Kephisodotos the Younger

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Portrait of Menander , Roman copy of the head of the Menander statue by Kephisodotos and Timarchus, Munich, Glyptothek

Kephisodotos ( Greek  Κηφισόδοτος ) was an ancient Greek sculptor and bronze caster at the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 3rd century BC. From Athens .

Kephisodotos came from a family of famous sculptors. His father was Praxiteles , one of the most important and well-known sculptors of all antiquity , his grandfather and namesake Kephisodotos the Elder . He worked with his brother Timarchus , with whom he apparently had equal rights at work. A certain share of the individual brothers in the work cannot be determined.

A work of the brothers is recognizable today. In 1990, after lengthy research, the archaeologist Klaus Fittschen succeeded in reconstructing the seated statue of the poet Menander from 72 replicas of the head and seven replicas of the body and the written tradition , which was built after the poet's death in 291/90 BC. For the Athens Dionysostheater was created. Already in 1882 the base was found at the place mentioned by Pausanias . The inscription at the base identifies Kephisodotos and Timarchus as the creators of the statue. The many replicas that have been handed down testify to the high esteem that works and artists were held in ancient times. The reconstruction shows a very calm statue. The seated Menander is turned away from the audience with his head bowed in thought.

Often the brothers are assigned the Capitoline Venus , which was a modification of Aphrodite of Knidos her father. Further works are known due to literary tradition and due to inscriptions on preserved bases. So they created statues in Athens, Delphi , Kos , Megara and Troizen , of which the bases have been preserved. Several of the statues were later brought to Rome . There was a statue of Leto in the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill and Asclepius and Artemis in the Temple of Juno on the Porticus Octaviae . A statue of Ennyo stood on the Agora of Athens . In the Erechtheion on the Acropolis there were statues of the Lycurgus and his three sons made of wood. For Thebes they are a statue of Dionysos have made, for Megalopolis a cult statue group with Zeus , Artemis and the personification of Megalopolis, which was, however, may also created by her grandfather. In addition to the statue of Menander, Kephisodotos is said to have created other statues of women poets, Myro and Anyte as well as portraits of philosophers. An inscription on the base in Eleusis poses problems for science as it was written around the year 344 BC. And names Kephisodotos and Timarchus as the creators of the associated statue, which is actually too early for the brothers, since that would be more than 50 years before the term post quem of the statue of Menander.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Klaus Fittschen : For the reconstruction of Greek poet statues. 1st part: The statue of Menander. In: Athenische Mitteilungen 106, 1991, pp. 243-279.
  2. ^ Pausanias 1, 21, 1.
  3. ↑ Inscriptiones Graecae (IG) II² 3777 .
personal data
SURNAME Kephisodotos the Younger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek sculptor and bronze caster
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century BC Chr.