Lysippus

Lysippos, Eros with the bow, Roman copy in the Capitoline Museums

Lysippos (390/385 B.C.E. – after 306 B.C.E.), Ancient Greek sculptor and bronze worker.

Quotes about Lysippus:

• Ancient tradition considered Lysippos to be self-taught, because not only would he have arisen from humble origins, that is, he would have been a tinker from the beginning (Plin. XXXIV, 61), but he would have listened to the advice of the painter Eupompos, who, when asked which of the previous artists he would have followed, he would have pointed out the crowd of men, telling him that it was necessary to imitate nature and not an artist. (Alessandro Della Seta)
• The ancients magnified in him the elegance, the extreme finesse of the execution; and in fact we still find something surprising in the best copies, such as that of the apoxyomenos. But beyond this we noticed another characteristic trait: the common movement, as a hereditary temperament, to all figures even when the situation does not require it. Well: in this movement, in its peculiar manifestation, it represents a substantial progress in the development of sculpture. (Emanuel Löwy)
• The art of Lysippus presents itself as a Doric reaction against Attic art, which played an increasing part in sentiment and could seem soft and sensual. Lysippus modified the Canon of Polycletus, i.e. the classical tradition of the fifth century, with a more pronounced tendency towards elegance, giving the body almost eight times the length of the head (instead of seven), making the joints and muscles stand out at the expense of their fleshy envelope. His heads express neither meditation nor passion, they are limited to being nervous and refined. (Solomon Reinach)
• Lysippos was considered for the human figure as the creator of a canon opposite to that of Polycletus. He, while remaining faithful to symmetry, that is to a rule of proportions between the various parts of the body, modified the firm and square stature of the Polycletian type and, by making the head smaller and the body more frail and drier, he created figures that appeared of greater slenderness. This is the appearance of Apoxyomenos and Agias. (Alessandro Della Seta)

Works:

• Apoxyomenos