Lysippos (; grc-gre, Λύσιππος) was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with

Scopas Scopas ( grc-gre, Σκόπας; born in Paros, fl. 4th century BCE) was an ancient Greek sculptor and architect, most famous for his statue of Meleager, the copper statue of Aphrodite, and the head of goddess Hygieia, daughter of Asclepius. Ea ...

and

Praxiteles Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubita ...

, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the

Classical Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

era, bringing transition into the

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

. Problems confront the study of Lysippos because of the difficulty of identifying his style among the copies which survive. Not only did he have a large workshop and many disciples in his immediate circle, but there is understood to have been a market for replicas of his work, supplied from outside his circle, both in his lifetime and later in the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

periods. The ''

Victorious Youth The Victorious Youth, Getty Bronze, also known as ''Atleta di Fano'', or ''Lisippo di Fano'' is a Greek bronze sculpture, made between 300 and 100 BC, in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Pacific Palisades, California. Many underwate ...

'' or Getty bronze, which resurfaced around 1972, has been associated with him.

Biography

Born at Sicyon around 390 BC, Lysippos was a worker in bronze in his youth. He taught himself the art of sculpture, later becoming head of the school of

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses ...

and Sicyon. According to Pliny, he produced more than 1,500 works, all of them in bronze. Commentators noted his grace and elegance, and the ''symmetria,'' or coherent balance, of his figures, which were leaner than the ideal represented by Polykleitos and with proportionately smaller heads, giving them the impression of greater height. He was famous for his attention to the details of eyelids and toenails. His pupil,

Chares of Lindos Chares of Lindos (; grc-gre, Χάρης ὁ Λίνδιος, ''gen.:'' Χάρητος; before 305 BC-c. 280 BC) was a Greek sculptor born on the island of Rhodes. He was a pupil of Lysippos. Chares constructed the Colossus of Rhodes in 282 ...

, constructed the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2 ...

. As this statue does not exist today, debate continues as to whether its sections were cast in bronze or hammered of sheet bronze. 0002MAN-Hermes

Career and legacy

Lysippos was successor in contemporary repute to the famous sculptor

Polykleitos Polykleitos ( grc, Πολύκλειτος) was an ancient Greek sculptor in bronze of the 5th century BCE. Alongside the Athenian sculptors Pheidias, Myron and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the most important sculptors of classical an ...

. Among the works attributed to him are the so-called

Horses of Saint Mark The Horses of Saint Mark ( it, Cavalli di San Marco), also known as the Triumphal Quadriga or Horses of the Hippodrome of Constantinople, is a set of bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga (a four-hor ...

, ''Eros Stringing the Bow'' (of which various copies exist, the best in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

), ''Agias'' (known through the marble copy found and preserved in Delphi), the similar ''

Oil Pourer The ''Oil Pourer'' is a lost Greek bronze of an athlete variously associated with the circle of Lysippos, c. 340-330 BCE, of which Roman marble copies exist, notably in the Glyptothek, Munich (''illustration'') and in the Albertinum, Dresden. An ...

'' (

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

), the ''

Farnese Hercules The ''Farnese Hercules'' ( it, Ercole Farnese) is an ancient statue of Hercules, probably an enlarged copy made in the early third century AD and signed by Glykon, who is otherwise unknown; the name is Greek but he may have worked in Rome. Like ...

'' (which was originally placed in the

Baths of Caracalla , alternate_name = it, Terme di Caracalla , image = File:Baths of Caracalla, facing Caldarium.jpg , caption = The baths as viewed from the south-west. The caldarium would have been in the front of the image , coordinates = ...

, although the surviving marble copy lies in the

Naples National Archaeological Museum The National Archaeological Museum of Naples ( it, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, italic=no, sometimes abbreviated to MANN) is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes wo ...

) and '' Apoxyomenos'' (or ''The Scraper'', known from a

marble copy in the

Vatican Museums The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...

). Lysippos was also famous for his bronze colossal sculptures of Zeus, 17 metres tall, and Herakles, seven meters seated, both from the city of Taras. The only remaining version of one such statue is a Roman copy of ''The Weary Herakles (Farnese Hercules)'', by Glykon, with heavy musculature typical of early third century Rome.

Canon of Lysippos

Lysippos developed a more gracile style than his predecessor

and this has become known as the Canon of Lysippos. In his ,

Pliny the elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

wrote that Lysippos introduced a new

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

into art: signifying "a canon of bodily proportions essentially different from that of Polykleitos". Lysippos is credited with having established the ' eight heads high' canon of

body proportions While there is significant variation in anatomical proportions between people, certain body proportions have become wikt:canonical, canonical in figurative art. The study of body proportions, as part of the study of artistic anatomy, explores th ...

Lysippos and Alexander

During his lifetime, Lysippos was personal sculptor to

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

; indeed, he was the only artist whom the conqueror saw fit to represent him. An epigram by

Posidippus Poseidippus or Posidippus ( grc, Ποσείδιππος, Poseidippos or grc, Ποσίδιππος, Posidippos, horse of Poseidon) is a Greek theophoric name. It may refer to a number of individuals from classical antiquity, including: * Poseidipp ...

, previously only known from the Anthology of Planudes (APl 119), but also found on the recently discovered

Milan Papyrus The Milan Papyrus is a papyrus roll inscribed in Alexandria in the late 3rd or early 2nd century BC during the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Originally discovered by anonymous tomb raiders as part of a mummy wrapping, it was purchased in the papy ...

(65 Austin-Bastianini), takes as its inspiration a bronze portrait of Alexander: And similarly, an epigram by Asclepiades (APl 120): Lysippos has been credited with the stock representation of an inspired, godlike Alexander with tousled hair and lips parted, looking upward in what came to be known as the 'Lysippean gaze'. One fine example, an early Imperial Roman copy found at Tivoli, is conserved at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

The Victorious Youth (Getty Bronze)

In 1972, the ''

'', Getty Bronze, or ''Atleta di Fano'' to Italians, was discovered and at the urging of Paul Getty, bought by the

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fe ...

. The bronze was pulled out of the sea and restored. Because of the amount of corrosion and the thick layer of incrustation that coated the statue when it was found, it can be assumed that it was beneath the water for centuries. This is less than surprising, as most of the classical bronze statues archeologists have found have been fished out of the Mediterranean Sea. It was not uncommon for a shipwreck to occur with something as precious as a sculpture on board. Without any way to find or retrieve them, these pieces were left to sit at the bottom of the ocean for centuries. The damaging corrosion can be removed by cleaning the surfaces mechanically with a scalpel. The Getty Bronze is believed by some to be Lysippos's work, or at least a copy, because the detail on it is consistent with his style of work and his canon of proportions. Lysippos's work is described by ancient sources as naturalistic with slender and often lengthened proportions, often with exaggerated facial features. Those depicted in the works of Lysippos had smaller heads than those of his mentor

because he used a one to eight scale for the head and the total height of the body.

Notes

References

* A. F. Stewart, "Lysippan Studies" 2. Agias and Oilpourer" '' American Journal of Archaeology'' 82.3 (Summer 1978), pp. 301–313.

External links

Lysippos biography - an Essay
{{Authority control 4th-century BC Greek sculptors Ancient Greek sculptors Sculptors of Alexander the Great Ancient Sicyonians