The marble statues in the pediment of the Parthenon at Athens, as
well as the metopes and _bassi-relievi_ which adorned the temple
dedicated to Minerva, are popularly supposed to have been either the
work of Phidias himself, or executed by his scholars after his designs
and under his superintendence. This opinion, by dint of constant
repetition, has finally become accepted as an undoubted fact; but a
careful examination into the original authorities will show that it is
unsupported by any satisfactory evidence.
The main ground upon which it is founded is that Phidias was appointed
by Pericles director of the public works at Athens, and occupied that
office during the building of the Parthenon. From being the director
he is supposed to have been the designer at least, not only of the
temple, but of all the works of art contained in it. This deduction
is certainly very broad to be drawn from so small a fact, even if
that fact should be established beyond doubt. It resembles the modern
instance of the popular attribution of so many nameless statues of
the Renaissance to Michel Angelo. And there seems to be about as much
reason to suppose that Phidias executed or designed all the sculpture
of the Parthenon, because he was the general superintendent of public
works at Athens, as to attribute to Michel Angelo the authorship of all
the statues in St. Peter’s, because he was mainly the architect and
superintendent of the work of that great Christian temple.
The first fact to be opposed to this entirely gratuitous assumption is,
that during the execution of the great public works at Athens under the
administration of Pericles, Phidias himself was occupied on his great
chryselephantine statue of Athena, which was the chief ornament of the
Parthenon; and this alone, without considering the other great statues
in ivory, and gold, and bronze, on which he was probably engaged at or
near the same period, was amply sufficient to occupy his entire time
and thoughts.
The next most important fact is that no ancient contemporary author
asserts that any of the sculptures of the Parthenon, with the exception
of the chryselephantine statue of Athena, were executed by him; and
considering his fame in his own and subsequent ages, it seems most
improbable, to say the least, that, had he been the author of any of
the other statues and _alti_ or _bassi-relievi_, not only no mention of
this fact, but no allusion to it, should ever have been made.
In the next place, it will be found, on careful examination of the
ancient writers and of other facts bearing on the question, to be
exceedingly doubtful whether Phidias ever made any statues in marble.
If he did execute any works in this material, they were exceptions to
his general practice, his art being chiefly in toreutic work, and in
gold and ivory, or bronze. It was in these arts that he established his
fame; and there is no mention of any work by him in marble within five
hundred years of his death.
Plutarch, in his Life of Pericles, says that “Phidias was appointed
by Pericles superintendent of all the public edifices, though the
Athenians had other eminent architects, and excellent workmen.” It
is plain, however, that even if Phidias was director of the works,
Plutarch does not mean to represent him as the architect or artist by
whom they were either designed or executed; for he immediately adds
that “the Parthenon was built by Callicrates and Ictinus.” Probably
also Carpion was another architect actively engaged upon it, for he and
Ictinus wrote a work upon it. Plutarch then goes on to enumerate other
buildings built by different artists at this very period during which
Phidias was director of public works. Afterwards he positively states
that “the golden statue of Minerva was the workmanship of Phidias,
and his name is inscribed on the pedestal;”[1] and adds that, “as we
have already observed, through the friendship of Pericles, he had the
direction of everything, and all the artists received his orders.”
But he does not say or intimate that Phidias himself made anything
in the Parthenon except the statue of Athena, unless “having the
direction of everything” is to be understood as equivalent to making
everything himself. Such an interpretation is, however, absolutely
in contradiction with his statements that the Parthenon was built by
Callicrates and Ictinus; that the Temple of Initiation at Eleusis was
begun by Corœbus, carried on by Metagenes, and finished by Xenocles
of Cholargos; that the vestibule of the Citadel was finished in five
years by Mnesicles; and that the Odeum was built under the direction of
Pericles, by which he incurred much ridicule.
