Phidias

Greek sculptor

• Born: c. 490 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Athens, Greece
• Died: c. 430 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Elis, Greece

Phidias’s work embodied the high classical ideal in sculpture; his renditions of the gods became standards to which later artists aspired. He was best known for his cult images of Athena in Athens and of Zeus in Olympia.

Early Life

Phidias (FIHD-ih-ahs), the son of Charmides, was born just before the wars that pitted his fellow Athenians against the invading Persians in 490 and 480 b.c.e. This fact is of great importance in understanding his development and that of his country, for these wars proved to the Athenians that with their own resources and the gods’ favor, the fledgling democracy could succeed against overwhelming odds. Phidias’s sculptures came to reflect confidence in men and the gods’ grace.

After the wars, Athens became the preeminent Greek state and led a confederation that continued to fight the Persians. Athenian leadership led to Athenian domination, and any city that tried to leave the Delian League was disciplined. Pericles led the state during Phidias’s adult lifetime and created a strong Athens by pursuing an expansionist policy. Phidias grew up knowing that he lived in one of the most powerful and influential of the Greek states.

Little is known of Phidias’s early training beyond the fact that—like other Athenian children—he would have received his education in the gymnasium, learning athletics, music, mathematics, and poetry, including the Homeric epics. The works of Homer in particular were to have a profound impact on Phidias’s vision of the gods, which expressed itself in his sculpture. Along with the sculptors Myron and Polyclitus, he received artistic training from Ageladas (also called Hageladas) of Argos, who worked mainly in bronze and is known for a great statue of Zeus that he made for the Messenians.

Phidias attended the dramatic festivals of Dionysus, where he saw performances of Aeschylus’s tragedies, including Persai (472 b.c.e.; The Persians, 1777), a triumphant paean to Athenian success and divine favor, and the Oresteia trilogy (458 b.c.e.), which extols the gods Zeus and Athena and ends with an encomium to justice as practiced in Athens. Phidias grew up to be proud of his land’s traditions and the accomplishments of its citizens. The tragic vision revealed in Athenian drama, with the grace of the immortals contrasting with human limitations, was to have a profound effect on the sculptor’s works.

Another formative influence on the sculptor was the humanistic teachings of Sophists such as Protagoras, who held that “man is the measure of all things,” and Anaxagoras, who insisted on the divine supremacy of reason. With their notions of subjectivity and emphasis on the potential for human progress, these new thinkers saw people as responsible for their own advancement. Thus, they represented an anthropocentric view of life that encouraged the development of the arts, because to them civilization was advanced by technē (artistic skill). Phidias’s work was a physical manifestation of this confidence in human accomplishment. At the same time, his statues reflected the measured relationships that Anaxagoras saw as the reflections of the divine world-reason.

Phidias was a product of his age, which was characterized by confidence in human rationality, the tragic notion of human limitation in the face of divine power, and the idea of civilization’s triumph over barbarism. His sculptures both reflected his age and recalled epic notions of Homeric gods and heroes.

Life’s Work

During Phidias’s early years, the temples and sanctuaries that the Persians had destroyed remained untouched because the Greeks, in the Oath of Plataea, had agreed to leave the ruins as memorials to barbarian sacrilege. Consequently, Phidias’s earlier sculptures were monuments to the Athenian victory over the Persians at Marathon. In fact, two of them were built with spoils from that battle. One, a colossal bronze statue of armed Athena Promachos (c. 470-460 b.c.e.; Athena, first in battle), stood prominently on the Acropolis at Athens; approximately 50 feet (15 meters) high, its shining spear tip and helmet crest could be seen from far out at sea. The other, a bronze group containing Athena, Apollo, the legendary heroes of Athens, and the victorious Athenian general Miltiades, was dedicated at the panhellenic sanctuary at Delphi (c. 465 b.c.e.).

Phidias’s Athena Lemnia was commissioned and dedicated by Athenian colonists settling on Lemnos around 450. This bronze stood on the Athenian Acropolis and had a reputation for extraordinary beauty. Later copies and ancient descriptions indicate that it showed the goddess contemplating her helmet in her right hand.

Pericles respected the Oath of Plataea as long as a state of belligerence with Persia—fostered by the Athenian general Cimon—kept the issue alive. When Cimon died in 449 and a peace treaty was arranged with the Persians, Pericles no longer felt the need to maintain the Athenian temples in ruins. The stage was set for a rebuilding of the sanctuaries on the Acropolis, and the next year, construction of the Parthenon began. Pericles named Phidias general supervisor for the project.

