Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Phidias (or Pheidias) (in ancient Greek, Φειδίας) (c. 490–c. 430 BC), son of Charmides, was an ancient Greek sculptor, universally regarded as the greatest of all Classical sculptors. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x664, 216 KB)Pheidias and the Frieze of the Parthenon by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Date: 1868 - 1869 Medium: Oil on mahogany panel. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x664, 216 KB)Pheidias and the Frieze of the Parthenon by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Date: 1868 - 1869 Medium: Oil on mahogany panel. ... Categories: Artist stubs | 1836 births | 1912 deaths | British painters | Dutch painters ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 540s BC 530s BC 520s BC 510s BC 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC Years: 495 BC 494 BC 493 BC 492 BC 491 BC - 490 BC - 489 BC 488 BC... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC - 430s BC - 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC Years: 435 BC 434 BC 433 BC 432 BC 431 BC - 430 BC - 429 BC 428 BC... The Charmides is a dialogue of Plato, discussing the nature and utility of temperance. ... Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of human history until the Early Middle Ages. ... A sculpture is a three-dimensional object, which for the purposes of this article is man-made and selected for special recognition as art. ...

Phidias designed the temple of the goddess Athena on the Athenian Acropolis (Athena Parthenos inside the Parthenon and the Athena Promachos) and the colossal seated Statue of Zeus at Olympia in the 5th century BC. The Athenian works were apparently commissioned by Pericles in 447 BC. Pericles used the money from the maritime League of Delos to pay Phidias for his work. Statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a god. Many cultures have goddesses. ... Helmeted Athena, of the Velletri type. ... Athens (Greek Αθήνα Athína) is the capital and largest city of Greece. ... The Acropolis of Athens, seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... The Parthenon seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... A fanciful reconstruction of Phidias statue of Zeus, in an engraving made by Philippe Galle in 1572, from a drawing by Maarten van Heemskerck. ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 5th century BC started on January 1, 500 BC and ended on December 31, 401 BC. // The Parthenon of Athens seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... Pericles or Perikles (c. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC - 440s BC - 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC Years: 452 BC 451 BC 450 BC 449 BC 448 BC - 447 BC - 446 BC 445 BC...

Free copy of the Athena Parthenos signed by Antiochos, 1st century BCE (Palazzo Altieri, Rome)

We have varying accounts of his training. Hegias of Athens, Ageladas of Argos, and the Thasian painter Polygnotus, have all been regarded as his teachers. In favour of Ageladas it may be said that the influence of the many Dorian schools is certainly to be traced in some of his work. Of his life we know little apart from his works. Of his death we have two discrepant accounts. According to Plutarch he was made an object of attack by the political enemies of Pericles, and died in prison at Athens. According to Philochorus, as quoted by a scholiast on Aristophanes, he fled to Elis, where he made the great statue of Zeus for the Eleans, and was afterwards put to death by them. For several reasons the first of these tales is preferable. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1600x2680, 1976 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Athena Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1600x2680, 1976 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Athena Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create... This article is about the goddess Athena. ... Palazzo Altieri was the home of the Altieri family in Rome. ... Hegias or Hegesias of Athens[1] was a famous sculptor of Athens, a member of the Late Archaic school of the generation before Phidias. ... Ageladas, or (as the name is spelt in an inscription) Hagelaidas, was a great Argive sculptor, who flourished in the latter part of the 6th and the early part of the 5th century BC. He was specially noted for his statues of Olympic victors (of 520, 516, 508 BC); also... Polygnotus was a Greek painter in the middle of the 5th century BC, son of Aglaophon. ... Fifth century BCE hoplite, or heavy-armed soldier, possibly the Spartan king Leonidas, a Dorian, who died holding the pass at the Battle of Thermopylae. ... Mestrius Plutarchus (Greek: Πλούταρχος; 46 - 127), better known in English as Plutarch, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist. ... Philochorus, of Athens, Greek historian during the 3rd century BC, was a member of a priestly family. ... Scholium (plural scholia) is the name given to grammatical, critical and explanatory notes or brief commentary whether original or extracted from existing commentaries, which are inserted on the margin of the manuscript of an ancient author as a succinct gloss. ... Sketch of Aristophanes Aristophanes (Greek: , c. ... Elis, or Eleia (Greek, Modern: Ήλιδα Ilida, Ancient/Katharevousa: Ήλις, also Ilis, Doric: Άλις) is an ancient district within the modern prefecture of Ilia. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is...