Strabo, however, would seem to differ from Plutarch on this point,
and to attribute to Pericles himself, and not to Phidias, the general
superintendence of the public works. Speaking of the Temple of the
Eleusinian Ceres at Eleusis, and the mystic inclosure, Σηκός, built by
Ictinus, he adds, “This person it was who made the Parthenon in the
Acropolis in honor of Minerva, when Pericles was superintendent of
the public works;” and in another passage he mentions “the Parthenon
built by Ictinus, in which is the Minerva in ivory, the work of
Phidias,”—thus clearly distinguishing the work of Phidias, and saying
not a word about the metopes, _bassi-relievi_, or statues in the
pediment, or indicating him as their author.
But granting that Plutarch is right, it is quite manifest that
it was impossible for Phidias to have had more than an official
superintendence of these great works. The sole administration of public
affairs was conferred on Pericles in B. C. 444, and it was not until
then or subsequently that Phidias could have been appointed to this
office. Among the public works built at this period were the Propylæa,
the Odeum, the Parthenon, the Temples of Ceres at Eleusis, of Juno at
Argos, of Apollo at Phigaleia, and of Zeus at Olympia—the last being
finished in B. C. 433. Within these eleven years, therefore, Phidias is
supposed to have superintended all or a portion of these temples, with
their manifold sculptures and statues, and, in addition, to have made
the colossal chryselephantine statues of Athena in the Parthenon, Zeus
at Olympia, Aphrodite Urania at Elis, and also, perhaps, the Athena
Areia in bronze at Platæa.
But excluding all consideration as to the other temples, and confining
ourselves solely to the Parthenon, let us see if it be possible, with
all his occupations, for him to have executed the Athena alone, and
also executed or even designed the other sculptures of the Parthenon.
In the tympanum there are 44 statues, all of heroic size. There were 92
metopes representing the battles of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, and the
frieze, which was covered with elaborate _bassi-relievi_ representing
processions of men, women, and horses with riders, was about 524 feet
in length.
There seems to be no distinct statement of the exact time when the
Parthenon was begun; but it certainly was after the appointment of
Pericles in 444 B. C., and we know that it was finished and dedicated
in 438 B. C. This gives us six years as the outside possible limits
within which it was built. Now, if Phidias made, executed, or even
modeled or designed, only the 44 statues of the tympanum within this
period, he must have been a man of astonishing activity and rapidity in
his work. To do this he must have made more than seven heroic statues
in each year, or more than one statue every two months for six years.
This may safely be said to be impossible, unless we mean by the term
designing the making of small sketches in clay or terra cotta, with
little elaboration or finish. But if we add the 92 metopes and the
524 feet of figures in relief, the mere designing in clay of all the
figures and groups becomes impossible.
But this is not enough: we know that he executed in this time the
colossal chryselephantine statue of Athena,—and to the other statues,
therefore, he could only have given the overplus of his time which
was not needed for his great work. Nor are we without data by which
we can estimate the probable time given to the Athena alone. At Elis
he was engaged exclusively from four to five years upon the Zeus, in
the temple at Olympia; and in the execution of this colossal work we
know that he had the assistance of other artists, and especially of
Kolotes; and we also know that he did nothing else in this temple,
the statues in the two tympana having been executed by Alcamenes
and Pæonios. In all probability about the same amount of time was
given to the Athena. Supposing, then, that he began his work on the
Parthenon immediately after the appointment of Pericles, which is most
improbable, he would have had about a year’s time in which to make all
the statues and reliefs in the Parthenon, and exercise supervision
of the public works. If he modeled the designs only of the tympana
in this period, he must have made a statue in eight days. If he also
modeled the designs of the metopes, 92 in number, of two figures each,
he must have given less than three days to each, without allowing any
time for the performance of his functions of general director, and
supposing him also to have worked without a day’s intermission. Such
suppositions must be rejected as approaching so near to impossibilities
as to render them utterly untenable. All probabilities are in favor
of the supposition that, during the period in which the Parthenon was
constructed, Phidias was employed solely upon the statue of Athena, and
upon the duties incident to his position as superintendent of public
works.
