Scopas was born on the island of
Paros. His father was the sculptor
Aristander of Paros.[3] Skopas left Paros at an early age and travelled throughout the Hellenic world.
Career
Scopas worked with
Praxiteles, and he sculpted parts of the
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, especially the
reliefs. He led the building of the new temple of
Athena Alea at
Tegea. Similar to
Lysippus, Scopas is artistically a successor of the
Classical Greek sculptor
Polykleitos. The faces of the heads are almost in
quadrat. The deeply sunken eyes and a slightly opened mouth are recognizable characteristics in the figures of Scopas.
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,[4] in an example that was in the collection of
Cardinal Alessandro Albani.
A Roman 1st century AD marble Meleager with
chlamys, a free improvisation on Scopas's model, from the Fusconi-Pighini collection (
Museo Pio-Clementino, Rome)
Hunter stele by Scopas (National Archaeological Museum of Athens)
One of many Roman copies of
Pothos (Desire), a statue by Scopas, restored here as
Apollo Kitharoidos (Apollo, the
Cithara-player)
Two marble heads by Scopas, National Museum Athens
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.
ISBN0-8155-5051-0
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.
ISBN0-89236-036-4
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
^The New Century Classical Handbook; Catherine Avery, editor; Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1962, p. 990: "Scopas...Greek sculptor and architect; born in the island of Paros; fl. 4th century B.C."