Phidias

Phidias (Athens, c. 500 B.C.-Olympia or Athens, c. 431 B.C.) was the most famous of the sculptors of Ancient Greece.

He lived in the time of Pericles, who was his main protector and entrusted him with the direction of his great project of the reconstruction of the Acropolis of Athens. It falls within the stage known as "first Greek classicism".

His most famous works were the statue of the goddess Athena in the Parthenon (Athena Parthenos) and the statue of Zeus in Olympia, both made of wood covered with fragments of gold and ivory, which became models of perfection in the representation of divinities, but other statues are also attributed to him, both chryselephantine and bronze or marble, which enjoyed fame, such as the Athena Promacos and the Athena Lemnia. Despite the fact that no safe original statue of Phidias has been preserved, some of his works are known through descriptions made by ancient authors and have been linked to statues from the Roman period that have been preserved and are considered copies of original works by Phidias, such as the Apollo of Kassel, the Anadumeno Farnese or the numerous Athena Pártenos.

Biography

Few details of the life of Phidias are known since the main sources of data for the reconstruction of his existence, Pliny, Plutarch and Pausanias, wrote several centuries after his death. Pausanias quotes the phrase found in one of his works, the statue of Zeus at Olympia:

Fidias, the son of Carmids, Athenian, made me.

Pauses V,10,2.

Copy of the shield of Athena Pártenos where appears the alleged self-portrait of Fidias. Moscow, Pushkin Museum

It is estimated that his birth occurred around the year 500 B.C. C., although the exact date is unknown. According to Pliny the Elder, he had trained as a painter. It is considered that his teacher as a sculptor would have been Agéladas of Argos and, according to Dion Chrysostom, also Hegias.

It seems that his artistic activity began around 470 B.C. C. Little else is known about his life apart from his works. Pliny the Elder says that he flourished in the 83rd Olympiad (448-445 BC) and cites his contemporaries up to the 90th Olympiad. He mentions Alcamenes, Colotes, and Agoracritus as his students. Pausanias also cites Agoracritus, who was his eromenos. Another beloved, even more closely related to the sculptor, was Pantarkes, a young Elean and winner of the junior wrestling match at the 86.as Olympiad in 436 B.C. C. Pausanias reports a tradition according to which the boy was the model for one of the sculpted figures on the throne of Olympian Zeus. Another tradition, narrated by Clement of Alexandria, has Phidias carving "Kalos Pantarkes" ("Pantarkes is handsome") on the god's middle finger.

He was called by Pericles to lead, starting in 447 B.C. C., the works of the reconstruction of the Parthenon in the Acropolis of Athens. His friendship with Pericles, according to Plutarch, attracted envy in such a way that it was rumored that he facilitated his love affairs with the tyrant by introducing him to the free women who came to see the works.

The sculptor was accused by enemies of his protector Pericles of keeping part of the gold destined for the statue of Athena, and of having included his portrait and that of Pericles on the shield of the goddess. Plutarch indicates that he was condemned for these accusations and that he would have died in prison in Athens of disease or poisoned. and exile to Elis would have taken place in 438-37 BC. C. and that he would have died there in 432 a. Some modern historians believe that he could have gone to Elis in 438-37 and then returned to Athens, where he would have been charged and convicted in 432 and died in prison, while others believe that he should have been convicted in 433/2, at which time he went into exile to Élide, where he would have died on dates that would oscillate between 430 and 420 BC. C., after another accusation from his enemies regarding the statue of Zeus of Olympia.

Context and style

It is considered that the temple of the Parthenon was conceived by Fidias, despite being built by the architects Ictino and Calícrates.

Phidias lived in the so-called Century of Pericles, a period of intense political, military and cultural activity in Athens. Democracy was consolidated as a rational, liberal and balanced form of government, essentially humanist and completely opposed to the totalitarianism embodied by the Persians, who were at war with the Greeks (Medical Wars), since the middle of the century VI a. C., until the victory of the Greeks in 479 a. C., in the Battle of Plataea. With the rise to power of Pericles in 460 BC. In BC, the focus changed, and a lasting peace was concluded with the Persians in order to concentrate their forces to combat the rivalry of Sparta, at the expense of their allies in the Delian League. Such events led to a reorientation in the program of civil and commemorative buildings in the Greek city, due to the fact that the Persians looted and destroyed monuments and temples in 480 BC. C. (one year before the end of the Medical Wars). Initially, the buildings were deliberately left in ruins, but peace with former enemies allowed for a revision of policy, and it seemed natural that the city should be restored, especially its sanctuaries on the Acropolis, as the form of expression of its political position. dominant and as a sign of gratitude from Athena, the tutelary goddess of Attica. To manage this constructive impulse, Phidias was hired as the general supervisor of the works.

Phidias encountered Greek sculpture when it was undergoing profound and rapid changes, and he was one of the main drivers of that process. The antecedents of this change came from archaic sculpture, which had a formal and rigorous style, favoring generalist and abstract conventions. These conventions remained unchanged for at least two hundred years, due to the static hierarchization of society and remained beyond the representation of naturalistic anatomical peculiarities. With the archaics, physical beauty began to be related to moral virtue (Kalokagathia), and in the typology of Kurós, the most important part of that phase, aristocratic pride. and self-confidence, as well as warrior courage and group spirit, were in an expressive boom. Around the V century BCE. C., the archaic rigor began to dissolve due to still unknown causes, then being born the so-called severe or pre-classical style, in view of the decadence of the oligarchic and aristocratic society that had served as justification, as well as the flourishing of the system democratic, where the collective purposes coincided clingingly to the individual ones. The Severe Style gave rise to a new emphasis on the individual, placing him at the center of the universe (somewhat similar to anthropocentrism and humanism), making representations of the human body to dissolve archaic formal abstractions and giving rise to a style closer to the nature. In the mid-century V a. C. Mirón, Policleto and Phidias entered the scene definitively and completely reformulating the canon of archaic proportions and founding sculptural Classicism, portraying the body in a more naturalistic way, but seeking in it a collective reflection of moral values.