Plutarch gives in his Life of Pericles a charming account of the vast artistic activity which went on at Athens while that statesman was in power. He used for the decoration of his own city the money furnished by the Athenian allies for defence against Persia: it is very fortunate that after the time of Xerxes Persia made no deliberate attempt against Greece. "In all these works," says Plutarch, "Pheidias was the adviser and overseer of Pericles." Pheidias introduced his own portrait and that of Pericles on the shield of his Athena Parthenos statue. And it was through Pheidias that the political enemies of Pericles struck at him. It thus abundantly appears that Pheidias was closely connected with Pericles, and a dominant spirit in the Athenian art of the period. But it is not easy to go beyond this general assertion into details. The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and beyond in Western Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. ... Xerxes I (خشایارشاه), was a Persian king (reigned 485 - 465 BC) of the Achaemenid dynasty. ... This article is about the goddess Athena. ...

It is important to observe that in resting the fame of Pheidias upon the sculptures of the Parthenon we proceed with little evidence. No ancient writer ascribes them to him, and he seldom, if ever, executed works in marble. In antiquity he was celebrated for his statues in bronze, and his chryselephantine works (statues made of gold and ivory). Plutarch tells us that he superintended the great works of Pericles on the Acropolis, but this phrase is vague; inscriptions prove that the marble blocks intended for the pedimental statues of the Parthenon were not brought to Athens until 434 BC, which was probably after the death of Pheidias. And there is a marked contrast in style between these statues and the certain works of Pheidias. It is therefore probable that most if not all of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was the work of pupils of Pheidias, such as Alcamenes and Agoracritus, rather than his own. Venus de Milo, front. ... Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... Chryselephantine (from Greek χρυσος (chrysos), “gold,” and ελεφαντινος (elephantinos), “ivory”), the architectural term given to statues which were built up on a wooden core, with ivory representing the flesh and gold the drapery. ... Acropolis of Athens from the south-west with the Propylaea and the Temple of Nike (left centre) and the theatre of Herodes Atticus (below left) Acropolis (Gr. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC - 430s BC - 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC Years: 439 BC 438 BC 437 BC 436 BC 435 BC - 434 BC - 433 BC 432 BC... The Parthenon seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... Alcamenes was a Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens. ... Agoracritus was a Parian and Athenian sculptor of the age of Phidias, and said to have been his favourite pupil. ...

The earliest of the great works of Pheidias were dedications in memory of Marathon, from the spoils of the victory. At Delphi he erected a great group in bronze including the figures of Apollo and Athena, several Attic heroes, and Miltiades the general. On the acropolis of Athens he set up a colossal bronze statue of Athena, the Athena Promachos, which was visible far out at sea. At Pellene in Achaea, and at Plataea he made two other statues of Athena, as well as a statue of Aphrodite in ivory and gold for the people of Elis. Combatants Athens and Plataea Persia Commanders Miltiades Callimachus† Darius I of Persia Datis†? Artaphernes Strength 10,000 Athenians 1,000 Plataeans 20,000-60,000 by modern estimates 1 Casualties 192 Athenians dead 11 Plateans dead 6,400 dead 7 ships captured 1 Ancient sources give numbers ranging from 200... Delphi (Greek Δελφοί — Delphee) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in a valley of Phocis. ... In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (Ancient Greek , Apóllōn; or , Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), was the god of music, medicine, death dealing, and archery and also a brother of Artemis. ... Attica (in Greek: Αττική, Attike; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a periphery (subdivision) in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece. ... Miltiades Miltiades (c. ... Achaea (Greek: , Achaïa; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an ancient province and a present prefecture of Greece, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, stretching from the mountain ranges of Erymanthus and Cyllene on the south to a narrow strip of fertile land on the... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485 Aphrodite (Greek: Αφροδίτη; Latin: Venus) (IPA: English: , Ancient Greek: , Modern Greek: ) was the Greek goddess of love, lust, and beauty. ...