This conclusion will seem all the more probable when we consider that
Phidias, far from being rapid in his execution, was, on the contrary,
a slow and elaborate worker, devoting much time to the careful and
minute finish of his statues. Themistius is reported by Plutarch as
saying of him, that “though Phidias was skillful enough to make in gold
or ivory” (it will be observed that he speaks of his work in no other
materials) “the true shape of god or man, yet he did require abundance
of time and leisure to his work; so he is reported to have spent much
time upon the base and sandals of his statue of the goddess Athena.”[2]
We must also add another consideration, and it is this: that in the
time of Phidias it was necessary for a sculptor to do far more with
his own hand than it is now. Modern facilities have greatly abridged
the personal labor of the sculptor in marble or bronze. The present
method of casting in plaster, which was then unknown, or at least
unpracticed, enables the sculptor of our days to elaborate his work
to the utmost finish, in its full size, in the clay model; and when
this is completed and cast in such a permanent material as plaster,
the workman has an absolute model, which he may, to a certain extent,
copy with almost mathematical accuracy. The greater portion of the
work may therefore be now committed to inferior hands, as it requires
only mechanical dexterity and care; while it merely remains for the
sculptor himself to finish the work in marble, and add such elaboration
of detail and expression as he may desire. But in the time of Phidias
this method was unknown; and the sculptor himself was forced to do a
much greater part of his work in marble. In like manner, the modern
method of casting in bronze is so admirable that the labor of the
artist in finishing the cast is comparatively small; but in the earlier
period of bronze casting, there is no doubt that the cast originally
was far more imperfect, and the labor of the sculptor in finishing
far greater. These facts will in some measure seem to account for the
comparatively long time during which Phidias was engaged on his works.
As there evidently was no full-sized and completely finished model of
the Athena or Zeus for the workmen mechanically to copy, Phidias was
forced to work out the details of his great works with his own hands,
moulding and designing them as he went on; and this he was obliged to
do, not in a plastic material like clay, but in the final material of
his statue—whether gold, ivory, or bronze. Assistants of course he had,
and undoubtedly they were very numerous. Plutarch tells us that the
public works gave employment to carpenters, modelers, brass cutters
and stampers, chiselers and engravers, dyers, workers of ivory and
gold, and even weavers;[3] and some of these men certainly worked for
Phidias. In fact, he used the hands of others as much as he could—as
any sensible artist would; but a great part of his invention and work
was carried on in hard and difficult materials, instead of being
perfected in a facile clay, as it would be by a modern sculptor; and
this carried with it, of course, a great expense of time and labor.
With these facts in view, and considering the great size and
elaboration of the ivory and gold statue of Athena, it is quite
evident that the few years which elapsed between the commencement of
the Parthenon and its dedication would have been amply occupied by
this work alone,—and with the other duties incident to his position
as superintendent of public works. More than this, we shall find it
difficult to fix the time when he made some other of his statues,
unless it was during these six years; and it would seem probable that
at or about this time he must have been engaged upon the Athena Areia
for the Platæans, or at least upon his chryselephantine statue of the
celestial Venus for the Eleans.
Before proceeding farther in this argument, it may be as well to
give a glance at the artistic career of Phidias, and the various
works executed by him, or assigned to him by different writers of an
after-age.
A good deal of discussion has arisen as to the age of Phidias at his
death. The date of his birth is distinctly given by no one, and is
purely a matter of conjecture. Thiersch, among others, supposes him to
have been already an artist of some distinction in the 72·3 Olympiad,
or about B. C. 490—the date of the battle of Marathon; and this opinion
he founds chiefly on the fact that the Athena Promachos, as well as
the group of statues at Delphi and the acrolith of Athena at Platæa
made by him, were cast, according to Pausanias, from the tithe of the
spoils taken from the Medes who disembarked at Marathon. Other writers
suppose him to have been born at about the date of the battle of
Marathon, and that the statues executed by him out of the spoils were
made some twenty-five years later. Mr. Philip Smith, in his “Dictionary
of Biography and Mythology,” taking this view, places his birth in the
73d Olympiad; and Müller is of the same opinion. Dr. Brunn, on the
contrary, thinks it probable that he was born about the 70th Olympiad,
and Welcker and Preller agree substantially with him.
