Κατεύθυνση Κλασική Αρχαιολογία
Library of the School of Philosophy

2018-11-13

2018

Mentaki Margarita

Όλγα Παλαγγιά, ομότιμη καθηγήτρια Κλασικής Αρχαιολογίας, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας , ΕΚΠΑ
Δημήτρης Πλάντζος, αναπληρωτής καθηγητής Κλασικής Αρχαιολογίας, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Στυλιανός Κατάκης, επίκουρος καθηγητής Ρωμαϊκής Αρχαιολογίας, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ

Το έργο του Αλκαμένη, Αθηναίου γλύπτη του 5ου αι. π.Χ.

Greek

The artistic work of Alkamenes, an Athenian sculptor of the 5th century B.C.

Τhe thesis serves as a small contribution to the study of the artistic production of a famous Athenian sculptor of the pheidian circle who was active in the second half of the 5th cen. B.C. and had been taught by Pheidias next to his classmate Agorakritos, Alkamenes.
The ancient sources inform us that Alkamenes, following the paradigm of his teacher, was primarily a sculptor of cult statues, however, rarely, he also created non-religious themes. He worked in bronze as well as in marble and at least in one case he used gold and ivory for a chryselephantine cult statue of Dionysos. His works were mainly located in significant cult places of Athens, yet we know that he also worked for Mantineia and also that a colossal votive relief that is attributed to him by Pausanias had been erected in Thebes. The great number of commissions he undertook after Pheidias' getaway from Athens makes him his undisputable successor and probably reveals his social and political connections with the Athenian democratic regime.
Alkamenes has been frequently seen as a conservative in terms of style mainly because of his famous archaistic sculptures, which however are not totally representative for his artistic production. The thesis attempts to correct this misconception. In addition, the publication of Despinis' monograph on Agorakritos in 1971 highlighted among the sculptors of the pheidian circle who worked in Athens during the post-parthenon period this specific sculptor and set aside Alkamenes who seems to prefer less impressive stylistic forms. The thesis however proves the superiority of Alkamenes in comparison to Agorakritos in many ways and elevates him to an artistic personality who in many occasions expressed innovative ideas concerning style, form and synthesis and also showed a remarkable ability to invent new statuary types that influenced the cultic iconography of the gods he depicted by statues in a decisive way.
The main part of the thesis consists of 4 chapters: I. Ancient Sources, II. Works referred in ancient sources, III. Speculative Attributions, IV. Wrong Attributions. In the first chapter are given all the philological and epigraphic references on Alkamenes accompanied by a translation in modern Greek. In the second chapter, which is divided in two parts, a). Works of known chronology and b). Works of unknown chronology, are examined Alkamenes' works that are mentioned in the ancient sources, putting emphasis on problems of identification, style, interpretation and ancient perception. In the third chapter the thesis gives two examples of original masterpieces that have been traditionally attributed to Alkamenes or his workshop on the grounds of the stylistic affinities to other, securely attributed to him works: the so called Karyatids of the Erechtheion and the slab VI 38-41 from the east side of the Parthenon frieze. In the fourth chapter the thesis raises the problem of the very controversial attribution of the sculptures of the west pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia to Alkamenes by Pausanias, an attribution that is taken as wrong. In the end of the thesis are given the conclusions of the survey followed by a catalog of roman copies, the pictures and an analytical alphabetic list of the bibliography.

Archaeology

Alkamenes, Pheidias, Agorakritos, Sculpture

No

0

Yes

281

134

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https://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr/uoa/dl/object/2818636