Scopas

Greek sculptor

• Born: Possibly as early as 420 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Paros, Greece
• Died: Late fourth century b.c.e.
• Place of death: Unknown

Scopas created works of relaxed gracefulness on one hand and of strong emotion, stress, and turbulence on the other. With Praxiteles of Athens and Lysippus of Sicyon, his work dominated the art of the fourth century b.c.e.

Early Life

No biographical information on Scopas (SKOH-pahs) survives. He may have been the son of the Parian sculptor Aristander, who was working in 405 b.c.e.

Life’s Work

Scopas worked as an architect and sculptor. His most celebrated works are sculptures designed to fit into a specific architectural setting. Ancient sources report that he worked on three important monuments of the early and mid-fourth century b.c.e.: the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. It is indicative of his prominence that the last two of these three projects became famous as two of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Modern students of Scopas consider the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea the most important of his achievements because its fragments are the basis of whatever judgments can be made about his style. Pausanias the Traveler (b. c. 110-115 c.e.; d. c. 180 c.e.) says that he was the architect of the building as a whole; judging from the consistent style of the surviving pieces, it is likely that the temple sculptures were executed by a team of artisans working under Scopas’s supervision. The original temple, in southern Arcadia, had been destroyed by a fire in 394 b.c.e. The rebuilding took place about a generation later, on a scale of size and magnificence designed to overshadow all other temples in the Peloponnese. The central image of the temple, an ivory carving of Athena Alea, had been saved from the earlier temple. Everything else was for Scopas to create, and it is likely that he conceived of the temple itself as a vehicle for the display of the ornamental sculptures he designed. Pausanias, who saw the building intact, reports that the sculptures of the front pediment represented the Calydonian boar hunt referred to in the ninth book of Homer’s Iliad (c. 750 b.c.e.; English translation, 1611). The figure of Meleager on this pediment, though lost, is believed to survive in copies, of which the best two are in the Vatican and in Berlin. The rear pediment showed the duel between Telephus (the local Arcadian hero) and Achilles, which took place just before the Trojan War. Of these sculptures, only fragments of the heads and various body parts survive. Scopas also created the freestanding statues of the healer Asklepios and the health goddess Hygieia, which flanked the ivory figure of Athena that stood in the interior. A marble head of a woman that may be that of Hygieia was found by French excavators of the site in the early 1920’s.

Scopas’s role in the creation of the Artemisium at Ephesus is more problematical. There is only the authority of Pliny the Elder that he executed one of the thirty-six ornamented columns that were commissioned for this colossal structure, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The sixth century b.c.e. temple of Artemis had burned in 356 b.c.e., reportedly on the night of Alexander the Great’s birth, and construction began immediately on what would be (like Athena’s temple at Tegea) considerably grander than its predecessor. The remains of this larger second temple are now in the British Museum. Of the three surviving ornamented column bases, one is dubiously attributed to Scopas. It shows Hermes leading the soul of Alcestis, who had offered to die in place of her husband, Admetus, toward a winged figure representing Thanatos, or death.

Scopas’s third major work in architectural ornamentation was the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, ordered by Queen Artemisia as a monumental tomb for her husband Mausalaus, satrap of Caria, who died in 353. This building, constructed entirely of white marble, stood until the fifteenth century, when it was brought down by an earthquake. It was excavated by the British in 1857, and many of its best pieces were taken to the British Museum. Though not its chief architect, Scopas was one of four famous artists brought in to decorate the four sides of the building with relief sculpture. His colleagues in this project, according to Pliny the Elder and Vitruvius, were Bryaxis, Timotheus, and Leochares. The best preserved of the three friezes found near the site by the British team represents an Amazonomachy, any of a number of legendary battles between Greeks and Amazons. Seventeen slabs, more or less defaced, represent this scene. Numerous attempts to attribute sections of the frieze to Scopas have been made, but they are problematical as a result of the lack of a single distinctive style that can serve as a signature of the master’s work. Four slabs found near the northeast corner are commonly attributed to Scopas, but the touchstone of Scopadic style remains the fragments from Tegea.

