπελᾶς; Apellâs). [German version] [1] Bronze sculptor, 4th cent. BC (Apelleas). Bronze sculptor, son of the sculptor Callicles from Megara. He created the victory monument described by Pausanias for Cynisca, sister of Agesilaus of Sparta, who participated in the Olympic chariot races in 396 and 392 BC. Parts of the base with the epigram handed down in general tradition was discovered; apart from this, the base of a reduced replica of the commemorative statue was also found. Neudecker, Richard (Rome) Bibliography W. Dittenberger, Die Inschr. von Olympia, 1896, no. 160, 634 F. Eckste…

Hermolaus

(158 words)

Author(s): Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA) | Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
(Ἑρμόλαος; Hermólaos). [German version] [1] Conspirator against Alexander the Great Son of Sopolis, page ( Basilikoi paides) of  Alexander [4], pre-empted the king in the slaying of a wild boar and was humiliatingly punished by him (327 BC). In revenge he hatched a conspiracy among the pages but it failed and was betrayed to the king. The accused, after being tortured, were sentenced to death and stoned with the consent of the army.  Callisthenes, hated by Alexander as an opponent of  proskynesis, was sus…

Daedalus

(1,013 words)

Author(s): Kearns, Emily (Oxford) | Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
(Δαίδαλος; Daídalos). [German version] [1] Mythical craftsman, sculptor and inventor Mythical craftsman, sculptor and inventor, his very name belonging to a semantic field indicating objects created by astuteness and skill. In stories he is associated with Athens, Crete and Sicily. Judging from the development of artistic techniques, it is not impossible that the origins of the tradition lie at least partly in Crete, although whether D.'s name can be attested in the Linear B texts is a matter of dispute […

Architectural sculpture

(2,087 words)

Author(s): Kose, Arno (Berlin) | Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
[German version] I. Ancient Near East Architectural sculpture (AS), i.e. figural sculpture integrated into architecture, was in use in the ancient Near East from at least the 15th cent. BC. In northern Mesopotamia and its neighbouring regions to the west, from the 14th cent. on, orthostatic reliefs and guardian figures were worked into entrance gates and archways, and from the 9th cent., sculpted columns and columnar bases as well as human-figure columns or caryatids appeared, generally worked in ston…

Mnasitimus

(230 words)

Author(s): Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) | Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
(Μνασίτιμος/ Mnasítimos). [German version] [1] Greek painter from Rhodes, later 3rd cent. BC Greek painter from Rhodes (?) of the later 3rd cent. BC (?), mentioned by Plin. HN 35,146 as a rather second-rate painter. Provenance and date can only be inferred by genealogical conclusions from other artists of this name; nothing is known of his work. Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) Bibliography G. Lippold, s.v. Mnasitimos (1), RE 15, 2256f. [German version] [2] Various sculptors from one Rhodes family, 4th to 2nd cents. BC Various sculptors from one Rhodian family. The reconstructed famil…
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