Lysipp

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Statue of Apoxyomenus, Roman copy in the Vatican Museum

Lysippos ( Greek Λύσιππος Lýsippos ; * probably 400/390 BC in Sikyon ; † towards the end of the 4th century BC), German mostly Lysipp , was a Greek sculptor and ore caster , who mainly worked in the 2nd half 4th century BC Was active.

Lysipp was the most important sculptor of the 4th century BC. BC in the Peloponnese , maintained a large school of sculpture in Sikyon and allegedly created over 500 statues. He worked for numerous clients from all over the Greek cultural area, from Asia Minor and Rhodes to Thessaly and Macedonia , the Peloponnese and Boiotia , Delphi , Aitolia and Acarnania to Taranto . His works included all formats and numerous themes, including gods, heroes, muses, athletes and portraits of statesmen, philosophers and kings. According to an ancient legend, Alexander the Great was only depicted by him in bronze, just as he was only painted by Apelles .

As a sculptor, he introduced a new understanding of nature which, even in antiquity, brought him the judgment that the most perfect consideration should be given to natural phenomena. Pliny passed on the proverbial phrase, "He depicts people, not as they are, but as they appeared." With this he deliberately set himself apart from the style of Polyklet , which he succeeded in as an artist, particularly from Sicyon. While he continued to adhere to the contrast between standing leg and free leg , balanced by ponderation , which was introduced into art in its clearest form by Polyklet, he changed the proportions of the limbs, which resulted, for example, in an elongation of the legs, a narrower body representation overall and a reduction in head proportion. These delimiting peculiarities of his style were already known to ancient art scholarship. In particular, his Apoxyomenos conveys an idea of ​​his style and testifies to another moment of Lysippian artistic creation: the conquest of space, which draws the viewer into the space of the portrait through the back and forth of the limbs, the viewer “concerns directly”. Other assignable works are a portrait of Alexander and the portrait of Socrates , which Lysippus is ascribed to in written tradition and which can be associated with his style.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to deal with his work, which has only survived in the form of Roman marble copies, as his immense influence resulted in numerous imitators of his style. His son Euthyctates was already working in his style and a generation later Tysicrates got so far that his statues could hardly be distinguished from those of Lysippus. One of his students was Chares of Lindos , who created the Colossus of Rhodes .

In view of the ironic tip of Petronius , the incredible scope of Lysipp's work can hardly be explained. Because Petronius let him die of hunger in the Satyricon while he brooded over the design for a statue. On the other hand, it is a testament to his traditional obsession with details and he was praised for the details of his hair design.

Works

Remarks

  1. Pliny , Naturalis historia 7, 38.
  2. Pliny, Naturalis historia 34, 17; the information varies in the manuscripts, 1500 statues are also mentioned.
  3. ^ Quintilian , Institutio Oratoria 12, 10, 9.
  4. Pliny, Naturalis historia 34, 19.
  5. Pliny, Naturalis historia 34, 19.
  6. Werner Fuchs : The sculpture of the Greeks. 3. Edition. Hirmer, Munich 1983, p. 104.
  7. Pliny, Naturalis historia 34, 61-67.
  8. Pliny, Naturalis historia 34, 41.
  9. ^ Petronius, Satyricon 88.
  10. Pliny, Naturalis historia 34, 19.

literature

  • Karin Moser von Filseck: The Apoxyomenos of Lysipp and the phenomenon of time and space in the sculpture of the 5th and 4th centuries. v. Chr. Habelt's dissertation prints. Classical archeology series. Vol. 27. Habelt, Bonn 1988. ISBN 3-7749-2353-1 .
  • Karin Moser von Filseck: Kairos and Eros. Two ways to a new understanding of Greek sculptures . Habelt, Bonn 1990. ISBN 377492449X .
  • Hans-Christoph von Mosch: Hadrian's "Sandal Solver" - The Hermes of Lysipp (?) On coins from Trapezous, Amastris and Markianopolis. In: Yearbook for Numismatics and Monetary History. Vol. 63, 2013, pp. 93-149 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Lysipp  - collection of images, videos and audio files