Alexis (sculptor)

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Alexis (Ancient Greek: Ἄλεξις) was an ancient Greek sculptor and statuary, mentioned by Pliny as one of the pupils of Polykleitos. [1] Pausanias mentions an artist of the same name, a native of Sicyon, and father of the sculptor Cantharus. [2] It cannot be satisfactorily settled whether these are the same, or different persons. Pliny's account implies that he had the elder Polykleitos in mind, in which case Alexis could not have flourished later than Olympiad 95 in 400 BC, whereas Eutychides, under whom Cantharus studied, flourished about Olympiad 120 in 300. [1] If the two were identical, as German classicist Friedrich Thiersch thinks, we must suppose either that Pliny made a mistake, and that Alexis studied instead under Polykleitos the Younger, or else that Eutychides, whose date is given by Pliny, was not the artist under whom Cantharus studied. [3] [4]

Ancient Greek Version of the Greek language used from roughly the 9th century BCE to the 6th century CE

The Ancient Greek language includes the forms of Greek used in Ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BCE to the 6th century CE. It is often roughly divided into the Archaic period, Classical period, and Hellenistic period. It is antedated in the second millennium BCE by Mycenaean Greek and succeeded by medieval Greek.

Pliny the Elder Roman military commander and writer

Pliny the Elder was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, a naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and friend of emperor Vespasian.

Polykleitos Greek sculptor, active ca. 450-ca. 415 BCE

Polykleitos was an ancient Greek sculptor in bronze of the 5th century BCE. His Greek name was traditionally Latinized Polycletus, but is also transliterated Polycleitus and due to iotacism in the transition from Ancient to Modern Greek, Polyklitos or Polyclitus. He is called Sicyonius by Latin authors including Pliny the Elder and Cicero, and Ἀργεῖος by others like Plato and Pausanias. He is sometimes called the Elder, in cases where it is necessary to distinguish him from his son, who is regarded as a major architect but a minor sculptor.

Notes

  1. 1 2 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia xxxiv. 8. s. 19
  2. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece vi. 3. § 3
  3. ↑ Friedrich Thiersch, Epochen der bild. Kunst. p. 276
  4. ↑ Mason, Charles Peter (1867). "Alexis". In William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 129.

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References

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William Smith (lexicographer) English lexicographer

Sir William Smith was an English lexicographer. He also made advances in the teaching of Greek and Latin in schools.

<i>Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology</i> encyclopedia/biographical dictionary

The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 pages. It is a classic work of 19th-century lexicography. The work is a companion to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities and Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography.

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