(
1. Of Sicyon, one of the most distinguished Greek statuaries, is placed by Pliny at Ol. 114,
as a contemporary of Alexander the Great. (H. N. 34.8. s. 19). We have no
very clear intimation of how long he lived; but there is no doubt that the great period of his
artistic activity was during the reign of Alexander; and perhaps Pliny has mentioned the 114th Olympiad in particular, as being
that in which Alexander died. We learn from
Pausanias (
Originally a simple workman in bronze (faber aerarilus), he rose to the
eminence which he afterwards obtained by the direct study of nature. It was to the painter
Eupompus that he owed the guiding principle of his art; for, having asked him which of the
former masters he should follow, Eupompus replied by pointing to a crowd of men, engaged in
their various pursuits, and told him that nature must be imitated, and not an artist (Plin.
l.c. § 6). It is not to be inferred, how ever, that he neglected
the study of existing works of art: on the contrary Cicero tells us (Brut. 86), that Lysippus used to call the Doryphorus of Polycleitus his master; and
there can be no doubt that the school of Lysippus was connected with the Argive school of
Polycleitus, as the school of Scopas and Praxiteles was with the Attic school of Phidias;
there being in each case a succession of great principles, modified by a closer imitation of
the real, and by a preference for beauty above dig nity. Perhaps the great distinction between
Lysippus and his predecessors could not, in a few words, be better expressed than by saying
that lie rejected the last remains of the old conventional rules which the early artists
followed, and which Phidias, without permitting himself to be enslaved by them, had wisely
continued to bear in mind, as a check upon the liberty permitted by mere natural models, and
which even Polycleitus had not altogether disregarded (Varr. de Ling.
Lat. 9.18). In Lysippus's imitation of nature the ideal appears almost to have vanished,
or perhaps it should rather be said that he aimed to idealize merely human beauty. He made statues of gods, it is true; but even in this field of art his
favourite subject was the human hero Hercules; while his portraits seem to have been the chief
foundation of his fame. He ventured even to depart from the proportions observed by the
earlier artists, and to alter the robust form (quadratas veterum staturas) which his
predecessors had used in order to give dignity to their statues, and which Polycleitus had
brought to perfection. Lysippus made the heads smaller, and the bodies more slender and more
compact (graciliora siccioraque), and thus gave his statues an appearance
of greater height. He used to say that former artists made men as they were, but he as they
appeared to be. His imitation of nature was carried out in the minutest
details: " propriae hujus videntur esse argutiae operum, custoditae in minimus rebus," says
Pliny, who also mentions the care which Lysippus bestowed upon the hair. Properties (3.7. 9)
speaks of his statues as seeming to have the breath of life (animosa),
and the same idea is expressed by the grammarian Nicephorus Chumnus, in an interesting but
little known passage, in which he describes Lysippus and Apelles as making and painting
Anecdot. vol. iii. p. 357.)
The works of Lysippus are said to have amounted to the enormous number of 1500; at least
this is the story of Pliny, who tells us that Lysippus used to lay by a single piece of gold
out of the price received for each of his works, and that, after his death, the number of
these pieces was found to be 1500 (HN. 34.7. s. 17). His works were
almost all, if not all, in bronze; in consequence of which none of them are extant. But from
copies, from coins, and from the works of his successors, we derive valuable materials for
judging of his style. The following are the chief works of his which are mentioned by the
ancient authors:--
First, those of a mythological character. 1. A colossal statue of Zeus, 60 feet high, at
Tarentum, which is fully described by Pliny (H. N 34.7. s. 18; comp Non. s. v.
Cubitus). 2. Zeus in the forum of Sicyon (Paus. Jup. Trag. 9, vol. ii. p. 652, Wetst.). 6. Dionysus, in the sacred grove
on Mt. Helicon (Amalthea, vol.
iii. p. 299).
As above stated, his favourite mythological subject was Hercules. The following are some of
his statues of that here:--8. A colossal Hercules resting from his labours, in a sitting
posture, at Tarentum, whence it was carried to Rome by Fabius Maximus, when he took Tarentum
(Fab. Max.
22). It was afterwards transferred to Byzantium (Nicet. Stat. Constant.
5. p. 12). It is frequently copied on gems. 9. Hercules, yielding to the power of Eros, and
deprived of his weapons. The statue is described in an epigram by Geminus (Anth. Pal. App. ii. p. 655; Anth. Plan. 4.103). This also often
appears on gems. 10. A small statue (Kunstgeschichte, vol. li. p. 114; Heyne, Prisc. Art. Op. ex
Epigr. illust. p. 87). 11. Hercules in the forum at Sicyon (GLYCON; Müller, Archäol. d. Kunst, § 129, n.
2.)
To his mythological works must be added:-- 13. A celebrated statue of Time, or rather
Opportunity (Stat.
p. 698, ed. Jacobs, with Welcker's Excursus). 14. Helios in a quadriga, at Rhodes (Ibid.).
Of those of his statues which were neither mythological nor strictly portraits, the
following are mentioned:--16. A bather or athlete, scraping himself with a strigil, which was
placed by M. Agrippa in front of his baths, and was so admired by the emperor Tiberius that he
transferred it to his own chamber; the resentment of the people, however, compelled him to
restore it (Plin. l.c.). From the way in which Pliny speaks of this
statue, it may be conjectured that it was intended by Lysippus to be a normal specimen of his
art, like the Doryphorus of Polycleitus. 17. An intoxicated female flute-player. 18. Several
statues of athletes (Anth. Graec.. 4.33). 21. Of Praxilla.
(Tatian. ad v. Graec. 52.)
We pass on to his actual portraits, and chiefly those of Alexander. In this department of his art Lysippus
kept true to his great principle, and imitated nature so closely as even to indicate Alexander's personal defects, such as the
inclination of his head sidewards, but without impairing the beauty and heroic expression of
the figure. He made statues of Alexander at all
periods of life, and in many different positions. Alexander's edict is well known, that no one should paint him but Apelles, and no one
make his statue but Lysippus. The most celebrated of these statues is that in which Alexander was represented with a lance. (Plut. de Isid. 24), which was considered as a sort of companion to the picture of
Alexander wielding a thunderbolt, by Apelles.
The impression which it produced upon spectators was described by an epigram afterwards
affixed to it,--
(Plut. de Alex. Virt. 2.2, Alex. 4; Tzetz. Chil. 8.426.) The rest of his portraits of Alexander are described by Müller (Archäol. d. Kunst, § 129, n. 2). To the same class belongs his
group of the chieftains who fell in the battle at the Granicus.
There are still some other works of Lysippus of less importance, which are described by the
historians of Greek art. (Sillig, Cat. s. n.; Meyer, Kunstgeschichte; Hirt, Gesch. d. Bild. Kunst; Nagler, Künstler-Lexicon. )