30 Millennia of Sculpture. Patrick Bade
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and the resulting sense of emotionality in his works. In this dancing Maenad, thought to be a copy of a work of Skopas, we see one of Skopas’ important innovations: the movement conveyed by the piece. Far more than a gesture or a weight-shift, the maenad’s movement is a violent, swirling dance, shown especially in the twist of her neck and the swirl of her gown. Maenads were worshippers of Dionysos, the god of wine. His followers were thought to engage in drunken, orgiastic rituals, dancing in an ecstatic frenzy.
Probably of Parian origin, Skopas was the son of Aristander, a great Greek sculptor of the 4th century BCE. Although classed as an Athenian, and similar in tendency to Praxiteles, he was really a cosmopolitan artist, working largely in Asia and Peloponnesos. The existing works with which he is associated are the Mausoleum of Halicarnassos, and the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. In the case of the Mausoleum, though no doubt the sculpture generally belongs to his school, we are unable to single out any specific part of it as his own. We have, however, good reason to think that the pedimental figures from Tegea are Skopas’ own work. They are, unfortunately, all in extremely poor condition, but appear to be our best evidence for his style.
While in general style Skopas approached Praxiteles, he differed from him in preferring strong expression and vigorous action to repose and sentiment.
Early writers give us a good deal of information as to works of Scopas. For the people of Elis he made a bronze Aphrodite riding on a goat (copied on the coins of Elis); a Maenad (fig. 169) 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.
170. Anonymous, Caryatid, Erechtheum, Acropolis, Athens, c. 420–406 BCE. Ancient Greek. Marble, height: 231 cm. The British Museum, London.
In the caryatid, the column takes its most ornate form, replaced entirely by the statue of a woman. It decorates the porch of the Erechteion, a temple to Athena on the Acropolis in Athens, built to replace one destroyed by the Persians. In its form and decoration, this temple deviates from tradition, including not only the unusual caryatids, but also an asymmetrical plan on varying ground levels, with two porches jutting out of the main building. This atypical plan was due to the multiple shrines incorporated into the temple, and also to its placement on an uneven rocky outcrop, home to the original olive tree given to the city by Athena. The six caryatids supported the south porch, one of the unusual additions to the regular temple plan. The caryatid figures have all the solidity of form we find in other 5th-century sculpture, and therefore seem up to the task of supporting a roof. The exaggerated shift in weight, and the clinginess of the drapery, are typical of sculpture of the end of the 5th century BCE.
171. Anonymous, Thanatos, Alceste, Hermes, and Persephone, drum of column, Artemision, Ephesus (Turkey), c. 350–300 BCE. Ancient Greek. Marble, height: 155 cm. The British Museum, London.
This is the only remaining sculpted column drum from the Temple of Artemis, or Artemision, at Ephesus. The temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world, renowned both for its majestic size and for its decorative program. It was built around 550 BCE, then rebuilt in the 4th century, the period from which this column drum dates. The temple exemplified the Ionic order of architecture, which was the temple style of the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, where the Artemision was located. Much larger than a typical Doric temple such as the Parthenon, it measured 115 metres in length. The central building, or cella, was surrounded by a double ring of columns, and had additional rows of columns at the front and back, creating the effect of a “forest of columns”. The columns were very large, and much more ornate than those of the Doric order. The lowest drum of each column, just above the column base, was sculpted in low relief. These works of art would have been at eye level, providing a rich array of decorative narratives to surround the visitor. The overall effect of the temple must have been one of overwhelming scale and lavish decoration. Sadly, though the temple stood for hundreds of years, it is now almost completely lost. This single remaining sculpted drum stands as a testament to the skill of the artisans commissioned to build and decorate the great temple.
172. Anonymous, Draped Woman Seated, tombstone (fragment), c. 400 BCE. Ancient Greek. Marble, height: 122 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
173. Anonymous, Mars from Todi, end of the 5th century BCE. Ancient Etruscan. Bronze. Musei Vaticani, Vatican City.
The Etruscans were a native people of Italy, living in the area that today still bears their name: Tuscany. They enjoyed prosperity, in part because of access to rich metal resources. Their expertise in working with metal is attested by this bronze statue of a warrior in his armour, performing a libation, or liquid offering, before the battle. In his right hand he holds a shallow pouring vessel, and with his left hand he was originally leaning on his spear. A helmet would have completed the figure. In the naturalism of the rendition of the warrior, and his contrapposto stance, we see the influence of 5th-century Greece. A Greek statue would have been nude, however; the modestly-clad warrior is clearly a product of an Etruscan artist. The statue was found in Todi at the site of an ancient sanctuary dedicated to Mars. It was buried between slabs of travertine stone, lost in a collapse of some sort, which accounts for its rare state of preservation.
174. Anonymous, Iberian Female Figurine, around the 4th-3rd centuries BCE. Ancient Celtic. Bronze.
175. Anonymous, Head of a Woman, Achaemenid period, 5th-4th century BCE. Ancient Near East, Tomb 109, Babylon (Iraq). Ivory, height: 3 cm. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin.
176. Anonymous, Statue of Aphrodite (?), Nemi (Italy), c. 350 BCE. Ancient Etruscan. Bronze, height: 50.5 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
177. Anonymous, Hermes Tying his Sandal, Roman copy after a Greek original created during the 4th century BCE by Lysippos. Ancient Greek. Marble, height: 161 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The Greek sculptor, Lysippos, was head of the school of Argos and Sicyon in the time of Philip and Alexander of Macedon. His works, some colossal, are said to have numbered 1500. Certain accounts have him continuing the school of Polykleitos; others represent him as self-taught. He was especially innovative regarding the proportions of the human male body; in contrast to his predecessors, he reduced the head size and made the body harder and more slender, producing the impression of greater height. He also took great pains with hair and other details. Pliny and other writers mention many of his statues. Among the gods he seems to have produced new and striking types of Zeus, the Sun-god and others; many of these were colossal figures in bronze. Among heroes he was particularly attracted by the mighty physique of Heracles. The Heracles Farnese of Naples, though signed by Glycon of Athens, and a later and exaggerated transcript, owes something, including the motive of rest after labour, to Lysippos. Lysippos made many statues of Alexander the Great, and so satisfied his patron, no doubt by idealising him, that he became the king’s court sculptor; the king and his generals provided numerous commissions. Portraits of Alexander vary