This book offers insight into Greek conceptions of art, the artist, and artistic originality by examining artists' signatures in ancient Greece.

Composite statues of gold (chrysos), ivory (elephas), and other precious materials were the most celebrated artworks of classical antiquity. Greek and Latin authors leave no doubt that such images provided a centrepiece for religious and civic life and that vast sums were spent to producethem. A number of these statues were the creations of antiquity's most highly acclaimed artists: Polykleitos, Alkamenes, Leochares, and, of course, Pheidias, whose magnificent Zeus Olympios came to be ranked among the Seven Wonders of the World. Although a few individual images such as Pheidias'Athena Parthenos have been the subject of detailed scholarly analysis, chryselephantine statuary as a class, from the exquisite statuettes of Minoan Crete to the majestic temple images constructed by classical Greek city-states and imitated by the Romans, has not received comprehensive study since1815. This book presents not only the ancient literary and epigraphical evidence for lost statues and examines representations of them in other media, but also assembles and analyses much-neglected physical survivals, elucidating throughout the innovative techniques, such as ivory-bending, employedin their production as well as the variety of social, religious, and political roles they played within the ancient societies that produced them.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ...Polycleitos represented twice, --once as a leader (Hagctcr) seizing his weapons, and, again, as fighting the Hydra.?26 Of his statue of an Amazon we know somewhat more. The story is, that statues of the Amazons were required for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, that spot where the conquered heroines had taken refuge in mythic ages, when hard pressed by Dionysos.?2? The most celebrated artists came together with their statues, to select from among them the best. According to Pliny's anecdote, each gave the preference to his own work; but, after that, all agreed first upon the Amazon by Polycleitos, --the one by Pheidias taking the second, that of Cresilas the third, and that of Phradmon the fourth place. Whatever credence may be given to this tradition, it may contain a kernel of truth, indicating the superiority of Polycleitos' representation of these masculine females. Several types of wounded and fatigued Amazons, incorrectly restored, exist, which doubtless go back to celebrated originals of the time of Pheidias and Polycleitos.?28 Among them three distinct types are evident, illustrated in statues in Rome, Berlin, and Paris. One represents an Amazon, who wears a large mantle, and seems to be staying the blood trickling from her wounded breast, with one end of her chiton caught up in the left hand. Her head is dropped slightly; and the arm, restored as raised, should, according to a gem now in Paris, be resting on a long spear, which supports the unhappy, conquered woman. The second type shows us, not a wounded, but a wearied, Amazon. She stands resting, with the right hand on some object, now gone, possibly her battle-axe; while her left is placed on her head, in the attitude so often employed to express repose in Greek art. This type...

Statues are among the most familiar remnants of classical art. Yet their prominence in ancient society is often ignored. In the Roman world statues were ubiquitous. Whether they were displayed as public honours or memorials, collected as works of art, dedicated to deities, venerated as gods,or violated as symbols of a defeated political regime, they were recognized individually and collectively as objects of enormous significance.By analysing ancient texts and images, Statues in Roman Society unravels the web of associations which surrounded Roman statues. Addressing all categories of statuary together for the first time, it illuminates them in ancient terms, explaining expectations of what statues were or ought to be anddescribing the Romans' uneasy relationship with 'the other population' in their midst.