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PHEIDIAS

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 362 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHEIDIAS , son of Charmides, universally regarded as the greatest of See also:

Greek sculptors, was See also:born at See also:Athens about 500 B.C. We have varying accounts of his training. Hegias of Athens, See also:Ageladas of See also:Argos, and the Thasian painter See also:Polygnotus, have all been regarded as his teachers. In favour of Ageladas it may' be said that the See also:influence of the many Dorian See also:schools is certainly to be traced in some of his See also:work. Of his See also:life we know little apart from his See also:works. Of his See also:death we have two discrepant accounts. According to See also:Plutarch he was made an See also:object of attack by the See also:political enemies of See also:Pericles, and died in See also:prison at Athens. According to See also:Philochorus, as quoted by a scholiast on See also:Aristophanes, he fled to See also:Elis, where he made the See also:great statue of See also:Zeus for the Eleans, and was afterwards put to death by them. For several reasons the first of these tales is preferable. Plutarch gives in his life of Pericles a charming See also:account of the vast See also:artistic activity which went on at Athens while that statesman was in See also:power. He used for the decoration of his own See also:city the See also:money furnished by the Athenian See also:allies for See also:defence against See also:Persia: it is very fortunate that after the See also:time of See also:Xerxes Persia made no deliberate See also:attempt against See also:Greece. " In all these works," says Plutarch, " Pheidias was the adviser and overseer of Pericles." Pheidias introduced his own portrait and that of Pericles on the See also:shield of his Parthenos statue.

And it was through Pheidias that the political enemies of Pericles struck at him. It thus abundantly appears that Pheidias was closely connected with Pericles, and a ruling spirit in the Athenian See also:

art of the See also:period. But it is not easy to go beyond this See also:general assertion into details. It is important to observe that in resting the fame of Pheidias upon the sculptures of the See also:Parthenon we proceed with little See also:evidence. No See also:ancient writer ascribes them to him, and he seldom, if ever, executed works in See also:marble. What he was celebrated for in antiquity was his statues in See also:bronze or See also:gold and See also:ivory. If Plutarch tells us that he superintended the great works of Pericles on the See also:Acropolis, this phrase is very vague. On the other See also:hand, See also:inscriptions prove that the marble blocks intended for the pedimental statues of the Parthenon were not brought to Athens until 434 B.C., which was probably after the death of Pheidias. And there is a marked contrast in See also:style between these statues and the certain works of Pheidias. It is therefore probable that most if not all of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was the work of pupils of Pheidias, such as See also:Alcamenes and See also:Agoracritus, rather than his own. The earliest of the great works of Pheidias were dedications in memory of See also:Marathon, from the spoils of the victory. At See also:Delphi he erected a great See also:group in bronze including the figures of See also:Apollo and See also:Athena, several See also:Attic heroes, and See also:Miltiades the general.

On the Acropolis of Athens he set up a See also:

colossal bronze See also:image of Athena, which was visible far out at See also:sea. At Pellene in See also:Achaea, and at See also:Plataea he made two other statues of Athena, also a statue of See also:Aphrodite in ivory and gold for the See also:people of Elis. But among the Greeks themselves the two works of Pheidias which far outshone all others, and were the basis of his fame, were the colossal figures in gold and ivory of Zeus at See also:Olympia and of Athena Parthenos at Athens, both of which belong to about the See also:middle of the 5th See also:century. Of the Zeus we have unfortunately lost all trace See also:save small copies on coins of Elis, which give us but a general notion of the pose, and the See also:character of the See also:head. The See also:god was seated on a See also:throne, every See also:part of which was used as a ground for sculptural decoration. His See also:body was of ivory, his robe of gold. His head was of somewhat archaic type: the Otricoli See also:mask which used to be regarded as a copy of the head of the Olympian statue is certainly more than a century later in style. Of the Athena Parthenos two small copies in marble have been found at Athens (see GREEK ART, fig. 38) which have no excellence of workmanship, but have a certain evidential value as to the treatment of their See also:original. It will be seen how very small is our actual knowledge of the works of Pheidias. There are many stately figures in the See also:Roman and other museums which clearly belong to the same school as the Parthenos; but they are copies of the Roman See also:age, and not to be trusted in point of style. A.

See also:

Furtwangler proposes to find in a statue of which the head is at See also:Bologna, and the body at See also:Dresden, a copy of the Lemnian Athena of Pheidias; but his arguments (Masterpieces, at the beginning) are anything but conclusive. Much more satisfactory as evidence are some 5th century torsos of Athena found at Athens. The very See also:fine torso of Athena in the Ecole See also:des See also:Beaux Arts at See also:Paris, which has unfortunately lost its head, may perhaps best serve to help our See also:imagination in reconstructing a Pheidian original. As regards the decorative sculptures of the Parthenon, which the Greeks rated far below their See also:colossus in ivory and gold, sec the See also:article PARTHENON. Ancient critics take a very high view of the merits of Pheidias. What they especially praise is the ethos or permanent moral level of his works as compared with those of the later " pathetic " school. See also:Demetrius calls his statues See also:sublime, and at the same time precise. That he rode on the See also:crest of a splendid See also:wave of art is not to be questioned: but it is to be regretted that we have no morsel of work extant for which we can definitely hold him responsible. (P.

End of Article: PHEIDIAS

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PHEIDON (8th or 7th century B.C.)

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