Download Lysippos and the Evolution of Hellenistic Sculpture: A Study of Portraits and Symbolism and more Study notes Classical Philology in PDF only on Docsity! CLAS: 4040/6040 Lysippos & the Seeds of Hellenistic Sculpture Prof. Naomi J. Norman Hellenistic Culture • How did Alexander & Diadochoi change the rules? • Types: – Athletes – Portraits – Herakles – Gods • His Zeus was the largest statue before Chares created the Colossos of Rhodes • New system of proportions in his sculpture – Said Polykleitos’ Doryphoros was his “master” – Perhaps for what NOT to do His aesthetic: "Other artists make men as they are, I make them as they appear” (in Pliny, NH) Compare Lysippos’ Apoxyomenos (rt) to the Doryphoros by Polykleitos (lf) The new canon vs. the old canon • Apoxyomenos ("the scraper") • Marble copy, from Rome – Now in the Vatican Museum • Original bronze statue – By Lysippos – ca. 340-30 BCE Portraits: Granikos Monument • Commemorated battle & those who fell – Alexander also dedicated on Athenian Akropolis 300 panoplies from Persian soldiers to commemorate the battle • Dedicated at Sanctuary of Zeus at Dion in Macedonia, 330-20 BCE – Zeus as patron of the war; kleos • Cost: 2.5 T per horseman (65T) – Vs. 3000 dr cost of most portraits – Valorization & memorializaton of the dead – “Sculpture as policy” Bronze statuette of Alexander on horseback. Roman copy from Herculaneum, now in Naples museum. Who exactly was represented in the group? • 25 equestrian statues • Perhaps some infantrymen • The enemy? Valorization of the Dead This copy bears signature of copyist: Glykon of Athens. What is Herakles holding? Apples of the Hesperides. How does that fact inform your reading of the sculpture? Gods: Kairos • Allegorical statue displayed in Sikyon • Known from epigram by Poseidippos (ca. 270 BCE) who says it was “in the doorway”/“on the porch” Lysippan original is perhaps reflected in this relief of Pentelic marble, now in the Museum of Torino. Other sources say it held a scale and stood on a globe. Epigram of Posidippos: Who and whence was the sculptor? From Sikyon. And his name? Lysippos. And who are you? Time (Kairos) who subdues all things. Why do you stand on tip-toe? I am ever running. And why you have a pair of wings on your feet? I fly with the wind. And why do you hold a razor in your right hand? As a sign to men that I am sharper than any sharp edge. And why does your hair hang over your face? For him who meets me to take me by the forelock. And why, in Heaven's name, is the back of your head bald? Because none whom I have once raced by on my winged feet will now, though he wishes it, take hold of me from behind. Why did the artist fashion you? For your sake, stranger, and he set me up in the porch as a lesson.
