DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0494
460 THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
doubtless of great excellence, if Pliny's phrase "antecedens," when compar-
ing it with Praxiteles' Cnidian Aphrodite, refers to quality, and not time.9°4
The seated Ares of the Ludovisi collection, and the newly discovered Aphro-
dite of the Esquiline, have been thought to be free reproductions of these
two works by Scopas. But the Ludovisi Ares, having Lysippian features,
and grouped with an Eros playing with his armor, is conceived too nearly
in the spirit of the post-Alexandrine age to be referable to Scopas of the
earlier time; and the heavy proportions of the Aphrodite of the Esquiline
have not the grace met with in the original works of his century.9°5
Besides such tantalizing rumors of works by Scopas, extensive discoveries
in Asia Minor bear eloquent testimony to his presence in Halicarnassos, the
capital of Caria, where was the tomb of Mausolos, reported to have been
adorned by Scopas and his contemporaries. Before taking up the consideration
of its sculptures, let us first cast a glance at the masters associated with Scopas
at Halicarnassos, and, because younger, usually considered his scholars. Of
these, Leochares, an Athenian, seems to have been the most important. In a
pseudo-Platonic letter, dated soon after 366 B.C., he is mentioned as an able
young sculptor.?06 A few years later he appears, executing a statue of the
orator Isocrates for Timotheos, who must have dedicated it before 354 B.C., the
year of his death.9°7 Again we meet Leochares in Halicarnassos with Scopas,
about the middle of the century. Later we find him back again in Greece, in
the employ of Philip of Macedon. In thanks for the victory at Chaironeia,
338 B.C., that monarch erected a round temple at Olympia, for which Leo-
chares was commissioned to execute statues of the royal family in gold and
ivory, those materials which, as we have seen, had hitherto only been used in
representations of the gods themselves. For this Philippeion, Leochares exe-
cuted costly statues of Philip himself, his father Amyntas, mother Eurydike,
wife Olympias, and son Alexander, which were seen and described by Pausa-
nias.9oS The modern traveller may still view, among the ruins of Olympia, the
circular foundation of this temple, with the fragments of its graceful Ionic col-
umns, again placed upright, and may examine pieces of its cone-shaped roof
with the poppy-head decorations ; but, of Leochares' costly statues, he will only
see the marble pedestals, which, however, will teach him that all the members
of the royal family were represented as standing within the shrine.9°9 Llaving
once entered into the service of the Macedonian house, Leochares continued
in it, and, with Lysippos, executed for Crateros, one of Alexander's generals, a
bronze group, consecrated at Delphi, which represented the young Alexander
involved in a life-and-death struggle with a lion, several dogs sharing in the
fight, while Crateros hastened to the assistance of the young king.910 From
pedestals with inscriptions, discovered on the Acropolis at Athens, it appears,
that, with one Sthennis of Olynth, Leochares made portrait-statues of five
members of an Athenian family, otherwise unknown to history, indicating
doubtless of great excellence, if Pliny's phrase "antecedens," when compar-
ing it with Praxiteles' Cnidian Aphrodite, refers to quality, and not time.9°4
The seated Ares of the Ludovisi collection, and the newly discovered Aphro-
dite of the Esquiline, have been thought to be free reproductions of these
two works by Scopas. But the Ludovisi Ares, having Lysippian features,
and grouped with an Eros playing with his armor, is conceived too nearly
in the spirit of the post-Alexandrine age to be referable to Scopas of the
earlier time; and the heavy proportions of the Aphrodite of the Esquiline
have not the grace met with in the original works of his century.9°5
Besides such tantalizing rumors of works by Scopas, extensive discoveries
in Asia Minor bear eloquent testimony to his presence in Halicarnassos, the
capital of Caria, where was the tomb of Mausolos, reported to have been
adorned by Scopas and his contemporaries. Before taking up the consideration
of its sculptures, let us first cast a glance at the masters associated with Scopas
at Halicarnassos, and, because younger, usually considered his scholars. Of
these, Leochares, an Athenian, seems to have been the most important. In a
pseudo-Platonic letter, dated soon after 366 B.C., he is mentioned as an able
young sculptor.?06 A few years later he appears, executing a statue of the
orator Isocrates for Timotheos, who must have dedicated it before 354 B.C., the
year of his death.9°7 Again we meet Leochares in Halicarnassos with Scopas,
about the middle of the century. Later we find him back again in Greece, in
the employ of Philip of Macedon. In thanks for the victory at Chaironeia,
338 B.C., that monarch erected a round temple at Olympia, for which Leo-
chares was commissioned to execute statues of the royal family in gold and
ivory, those materials which, as we have seen, had hitherto only been used in
representations of the gods themselves. For this Philippeion, Leochares exe-
cuted costly statues of Philip himself, his father Amyntas, mother Eurydike,
wife Olympias, and son Alexander, which were seen and described by Pausa-
nias.9oS The modern traveller may still view, among the ruins of Olympia, the
circular foundation of this temple, with the fragments of its graceful Ionic col-
umns, again placed upright, and may examine pieces of its cone-shaped roof
with the poppy-head decorations ; but, of Leochares' costly statues, he will only
see the marble pedestals, which, however, will teach him that all the members
of the royal family were represented as standing within the shrine.9°9 Llaving
once entered into the service of the Macedonian house, Leochares continued
in it, and, with Lysippos, executed for Crateros, one of Alexander's generals, a
bronze group, consecrated at Delphi, which represented the young Alexander
involved in a life-and-death struggle with a lion, several dogs sharing in the
fight, while Crateros hastened to the assistance of the young king.910 From
pedestals with inscriptions, discovered on the Acropolis at Athens, it appears,
that, with one Sthennis of Olynth, Leochares made portrait-statues of five
members of an Athenian family, otherwise unknown to history, indicating