DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0514
478
PEL OPONNESIAN SCHOOL.
Lysippus.1
Ol. 102. 1-116. J (B.C. 372-316)? 01. 103-114 (O. Muller).
The first of these dates is fixed by that of the victory of Troilus
at Olympia, whose statue was made by Lysippus. If it seems too
improbable that he should have been actively engaged in his art for
fifty-six years, we may suppose that the statue was made some years
after the contest.2 We learn from Pliny that Lysippus, like Silanion,
was an autodidact, and that he began his career as a mere artisan in
bronze.3 He appears, notwithstanding, to have attracted very early in
life the attention of Alexander the Great, who, it is said, would allow
no one but Lysippus to make a statue of him. His industry must have
been extraordinary. In order to keep a record of the number of his
works, he put away one gold coin from the price Gf every statue, and at
his death his heirs are said to have found 1,500 such pieces. The inde-
pendence and fertility of his genius may be partly owing to the fact that
while he ' took the oath to no one master,' he sought inspiration from
the works of all. It is this originality which makes him so prominent
and important a figure in the history of art, for it enabled him to
adapt himself to the requirements of the new era which began in
Greece and the world at the accession of Alexander. ' He contri-
buted greatly,' says Pliny, ' to the advancement of statuary, by a more
careful treatment of the hair, and by making the head smaller than
former artists had done, and the body slimmer and dryer, on which
account the height of his figures appeared greater. He diligently
attended to symmetry, for which there is no Latin name, by altering,
after a new and untried method, the qitadratas staturas (square
types) of the ancient sculptors, who, as he was accustomed to say,
" made men as they actually w ere, while he himself made them as they
seemed to be." It was also peculiar to him to attend to the niceties
of his art even in the most trifling wi/u/titc'
The meaning of the somewhat obscure saying that the ancient
sculptors made their statues such as men actually were, while he him-
self made them as they seemed to be (' quales vidcrentur esse'),
1 Sicyon, which had been surpassed by Ar- 1 lv.man. vi. t. 2, and Brunn, A' (7. p. 359
ijus, now recovers its supremacy. 3 Plto. .V.//. xxxiv. 6l! ' xrarium fabnim.
PEL OPONNESIAN SCHOOL.
Lysippus.1
Ol. 102. 1-116. J (B.C. 372-316)? 01. 103-114 (O. Muller).
The first of these dates is fixed by that of the victory of Troilus
at Olympia, whose statue was made by Lysippus. If it seems too
improbable that he should have been actively engaged in his art for
fifty-six years, we may suppose that the statue was made some years
after the contest.2 We learn from Pliny that Lysippus, like Silanion,
was an autodidact, and that he began his career as a mere artisan in
bronze.3 He appears, notwithstanding, to have attracted very early in
life the attention of Alexander the Great, who, it is said, would allow
no one but Lysippus to make a statue of him. His industry must have
been extraordinary. In order to keep a record of the number of his
works, he put away one gold coin from the price Gf every statue, and at
his death his heirs are said to have found 1,500 such pieces. The inde-
pendence and fertility of his genius may be partly owing to the fact that
while he ' took the oath to no one master,' he sought inspiration from
the works of all. It is this originality which makes him so prominent
and important a figure in the history of art, for it enabled him to
adapt himself to the requirements of the new era which began in
Greece and the world at the accession of Alexander. ' He contri-
buted greatly,' says Pliny, ' to the advancement of statuary, by a more
careful treatment of the hair, and by making the head smaller than
former artists had done, and the body slimmer and dryer, on which
account the height of his figures appeared greater. He diligently
attended to symmetry, for which there is no Latin name, by altering,
after a new and untried method, the qitadratas staturas (square
types) of the ancient sculptors, who, as he was accustomed to say,
" made men as they actually w ere, while he himself made them as they
seemed to be." It was also peculiar to him to attend to the niceties
of his art even in the most trifling wi/u/titc'
The meaning of the somewhat obscure saying that the ancient
sculptors made their statues such as men actually were, while he him-
self made them as they seemed to be (' quales vidcrentur esse'),
1 Sicyon, which had been surpassed by Ar- 1 lv.man. vi. t. 2, and Brunn, A' (7. p. 359
ijus, now recovers its supremacy. 3 Plto. .V.//. xxxiv. 6l! ' xrarium fabnim.