Lysippos
|
|
Lysippos was a Greek sculptor of the fourth century BC. He was successor of the famous sculptor Polykleitos an his scholarship. Among the works attributed to him are Eros Stringing the Bow (various copies exist; the best is in the British Museum); Agias (known from a marble copy found and preserved in Delphi); Weary Hercules (originally placed in the Baths of Caracalla, though the surviving marble copy is in the Naples Archeological Museum)and Apoxyomenos or The Scraper (known from a Roman marble copy in the Vatican Museums). He was born at Sikyon around 390 BC. A worker in bronze in his youth, he taught himself the art of sculpture, later becoming head of the school of Argos and Sikyon. Lysippos was also the personal sculptor of Alexander the Great. He produced, according to Pliny the Elder, more than 1500 works, all of them in bronze. One of his most famous works is a massive bronze statue of Herikles holding a golden apple known as the Farnese Herakles. Like many celebrated Greek statues, it was copied by Roman counterparts. Other statues include His pupil, Chares of Lindos, constructed the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. Since this statue does not exist today, debate conties as to wheather the statue was cast bronze or hammered sheet metal. During his life Lysippos was the personal sculptor of Alexander the Great. One sculpture of Alexander still exists today at the Louvre Museum in France. He contributed to Greek art by helping introduce the individual. This marks the hellinistic period in which those that could afford to, would have their own sculptures made for them. Template:Artist-stub