According to the supposition of Thiersch, placing his birth at 67·2
Olympiad, or B. C. 510, he would have been twenty years of age at
the battle of Marathon (B. C. 490), seventy-two years of age when he
finished the chryselephantine statue of Athena in the Parthenon in 85·1
Olympiad (B. C. 438), and seventy-seven years of age when he finished
the chryselephantine statue of Zeus at Olympia in 87·3 Olympiad (B. C.
433). This, if we suppose that five years elapsed after the battle of
Marathon before the group of statues at Delphi was executed, would
make Phidias twenty-five years old when he made them.
Taking the supposition that he was born in the 72·3 Olympiad, and that
the statues at Delphi were modeled twenty-five years after, this would
make him also twenty-five years of age when he executed them; and
fifty-two years of age, instead of seventy-two, when he finished the
Athena of the Parthenon; and fifty-seven, instead of seventy-seven,
when he completed the Zeus—shortly previous to his death.
Dr. Brunn’s supposition that he was born in the 70th Olympiad, which is
also held by Welcker and Preller, would make him fifty-six when he made
the Athena, and sixty-one when he made the Zeus.
In opposition to these two later suppositions, there is this one
undisputed fact, that on the shield of the Athena of the Parthenon
he introduced his own likeness as well as that of Pericles, in which
he is described as representing himself as a bald old man (πρεσβύτου
φαλακρός) hurling a stone, which he lifts with both hands, while
Pericles is portrayed as a vigorous warrior in the full prime of
manhood. He must therefore have intended to represent himself as a much
older man than Pericles; and Pericles at this time was over fifty-two
years of age[4]—which is the age assigned to Phidias himself by some
writers. Besides, a man of fifty-two, or even of fifty-six, could
scarcely be accurately described as an “old man;” and an artist making
a portrait of himself at that age would be inclined to give himself
a little more youth than he really possessed. The mere fact that he
represents himself as old shows that he had in all probability arrived
at a more advanced period of life, when one accepts old age as too
notorious and well-established a fact to be disguised. The supposition
of Thiersch, therefore, would, in view of this fact alone, seem to be
the best founded, as this would make him seventy-two years old when the
Athena was completed,—an age which might fairly be called old.
Mr. Smith seems to think it very improbable that at the age of
eighty-three Phidias could have undertaken to execute the Zeus; but the
fact is, that Thiersch’s conjecture would only make him seventy-three
when the Zeus was begun, and certainly at this age it is by no means
uncommon for sculptors to undertake large works. Tenerani, for
instance, in our own time, had passed that age when he executed the
monument of Pius VIII., one of his largest works, and consisting of
four colossal figures. Besides, it is to be taken into account that
the Zeus was the last work of Phidias, and that death overtook him
immediately after.
On the whole, it would seem that the probabilities of the period of his
birth lie between the middle of the 67th Olympiad (B. C. 510) and the
beginning of the 70th Olympiad (B. C. 500).
There is also another consideration which is entitled to weight in
this connection. Suppose Phidias to have commenced his artistic career
four years after the battle of Marathon—in B. C. 490 (Olymp. 72·3).
From that time to B. C. 444 (Olymp. 83·4), when he began the Athena
of the Parthenon, there are forty-five years; and during this time
he is supposed to have executed six colossal statues in bronze or
acrolith,—two of which, the Athena Promachos and the Athena Areia, were
from 50 to 60 feet in height—and one, the Athena Lemnia, was considered
as perhaps his most beautiful work. Besides this, he executed thirteen
statues at Delphi, the size of which is not stated. Nineteen statues
in forty-five years give a little over 2⅓ years to each; and if the
thirteen statues at Delphi were colossal, this will certainly seem
insufficient for their execution, when we keep in mind the facts—1st,
That Phidias was a slow and elaborate worker; 2d, That of necessity he
must have done a great part of the work in bronze personally; 3d, That
he was occupied four years on the Zeus alone; 4th, That two of these
statues, at least, were larger than the Athena of the Parthenon, though
not in the same material. It is, however, probable, that the thirteen
statues at Delphi were not of colossal proportions, but rather of
heroic size, and therefore requiring less time in their execution; and
this would enable us to assign a longer time to the mighty colossi of
Athena.