The Parthenon—the temple of Athena the Maiden—was a major synthesis of architecture and sculpture. Phidias coordinated the sculptural program, which consisted of ninety-two metopes with battle scenes (Greeks/Trojans, Greeks/Amazons, lapiths/centaurs, and gods/giants; in place by 443), a 525-foot (160-meter) sculptured frieze the Panathenaic Procession (complete by 438), the cult statue of Athena Parthenos (complete by 438), and pediments (the birth of Athena and the contest of Athena and Poseidon; complete by 432). The sculpted decoration of the Parthenon was unique: No other temple had both sculpted metopes and a continuous frieze, so Phidias’s genius had the maximum opportunity to show itself.

Phidias himself was completely responsible for the chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athena inside, which stood more than 40 feet (12 meters) high. No original pieces of this statue have survived, but later copies and descriptions give an idea of its appearance. Athena stood with a statue of Nike (victory) in her right hand, which rested lightly on a Corinthian column. She was dressed in her aegis, a magical breastplate surrounded by snakes, and wore a three-crested helmet and a belt of snakes. A spear and shield stood at her left side, the latter decorated with relief figures of gods battling giants (inside) and Greeks fighting Amazons (outside). These motifs reflected those of the Parthenon’s other sculptures: the forces of order battling those of barbarity—another sign of Athenian pride in the Persian defeat. Beneath the shield rose the form of a great snake, representing the local god Erichthonius. The statue stood on a rectangular base showing Pandora being adorned by all the gods.

After the cult image was dedicated in 438, Phidias was accused by Pericles’ enemies of having stolen some of the gold from the statue. This charge was proved false when it was revealed that the gold on the statue, weighing more than 454 pounds (1,000 kilograms), had been designed to be easily removed. When it was weighed, no gold was found missing. On his acquittal on that charge, Phidias was accused of sacrilege, for it was commonly believed that he had represented himself and Pericles on the shield of Athena. This charge provides the circumstances for the description of Phidias: He was shown as a bald old man lifting up a stone with both hands. On his conviction, Phidias had to leave Athens, probably around 437 b.c.e.

Fortunately for Phidias, the Elians at this time invited him to come to Olympia to make a chryselephantine cult image of Zeus for the recently completed temple of Zeus. Phidias set up a workshop behind the temple, where he worked for five years, helped by his nephew Panaenus. Pieces of the molds for the golden drapery have been found there, in addition to a cup with the inscription “I belong to Phidias.”

Phidias’s Zeus at Olympia represented a new conception in Greek art. Until that time, Zeus had been usually depicted striding forward with a thunderbolt in his hand. Phidias portrayed him seated on a throne in Olympian calm, seven or eight times life size—more than 40 feet (12 meters)—his head almost touching the roof. The throne was four-fifths of the height of the whole and was decorated with ebony, gold, and ivory. The golden cloak was decorated with lilies and glass inlay. The majesty of the statue impressed all who saw it. Quintilian asserted that it enhanced traditional religion, Dio Cocceianus (Chrysostomos) that the sight of it banished all sorrow. According to one anecdote, Phidias said that he had been inspired by the image of Zeus in Homer’s Iliad (c. 750 b.c.e.; English translation, 1611), in which the god on his throne nodded and caused all Olympus to shake. Pausanias related that Phidias carved his signature beneath the god’s feet and that when the statue was complete, the god sent a flash of lightning to show that he approved of the work. The men in charge of cleaning the great statue were said to be the descendants of Phidias himself.

Phidias died shortly after having completed the Olympian Zeus, probably in Elis around 430. Many other works have been attributed to him, including a bronze Apollo near the Parthenon, a marble Aphrodite in the Athenian Agora, a chryselephantine Aphrodite in Elis, and a famous Amazon in Ephesus. In addition, literary sources indicate that he was skilled in paintings, engraving, and metal embossing. None of these works survives.

