Scopas ( grc-gre, Σκόπας; born in

Paros Paros (; el, Πάρος; Venetian: ''Paro'') is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of ...

, fl. 4th century BCE) was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

sculptor and architect, most famous for his statue of Meleager, the copper statue of

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...

, and the head of goddess Hygieia, daughter of

Asclepius Asclepius (; grc-gre, Ἀσκληπιός ''Asklēpiós'' ; la, Aesculapius) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis, or Arsinoe, or of Apollo alone. Asclepius represen ...

Early life and family

Scopas was born on the island of

. His father was the sculptor Aristander of Paros. Skopas left Paros at an early age and travelled throughout the Hellenic world.

Career as sculptor and architect

Scopas worked with

Praxiteles Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubita ...

, and he sculpted parts of the

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus ( grc, Μαυσωλεῖον τῆς Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ; tr, Halikarnas Mozolesi) was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC in Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, ...

, especially the

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s. He led the building of the new temple of

Athena Alea Alea ( Ancient Greek: ) was an epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, prominent in Arcadian mythology, under which she was worshiped at Alea, Mantineia and Tegea. Alea was initially an independent goddess, but was eventually assimilated with A ...

Tegea Tegea (; el, Τεγέα) was a settlement in ancient Arcadia, and it is also a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the Tripoli municipality, of which it is a municipal un ...

. Similar to Lysippus, Scopas is artistically a successor of the

Classical Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

sculptor

Polykleitos Polykleitos ( grc, Πολύκλειτος) was an ancient Greek sculptor in bronze of the 5th century BCE. Alongside the Athenian sculptors Pheidias, Myron and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the most important sculptors of classical an ...

. The faces of the heads are almost in

quadrat A quadrat is a frame, traditionally square, used in ecology, geography and biology to isolate a standard unit of area for study of the distribution of an item over a large area. Modern quadrats can for example be rectangular, circular, or irregul ...

. The deeply sunken eyes and a slightly opened mouth are recognizable characteristics in the figures of Scopas. Works by Scopas are preserved in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

(reliefs) in London; fragments from the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea in the

National Archaeological Museum of Athens The National Archaeological Museum ( el, Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο) in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is ...

; the celebrated

Ludovisi Ares The Ludovisi Ares is an Antonine Roman marble sculpture of Mars, a fine 2nd-century copy of a late 4th-century BCE Greek original, associated with Scopas or Lysippus: thus the Roman god of war receives his Greek name, Ares. Ares/Mars is portr ...

in the

Palazzo Altemps The National Roman Museum (Italian: ''Museo Nazionale Romano'') is a museum, with several branches in separate buildings throughout the city of Rome, Italy. It shows exhibits from the pre- and early history of Rome, with a focus on archaeological ...

, Rome; a statue of Pothos restored as Apollo Citharoedus in the

Capitoline Museum The Capitoline Museums (Italian: ''Musei Capitolini'') are a group of art and archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and P ...

, Rome; and his statue of Meleager, unmentioned in ancient literature but surviving in numerous replicas, perhaps best represented by a torso in the Fogg Art Museum,

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

Pothos

''Pothos'', or ''Desire'', was a celebrated and much imitated statue by Scopas. Roman copies featured the human figure with a variety of props, such as musical instruments and fabrics as depicted here,Steven Lattimore, "Scopas and the Pothos", ''American Journal of Archaeology'' Vol.91 No.3 (July 1987), pages 411–42
journal preview
/ref> in an example that was in the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albani.

Namesake

* Scopas (crater)

Gallery

File:NAMA Hygie.jpg, Head of the goddess Hygieia by Scopas from the temple of

(

) File:Meleager Pio-Clementino Inv490.jpg, A Roman 1st century AD marble '' Meleager'' with

chlamys The chlamys ( Ancient Greek: χλαμύς : chlamýs, genitive: χλαμύδος : chlamydos) was a type of an ancient Greek cloak.Museo Pio-Clementino The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...

, Rome) File:Meleager Skopas BM GR1906.1-17.1.jpg, Roman marble head of Meleager, after Scopas, on a restored bust (

) File:Archaeological museum, Athens (5615666772).jpg, Hunter stele by Scopas (National Archaeological Museum of Athens) File:Pothos Apollo Musei Capitolini MC649.jpg, One of many Roman copies of Pothos (Desire), a statue by Scopas, restored here as

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

Kitharoidos (Apollo, the

Cithara The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymolog ...

-player) File:MarbleHeadsScopas.jpg, Two marble heads by Scopas, National Museum Athens

Literature

* Andreas Linfert: ''Von Polyklet zu Lysipp. Polyklets Schule und ihr Verhältnis zu Skopas v. Paros''. Diss. Freiburg i. B. 1965. * Andrew F. Stewart: ''Skopas of Paros''. Noyes Pr., Park Ridge, N.Y. 1977. * Andrew Stewart: ''Skopas in Malibu. The head of Achilles from Tegea and other sculptures by Skopas in the J. Paul Getty Museum'' J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, Calif. 1982. * Skopas of Paros and his world, International Conference on the Archaeology of Paros and the Cyclades Paroikia, Paros, Greece), Katsōnopoulou, Dora., Stewart, Andrew F.

References

4th-century BC Greek sculptors Ancient Greek sculptors Ancient Parians {{Greece-sculptor-stub