Harmodius and Aristogeiton Metal was a valuable commodity in the ancient world, so sculptures made of bronze or other metals were often eventually melted down by a conquering nation or a successive ruler who did not care for the art of his predecessor. For that reason, few large-scale bronze sculptures survive from Antiquity. Romans, however, had a taste for Greek art, and copied many of their bronze sculptures in stone, the material preferred by Romans. Often, the bronze original has since been lost, and the Roman copies are all that survive. Such is the case with this group, Roman copies in marble of two Greek sculptures in bronze. The subjects are Harmodius and Aristogeiton, lovers who together conspired to murder the political tyrant, Hippias. They lost their nerve and killed his brother instead, but were revered as heroes by Athenians who believed them to have murdered the tyrant. Statues of the two were erected in their honour in the Athenian Agora.
29. Anonymous, Diadoumenos, the Young Athlete, copy after a bronze original created by Polykleitos, c. 430 B. C. E. Marble, h: 186 cm. National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Athens (Greece).
Polykleitos is one of the best-known sculptors of the fifth century B. C. E., known especially for his athletic dedications, such as this one. The figure binds his hair with a tie in preparation for sport. His clothes rest next to him on a low branch, since Greek athletes exercised in the nude. Polykleitos’ Doryphoros, or Canon, sought to illustrate the ideal male figure. In the piece shown, we see the same proportions the sculptor established with his Canon, and the same attention to anatomical realism. The Polykleitan ideal is a heavy, muscled, somewhat stocky body, especially in comparison to the more gracile figures of the next century.
30. Anonymous, Apollo, known as Apollo Parnopios, copy after a Greek original created by Phidias, c. 450 B. C. E. Marble, h: 197 cm. Staatliche Museen, Kassel (Germany).
Apollo was the god of music, poetry, medicine, archery, and prophecy, and was always shown as young and beautiful. Here, he has the idealised body of a young male athlete. The naturalism of his anatomy, with its sculpted muscles and graceful movement, is expressed through the relaxed, contrapposto stance. His expression is thoughtful but emotionless. This classic fifth-century B. C. E. statue type is transformed into Apollo by the addition of the elaborately curled long hair, and his attributes, the bow and laurel wreath, which he would have held in each hand.
PHIDIAS
(Athens, c. 488 B. C. E. – c. 431 B. C. E.)
Son of Charmides, universally regarded as the greatest of Greek sculptors, Phidias was born in Athens. We have varying accounts of his training. Hegias of Athens, Ageladas of Argos, and the Thasian painter Polygnotus, have all been regarded as his teachers.
The earliest of his great works were dedications in memory of Marathon, from the spoils of the victory. On the Acropolis of Athens he erected a colossal bronze image of Athena, visible far out at sea. Other works at Delphi, at Pellene in Achaea, and at Plataea were appreciated; among the Greeks themselves, however, the two works of Phidias which far outstripped all others – providing the basis of his fame – were the colossal figures in gold and ivory of Zeus at Olympia and of Athena Parthenos at Athens, both of which belong to about the middle of the fifth century.
Plutarch gives in his life of Perikles a charming account of the vast artistic activity that went on at Athens while that statesman was in power. For the decoration of his own city he used the money furnished by the Athenian allies for defence against Persia. “In all these works,” says Plutarch, “Phidias was the adviser and overseer of Perikles.” Phidias introduced his own portrait and that of Perikles on the shield of his Parthenos statue. And it was through Phidias that the political enemies of Perikles struck at him.
It is important to observe that in resting the fame of Phidias upon the sculptures of the Parthenon we proceed with little evidence. What he was celebrated for in Antiquity was his statues in bronze or gold and 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