Lysippos (; )[Latinized Lysippus () is less used today, even in English.] was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Ancient Greece era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period. Problems confront the study of Lysippos because of the difficulty in identifying his style in the copies which survive. Not only did he have a large workshop and many disciples in his immediate 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).] 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 art and Roman sculpture periods.[The rediscovered Agias, dedicated by Daochos at Delphi, was a contemporary marble copy of a bronze. The original was at Farsala in Thessaly.] The Victorious Youth 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
Ancient Argos 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, 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 its sections were cast in bronze or hammered of sheet bronze.
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 through the 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 Empire marble copy in the
Vatican Museums). Lysippos was also famous for his bronze colossal sculptures of Zeus, 17 metres tall, and Herakles, seven meters seated, both from the city of
Taranto. The only remaining version of one such statue is a Roman copy of
The Weary Herakles (Farnese Hercules), by Glykon,
[Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History: Ancient Art. Prentice Hall, 2011.] with heavy musculature typical of early third century Rome.
Canon of Lysippos
Lysippos developed a more style than his predecessor
Polykleitos and this has become known as the
Canon of Lysippos.
In his Historia Naturalis, Pliny the elder wrote that Lysippos introduced a new
Aesthetic canon into art: capita minora faciendo quam antiqui, corpora graciliora siccioraque, per qum proceritas signorum major videretur,
[ cited in Waldstein (1879)] 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.
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.
[Plutarch, Life of Alexander, iv] An epigram by Posidippus, previously only known from the Anthology of Planudes (APl 119), but also found on the recently discovered
Milan Papyrus (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[ The Search for Alexander, a 1976 exhibition catalogue, illustrates several examples and traces the development of the type.] 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 Victorious Youth
In 1972, the
Victorious Youth, Getty Bronze, or
Atleta di Fano to Italians, was discovered and at the urging of Paul Getty, bought by the
Getty Museum. 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.
See also
Notes
-
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.
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Vermeule, C.C. 1975. 'The weary Herakles of Lysippos', AJA 79:323–32.