Among the ancient Greeks themselves two works of Pheidias far outshone all others, and were the basis of his fame; the colossal chryselephantine figures in gold and ivory of Zeus at Olympia and of Athena Parthenos at Athens, both of which belong to about the middle of the 5th century BC. Of the Zeus we have unfortunately lost all trace save small copies on coins of Elis, which give us but a general notion of the pose, and the character of the head. The god was seated on a throne, every part of which was used as a ground for sculptural decoration. His body was of ivory, his robe of gold. His head was of somewhat archaic type: the Otricoli mask which used to be regarded as a copy of the head of the Olympian statue is certainly more than a century later in style. A number of ancient writers document a story regarding the love of the sculptor for an Elian boy, Pantarkes. It was said that to honor his eromenos Phidias carved the boy's name on the little finger of the Olympian Zeus, and his portrait in the figure of a victorious athlete at the foot of the statue. (Plutarch, Erotikos; Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, 53, 4) Of the Athena Parthenos two small copies in marble have been found at Athens which have no excellence of workmanship, but have a certain evidential value as to the treatment of their original. A fanciful reconstruction of Phidias statue of Zeus, in an engraving made by Philippe Galle in 1572, from a drawing by Maarten van Heemskerck. ... Coordinates 37°38′ N 21°37′ E Country Greece Periphery West Greece Prefecture Elis Province Ilia Population 11,069 source (2001) Elevation 63 m Postal code 270 65 Area code 26240 Licence plate code ΗΑ Olympia (Greek: Olympía or Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a sanctuary of ancient Greece... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 5th century BC started on January 1, 500 BC and ended on December 31, 401 BC. // The Parthenon of Athens seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... Pederastic courtship scene Athenian black-figure amphora, 5th c. ... In the pederastic tradition of Classical Athens, the eromenos (Greek ἐρόμενος, pl. ...

Our actual knowledge of the works of Pheidias is very small. There are many stately figures in the Roman and other museums which clearly belong to the same school as the Parthenos; but they are copies of the Roman age, and not to be trusted in point of style. Adolf Furtwangler proposed to find in a statue of which the head is at Bologna, and the body at Dresden, a copy of the Lemnian Athena of Pheidias; but his arguments (Masterpieces, at the beginning) are anything but conclusive. Much more satisfactory as evidence are some 5th century torsos of Athena found at Athens. The very fine torso of Athena in the École des Beaux-Arts at Paris, which has unfortunately lost its head, may perhaps best serve to help our imagination in reconstructing a Pheidian original. Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban... Adolf Furtwängler (June 30, 1853 - October 10, 1907) was a famous German archaeologist and art historian. ... Bologna (IPA , from Latin Bononia, BulÃ¥ggna in Emiliano-Romagnolo) is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Pianura Padana, between the Po River and the Apennines, exactly between the Reno River and the Sàvena River. ... For other uses, see Dresden (disambiguation). ... The Lemnian Athena or Athena Lemnia, was a classical Greek statue of the goddess Athena. ... École des Beaux-Arts (IPA ) refers to several art schools in France. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ...

Ancient critics take a very high view of the merits of Pheidias. What they especially praise is the ethos or permanent moral level of his works as compared with those of the later "pathetic" school. Demetrius calls his statues sublime, and at the same time precise. That he rode on the crest of a splendid wave of art is not to be questioned: but it is to be regretted that we have no morsel of work extant for which we can definitely hold him responsible except for one. Ethos (ἦθος) (plurals: ethe, ethea) is a Greek word originally meaning the place of living that can be translated into English in different ways. ... Demetrius (from Greek — Δημήτριος, male form of Demeter) is the name of several notable people from classical antiquity and other eras. ...

In 1958 archaeologists found the workshop at Olympia where Pheidias assembled the gold and ivory Zeus. There were still some shards of ivory at the site, moulds and other casting equipment, and the base of a bronze drinking cup engraved "I belong to Phidias."

See also

• The golden ratio has been represented by the Greek letter (phi), after Phidias, who is said to have employed it.

The golden section is a line segment sectioned into two according to the golden ratio. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.