Works

Atenea Varvakeion, copy of Atenea Pártenos, National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Phidias worked on various materials such as gold, ivory, bronze, marble and wood. He was the first Greek sculptor to make colossal statues. None of his works have survived, but there are numerous statues from Roman times that are considered copies, though often dubious, of their originals. The works attributed to him and some details about them are also known through descriptions. by ancient authors.

In the Parthenon

As for its relationship with the reconstruction of the Acropolis of Athens that took place between 447 and 432 B.C. C., modern criticism tends to consider his participation as an artistic supervisor of the buildings of the Acropolis, and more specifically of the Parthenon, which would imply authority over all the architects and craftsmen who participate in the projects and are responsible for the execution of the works. decoration works, which represents a huge workload anyway. For sure, however, it is only known through ancient texts that he had been hired to create a gigantic statue of Athena, to be installed in the Parthenon.

This was the chryselephantine statue of Athena Partenos, which would have been completed in 438 BC. C., and to which Pliny attributed a measure of 26 cubits (about 12 meters).

Statue of Zeus in Olympia

Elide coin drawing of the time of Adriano with the representation of the silhouette of Olympic Zeus

Much of Phidias' universal fame was derived from the creation of the statue of Olympian Zeus, installed in the temple of Zeus at Olympia and considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Old descriptions say that the statue was designed in a sitting position, but its exact dimensions were not passed down to posterity. Tradition says that it was so big that if it were raised it would take the roof of the temple with it; It is estimated that it measured, like Athena Pártenos, about 12 m. It was covered with gold and ivory and part was painted. He wore a crown of olive branches on his head. On her right hand was an image of Nike crowned and wearing a ribbon, while in her left hand she held a scepter adorned with various metals, at the end of which was an eagle. On her gold garment had been painted figures of animals and flowers, especially lilies. The throne was covered with inlays of gold, ivory, ebony and precious stones, it had reliefs and pictorial representations. The paintings had been made by Panenus.

Pausanias reported that when Phidias finished the work he prayed to Zeus for a sign if the work was to his liking, and at that moment a bolt of lightning penetrated the opening in the temple roof and left a mark that was covered with a hydria of bronze.

Regarding its chronology, it has traditionally been believed that the statue was made after that of Athena Partenos, but some historians believe, instead, that the different lighting conditions of both sculptures in their respective locations suggest that Phidias he tried to improve the adaptation to his building in the Athena Pártenos with respect to the Zeus of Olympia, and therefore the latter could be earlier than the first.

Athena Promacos

The bronze statue of Athena Promachos was situated in the open air on a pedestal on the Acropolis in Athens. According to Pausanias, the point of her spear and the crest of her helmet were the first things sailors saw when approaching Sounion, believed to be around 450 BC. C. this colossal statue was already installed on the acropolis.

Atenea Lemnia

Roman copy of the head of Atenea Lemnia, Archaeological Museum of Bologna

The statue of Athena Lemnia was highly appreciated by Greek and Roman authors such as Pausanias and Lucian. In modern times Adolf Furtwängler tried to make a replica of this statue from a head kept in Bologna and a torso exhibited in Dresden. This reconstruction has been generally accepted, but remains conjecture.

Other works

The Diadumeno Farnesio. This Roman copy has been related to the Anadúmeno de Fidias. London, British Museum.

Apollo of Kassel, Roman copy probably of the Apolo Parnopio de Fidias. Paris, Louvre Museum.

Other statues attributed to Phidias in antiquity were:

• In Delfos:
  • Sculpture group of gods and heroes offered with the tithe of what was obtained in the Battle of Marathon.
• In Pelene (Acaya):
  • Athena, criselephantine, in a temple of the goddess. This statue was considered before those of the Acropolis of Athens and Platea.
• In Platea:
  • Athena Area, acrolytic, for the temple of the goddess.
• In Athens:
  • Apollo Parnopio, bronze, located in the acropolis.
  • Aphrodite Urania, of Paros marble, found in a shrine of the ceramic demo.
  • Mother of the Gods, who was in another shrine of the ceramic.
• In Ramnunte:
  • Nemesis, marble.
• In Ephesus:
  • a wounded Amazon for the temple of Artemisa, performed, according to Plinio, in a contest where also participated Policleto, Fradmón, Cidon and Cresilas.
• In Olympia:
  • A boy tied a tape in his head (Anadúmeno).
• In Elide:
  • Athena, criselephantine for the temple of the goddess.
  • Aphrodite Urania, chryselephantine.
• In Thebes:
  • Athena and Hermes in marble in the temple of Apollo Ismenio.
• In Rome:
  • Aphrodite, in the Portico de Octavia.
  • At the temple of Fortune. This statue had been brought by Lucio Emilio Paulo Macedónico of Greece.
  • Two statues brought by Cátulo, also located in the temple of the Fortune.
  • A big nude.
• In Megara:
  • Zeus, at the Mégara Olympics, in collaboration with Theocosmo, which was not concluded due to the beginning of the Peloponnese War.

Phidias's workshop

Interior of the Fidias de Olimpia workshop

In Olympia there are remains of an enclosure that was excavated in the middle of the XX century and has been identified as the Phidias's workshop that Pausanias cites as the place where the artist made the pieces of the statue of Zeus. Among the objects found in the excavation of the enclosure, which are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, there are tools, crucibles and a glass with an inscription on the base indicating that it was the property of Phidias. The site was later occupied by a paleochristian basilica.

Fonts

Notes

References

Bibliography

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