Certainly, however, if we accept the theory that Phidias commenced
working twenty-five years after the battle of Marathon, we are in very
great straits as to time, unless the date when these colossal statues
were made be incorrect, and unless some of them were made after the
Athena of the Parthenon. This, again, we cannot accept; for, from the
date of the completion of the Athena of the Parthenon until his death,
there are only at most some seven years, four of which were dedicated
to the Zeus. We are then forced to believe that these nineteen statues
were made in twenty years; and this is certainly very improbable.
In this view other difficulties also appear, which it would seem
impossible to overcome, if we accept all the statues attributed to
Phidias as having been executed by him; for in such case, not only must
he have made these nineteen statues in twenty years, but some fifteen
more at least. Taking, then, the longest supposition as to his age, and
giving him forty-five years of labor for some thirty-five statues, the
time will altogether be too restricted. It may be as well at this point
of the discussion to give a catalogue of the works which he is supposed
to have executed, and to examine into the probable authenticity of some
of them. The list is as follows:—
1. The Athena, at Pellene, in Achaia. This was probably his first
great work, if we credit Pausanias, who says it was made before the
Athena of the Acropolis and the Athena at Platæa. “They say,” says
Pausanias, “that this statue was made by Phidias, and before he made
that for the Athenians, which is in their town, or that which is among
the Platæans.”
2–14. Thirteen statues in bronze, made from the spoils of the Persian
war, and dedicated at Delphi as a votive offering by the Athenians,
representing Athena, Apollo, Miltiades, Erechtheus, Cecrops, Pandion,
Peleus, Antiochus, Ægeus, Acamas, Codrus, Theseus, and Phyleus. “All
these statues,” says Pausanias, “were made by Phidias;” and on his sole
authority the statement stands. He does not mention their size.
15. The colossal Athena Promachos in bronze in the Acropolis. This
statue, which was from 50 to 60 feet in height, was made from the
spoils of Marathon. It represented the goddess holding up her spear and
shield in the attitude of a combatant, and was visible to approaching
vessels as far off as Sunium. “On the shield,” says Pausanias, “the
battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ was carved by Mys; but Parrhasius,
the son of Evenor, painted this for Mys, and likewise the other figures
that are seen on the shield.” Pausanias, however, must be mistaken in
this, since Parrhasius lived about Olymp. 95 (B. C. 400), or about
thirty years after the death of Phidias; and it would scarcely be
probable that this shield would have remained uncarved and unpainted
for from seventy to eighty years after the statue was executed.
16. The Athena Areia, at Platæa. This was an acrolith, also made from
the spoils of Marathon. “This statue,” says Pausanias, “is made of
wood, and is gilt, except the face and the extremities of the hands and
feet, which are of Pentelic marble. Its magnitude is nearly equal to
that of the Minerva, which the Athenians dedicated on their tower” (the
Promachos). “Phidias too made this statue for the Platæenses.”
17. The Athena in bronze, in the Acropolis, called the Lemnia, which,
according to Pausanias, “deserves to be seen above all the works of
Phidias.” Lucian also speaks specially of its beauty.
18. The Athena mentioned by Pliny as having been dedicated at Rome,
near the Temple of Fortune, by Paulus Æmilius. But whether this
originally stood in the Acropolis is unknown. Possibly or probably it
was the same statue as that last mentioned.
19. The Cliduchus (Key-Bearer), also mentioned by Pliny, may have been
an Athena; but more probably it represented a priestess holding the
keys, symbolic of initiation into the mysteries.