Lysippos

Lysippos (Λύσιππος) was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three great sculptors of the Classical Greek era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period. Taken together, his large workshop, the demand for replicas of his work in his lifetime [The rediscovered "Agias", dedicated by Daochos at Delphi, was a contemporary marble copy of a bronze. The original was at Farsala in Thessaly.] and later among Hellenistic and Roman connoisseurs, the number of disciples directly in his circle, [His son Euthyktates worked in his style, according to Pliny, and, in the next generation, Tysikrates produced sculpture scarcely to be distinguished from his. ("Natural History" xxxiv. 61-67).] and the survival of his works only in copies all pose methodological problems to the student.

Career and legacy

Lysippos was successor in contemporary repute to the famous sculptor Polykleitos. Among the works attributed to him are the so-called "Horses of Saint Mark", "Eros Stringing the Bow" (of which various copies exist, the best in the British Museum), "Agias" (known for a marble copy found and preserved in Delphi), the similar "Oil pourer" (Dresden and Munich), the "Farnese Hercules" (which was originally placed in the Baths of Caracalla, although the surviving marble copy lies in the Naples National Archaeological Museum) and "Apoxyomenos" (or "The Scraper", known from a Roman marble copy in the Vatican Museums).

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 and Sikyon. 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, constructed the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. As this statue does not exist today, debate continues as to whether it was cast bronze or hammered of sheet bronze.

Lysippos and Alexander

During his lifetime, Lysippos was personal sculptor to Alexander the Great; indeed, he was the only artist whom the conqueror saw fit to represent him. A recently-discovered epigram of Poseidippus, in the anthology represented in the Milan Papyrus, takes as its inspiration a bronze portrait of Alexander:

:"Lysippus, Sicyonian sculptor, daring hand, learned artisan,:"your bronze statue has the look of fire in its eyes,:"that one you made in the form of Alexander. The Persians deserve:"no blame. We forgive cattle for fleeing a lion."

Lysippus has been credited with the stock representation of an inspired, godlike Alexander with tousled hair and lips parted, looking upward. ["The Search for Alexander", a 1976 exhibition catalogue, illustrates several examples and traces the development of the type.] One fine example, an early Imperial Roman copy found at Tivoli, is conserved at the Louvre.

Notes

References

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

Further reading

*Gardner, P. 1905. ‘The Apoxymenos of Lysippos’, "JHS" 25:234-59.
*Serwint, N. 1996. ‘Lysippos’, in "The Dictionary of Art" vol. 19: 852–54.
*Stewart, A.F. 1983. ‘Lysippos and Hellenistic sculpture’, "AJA" 87:262.
*Vermeule, C.C. 1975. ‘The weary Herakles of Lysippos’, "AJA" 79:323–32.