Other works by Scopas are known through descriptions in ancient sources, which have led to the attribution of copies that seem to fit the ancient descriptions. A poem by Callistratus describes a Bacchante in ecstasy, carrying a kid she has killed. This image has been identified with a Maenad in the Dresden Sculpture Museum whose head is thrown up and back over her left shoulder. Her light dress, fastened over her right shoulder and held in place by a cord knotted above her waist, is blown by the wind, laying bare her left side, and her back is arched sharply backward as she strides, right leg forward. The Dresden Maenad, commonly attributed to Scopas, is representative of the late Classical and Hellenistic fondness for figures in action, gripped by powerful emotion. One of his most popular sculptures was a statue of Pothos (Longing), a young male nude leaning on a pillar, or thyrsus, with a cloak over his left arm and a goose at his feet. He stands with his weight on one foot, his left leg relaxed and crossing in front of his right. He looks upward in an abstracted way, as if thinking of an absent lover.

Although the original of this masterpiece no longer survives, there are many Roman copies (and gemstone engravings) that testify to its popularity. This work represents the late classical departure from the powerfully built, erect, and concentrated figures of the earlier severe style. The body lines are gentle, the geometry of the figure is sloping rather than erect, and the effect is of grace rather than power. Pausanias mentions a bronze Aphrodite Pandemos in a precinct of Aphrodite at Elis; the image has survived on Roman coins. Other works believed to show Scopas’s influence are Roman reproductions of his statue of Meleager and the Lansdowne Heracles at the Getty Museum in Malibu, California, thought to be modeled on an original made for the gymnasium at Sikyon. Nearly all these derivative pieces are statues of gods and goddesses: Asklepios and Hygieia, Aphrodite, Apollo, Dionysus, Hestia, and Hermes.

Significance

Scopas must remain an enigmatic figure because no existing work of sculpture can safely be attributed to him; indeed, not much is known about the man or his work. Nevertheless, the testimony of ancient writers such as Pausanias, Pliny the Elder, and Vitruvius affirms that he was famed in the ancient world as both sculptor and architect, that his work was in great demand, and that he was widely imitated. The consensus of ancient opinion represents him as the preeminent sculptor of passion.

Modern students of ancient art are also unanimous in attributing to Scopas an individuality of manner that they perceive in works closely associated with his name. While the best authorities are reluctant to make dogmatic attributions of specific works, they agree in attributing to his style an impetuous force in the rendering of figures, delicate workmanship, and the rhythmical composition of a master sculptor.

Scopas’s technical virtuosity is perhaps less important than the human content of his work, which reveals an emotional fervor and a sensitivity to the sadness of life. This interpretation was one of his great contributions to Hellenistic culture. Another aspect of his contribution is the representation of the human form under stress, where the body’s tension symbolizes a turbulent emotional state. Hellenistic mannerism grows naturally out of this style. Scopas’s unique achievement in recording the deeper recesses of human experience has been appropriately compared to that of Michelangelo in the Renaissance.

Bibliography

Ashmole, Bernard. “Skopas.” In Encyclopedia of World Art. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959-1983. An excellent summary in English supplemented by an extensive bibliography of books and articles in English, French, German, and Italian.

Barron, John. An Introduction to Greek Sculpture. New York: Schocken Books, 1984. This volume is brief but well illustrated.

Bentley, Diana, and Sarah Warburton. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Describes the architectural achievements of the ancient world known as the Seven Wonders of the World, including the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

Bieber, Margarete. The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age. New York: Hacker Art Books, 1981. A detailed account of the major works still surviving, those described by ancient sources, and existing sculptures in Scopas’s style. Finely illustrated; includes a bibliography and references to museum catalogs.

Jeppeson, Kristian. Maussolleion at Halikarnassos, Reports of the Danish Archaeological Expedition to Bodrum. Copenhagen: Jutland Historical Society, 2000. Describes the mausoleum’s structure, art and adornments, and the sacrificial deposit.

Lawrence, A. W. Greek and Roman Sculpture. London: Cape, 1972. This work concentrates on the Tegea figures, with notices of several pieces attributed to Scopas. Limited bibliography.

Richter, G. M. A. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1970. Attentive to the ancient sources, which are quoted freely, and most sensitive to the problems of identification. Well documented with references to ancient and modern sources.

Stewart, Andrew F. Skopas of Paros. Park Ridge, N.Y.: Noyes Press, 1977. Detailed attention to features of style, based chiefly on the Tegea fragments. Richly illustrated, with a full set of ancient testimonia and detailed references to modern scholarship. Likely to remain the standard authority for some time.