Significance

Phidias’s life spanned three important periods in the development of Greek art. He was born toward the end of the Archaic period, when sculpture was quite formal, orderly, and stylized, with a quality of aloofness. Phidias lived as a young man in the Early Classical period, a time of artistic transition, when statues were more representational and heavily charged with specific emotions. When he matured, Phidias worked in a style that avoided the extremes of both: the High Classical, whose statues had expressions that were neither overly remote nor involved, but simultaneously detached and aware. This attitude of idealism, congenial to Phidias’s strong Homeric tendencies, colored his work and gave it its distinctive quality.

The sculpture on the Parthenon came to embody what later generations considered “classical,” and Phidias’s style influenced all cult images subsequent to his Athena and Zeus, setting a standard for later sculptors to follow. For example, his pupil Alcamenes was responsible for the cult images in the Hephaesteum and the temples of Dionysus Eleuthereus and Ares in Athens as well as the Aphrodite of the Gardens. Agoracritus, another pupil, created the cult statue and base for the temple of Nemesis at Rhamnus.

The chief characteristics of Phidias’s style were sublimity, precision, and an “Olympian” rendering, showing the gods as detached from the human realm yet still concerned for men. Their expressions were calm and dignified. They were so pure in their conception that stories arose that Phidias had seen the gods themselves. His works brought the divine down to earth and made heavenly forms manifest for mortals; the gods of Homer came alive under his touch.

Since so few of Phidias’s works survive—the Parthenon sculptures are most likely his design but not of his hand—scholars try to re-create his sculptures on the basis of later copies, mostly of Roman date. The Athena Lemnia, for example, has been reconstructed from ancient references, combined with a marble head now in Bologna and a torso in Dresden; the Athena Parthenos from later copies, including the Varvakeion Athena of Roman date; the Olympian Zeus from coins and gems depicting it in Roman times. Identifications of copies of Phidian originals cannot be proved for the most part, but the quest continues to exercise the ingenuity of scholars. For example, some assign to Phidias the bronze warrior statues found in 1972 in the sea off Riace in southern Italy, while others oppose the attribution.

Bibliography

Boardman, John. Greek Art. Rev. ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996. Regarded as a standard work in the field of classical art, this book provides an overview of the masterpieces of ancient Greece as well as commentary on discoveries and controversies of interpretation surrounding the world’s best-known works of art and architecture.

Boardman, John, and David Finn. The Parthenon and Its Sculptures. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985. Contains hundreds of large, clear photographs and illustrations. Excellent discussion of the history of the building, the role of Phidias, the nature of the sources, historical context, interpretation of the sculpture, and relation to religious festivals. Includes bibliography and index.

Harrison, Evelyn B. “The Composition of the Amazonomachy on the Shield of Athena Parthenos.” Hesperia 35 (1966): 107-133. Exhaustive study of literary sources that describe the battle scene said to include a representation of Phidias himself, with an analysis of the ancient copies. Discussion of composition and iconography, including illustrations with discussion of each figure. Includes extensive bibliography, catalog of figures, and detailed reconstruction.

Leipen, Neda. “Athena Parthenos”: A Reconstruction. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1971. Devoted to the problem of reconstructing Phidias’s Parthenon cult statue, this is a photographic documentation of all relevant artifacts, with a discussion of literary descriptions, the Royal Ontario Museum’s own construction of a model of the statue, and a detailed description of each part of the figure, including accessories. Includes notes and bibliography.

Palagia, Olga. “In Defense of Furtwangler’s Athena Lemnia.” American Journal of Archaeology 91 (1987): 81-84. Discussion of a reconstruction of Phidias’s most beautiful statue. Contains an illustration of the most accepted reconstruction and of other sculptures that support that interpretation. A good example of scholarly methodology used to re-create a Phidian original. Includes bibliography.

Pollitt, J. J. Art and Experience in Classical Greece. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Describes the intellectual influences on Phidias, his influence on other media, his style and spirit, and the problems with writing his biography. Includes illustrations and bibliography.

Richter, Gisela M. “The Pheidian Zeus at Olympia.” Hesperia 35 (1966): 166-170. Excellent summary of what is known about the statue that was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Includes descriptions of the statue as rendered in literature and on gems and coins. Generously illustrated and footnoted.

Richter, Gisela M. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1970. Definitive work on the lives and works of Greek sculptors. Treats anatomy, technique, composition, copies. Long and detailed section on Phidias, discussing all of his works, with extensive bibliography of ancient and modern sources. Two indexes, numerous photographs, chronological table of Greek sculptors and their works.