Olympia Master
Encyclopedia
Temple of Zeus
The Temple of Zeus at Olympia was an ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the chief of the gods, Zeus. It was the very model of the fully developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order...
. From what Pausanias
Pausanias (geographer)
Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
tells us of the dates of the Temple, the Master and his workshop were active between 470 and 457 BCE The two pediments and the series of metopes ascribed to him are the paradigmatic expression of the Early Classical or Severe style
Severe style
The severe style, or Early Classic style, was the dominant idiom of Greek sculpture in the period ca. 490 to 450 BCE. It marks the breakdown of the canonical forms of archaic art and the transition to the greatly expanded vocabulary and expression of the classical moment of the late 5th century...
of 5th century Greek sculpture.
The site of the sanctuary was first systematically excavated by a French team in 1829 then the German expedition headed by Georg Treu from 1875-81, and the results published in a 5 volume report by Ernst Curtius
Ernst Curtius
You may be looking for Ernst Robert Curtius .Ernst Curtius was a German archaeologist and historian.-Biography:...
and Friedrich Adler
Friedrich Adler (architect)
Friedrich Adler was a German architect and archaeologist.After having studied at the Academy of Architecture in his native Berlin, he began teaching there in 1855, and was soon famous for building churches....
, Olympia: Die Ergebnisse der von dem deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabung, 1892-7. The building and sculpture had been shattered by an earthquake in antiquity and subsequently partially reused as building material, the rest buried under alluvial mud. The early classical sculptures did not initially attract as much attention as the later works such as the Nike of Paionios. Since the first reconstruction of the pediments by Treu in 1897 and the rejection of Pausanias’s ascription to Paionios of Mende
Paeonius
Paeonius of Mende in Macedonia was a Greek sculptor of the late 5th century BC. The only work that can be definitely attributed to him is the statue of Nike discovered at Olympia...
and Alkamenes
Alcamenes
Alcamenes was an ancient Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens. He was a younger contemporary of Phidias and noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite "of the Gardens" were conspicuous.Pausanias says Alcamenes was an ancient Greek sculptor of Lemnos and...
on grounds of chronology the temple decoration is now commonly attributed to the putative Olympia Master, one amongst a studio of five sculptors.
The two gable ends and metopes exhibit a stylistic unity of strong rhythms and simple planes. The dress of the figures has not yet reached the naturalism of the mature classical, yet in the temple sculptures there is evidence of an experimentation not pursued by the younger Greek sculptors. The Olympia Master's work achieves a complexity of emotion that exceeds the conventions of the archaic; we find pathos, hubris
Hubris
Hubris , also hybris, means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power....
, tension, exhaustion, disgust - markedly so in his characterization of Herakles, nuances lost to the idealised art of the later 5th century. The east pediment represents Pelops
Pelops
In Greek mythology, Pelops , was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus. He was the founder of the House of Atreus through his son of that name....
’s race against Oinomaos for the hand of Hippodamia
Hippodamia
Hippodamia was a daughter of King Oenomaus and wife of Pelops with whom her offspring were Thyestes, Atreus, Pittheus, Alcathous, Troezen, Hippalcimus, Copreus, Astydameia, Nicippe, Eurydice and others....
, seemingly at the moment of the oath of the two contestants before Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
himself. On the west we find Theseus
Theseus
For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were...
and Perithoos fighting the Centaur
Centaur
In Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...
s at the point of greatest violence in contrast to the instant of duplicitous tension on the east. Apollon
Apollon of Olympia
The Apollon of Olympia was part of the group of sculptures found in the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. Its original location also provides it with another name: the Apollon from the west pediment. It is one of the most important statues of the Severe style or early Classical...
in the center of the west pediment. The metopes depict the twelve labours of Herakles, a figure of singular importance to the temple, as it was he, a son of Zeus, who according to legend marked out the sanctuary and instituted the Olympic games. Traces of colour have been found on the sculpture and a case has been made that some of the detailing was painted on. The arrangement of the Pediments remains a matter of dispute, and the subject of no fewer than 59 conjectured restorations. The pediments are sculpted in the round albeit dowelled on to the pediment background and most backs are unfinishedl; some are hollow, presumably to save weight. They are of Paros
Paros
Paros is an island of Greece 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 Piraeus. The Municipality of Paros includes numerous uninhabited offshore islets...
marble with a few of the heads in pentelic marble, notably the heroes wear Attic and not Peloponnesian helmets. Several of the heads of the pediment figures have unworked bosses suggesting that a pointing process was used from clay or wood models, it is highly unusual to find traces of technique on work of the era.
The architectural decoration of Zeus’s temple is perhaps the only major monument from a significant studio of the Severe period to survive; consequently it is taken to be the summation of the Severe style from which other works in the idiom beg comparison. Several regional styles have been suggested as an origin for the artist including the Ionian, Peloponnesian and Laconian.
Sources
- Jose Dorig, The Olympia Master and His Collaborators, 1997.
- H. V. Herman, Die Olympia-Skulpturen, 1987.
- Bernard AshmoleBernard AshmoleBernard Ashmole, CBE, MC was a British archaeologist and art historian , who specialized in ancient Greek sculpture. He was Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of London, 1929-1948...
, Nikolaos Yalouris, Olympia and the Sculptures of the Temple of Zeus, 1967. - Bernard Ashmole, Architect and Sculptor in Classical Greece.
- John BoardmanJohn BoardmanJack Melton Boardman, commonly known as John Boardman, is an American former professor of physics at Brooklyn College.- Academic career :...
, Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period. - R. Ross Holloway, The Master of Olympia: the Documentary Evidence, 2000
- A. Stewart, Greek Sculpture 1990.
- Ernst CurtiusErnst CurtiusYou may be looking for Ernst Robert Curtius .Ernst Curtius was a German archaeologist and historian.-Biography:...
, Die Ausgrabungen zu Olympia, 1875-6