Editing Alcamenes

{{Short description|5th-century BC Greek sculptor}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Herma IstArchMu747.jpg|thumb|Herm of [[Hermes]], Roman copy of a late 5th century BC original, the forefront inscription states the herm was made by Alcamenes and dedicated by Pergamios, [[Istanbul Archaeology Museums|Istanbul Museums]].]]

'''Alcamenes''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀλκαμένης}}) was an [[ancient Greek sculptor]] of [[Lemnos]] and [[Athens]], who flourished in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC. 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.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Alcamenes|volume=1|pages=517–518}}</ref>

[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] says<ref>''Description of Greece'' V. 10. 8</ref> that he was the author of one of the pediments of the temple of [[Zeus]] at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]], but this seems a chronological and stylistic impossibility.<ref name="EB1911"/> Pausanias<ref>''Description of Greece'' I. 8. 4</ref> also refers to a statue of Ares by Alcamenes that was erected on the [[Athenian agora]], which some have related to the [[Ares Borghese]].  However, the temple of Ares to which he refers had only been moved from [[Acharnes]] and re-sited in the Agora in [[Augustus]]'s time, and statues known to derive from Alcamenes' statue show the god in a [[breastplate]],<ref>One sculpture of Ares and Aphrodite is depicted [http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=20221 in this relief]</ref> so the identification of Alcamenes' Ares with the Ares Borghese is not secure.

At [[Pergamum]] there was discovered in 1903 a Hellenistic copy of the head of the Hermes "Propylaeus" of Alcamenes.<ref>''Athenische Mittheilungen'', 1904, p.&nbsp;180</ref> As, however, the deity is represented in a [[Neo-Attic]], archaistic and conventional character, this copy cannot be relied on as giving us much information as to the usual style of Alcamenes, who was almost certainly a progressive and original artist.<ref name="EB1911"/>

It is safer to judge him by the sculptural decoration of the [[Parthenon]], in which he must almost certainly have taken a share under the direction of Phidias.<ref name="EB1911"/> He is said to be the most eminent sculptor in Athens after the departure of Phidias for [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]], but enigmatic in that none of the sculptures associated with his name in classical literature can be securely connected with existing copies.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{Cite web|title=Pausanias, Description of Greece |date=1918 |website=Theoi Texts Library |publisher=Aaron J. Atsma |access-date=18 January 2017|translator-last=Jones|translator-first=W. H. S.|url=http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias1A.html}}
* Julius Sillig, ''Dictionary of the artists of antiquity''; 1837
* Andrew Stewart, ''One hundred Greek Sculptors : Their Careers and Extant Works''
* Sir Charles Waldstein, ''Alcamenes and the establishment of the classical type in Greek art''; 1926

==External links==
{{Commons category|Alcamenes}}
* [http://www.scholarsresource.com/browse/artist/1576 Scholars Resource: Works by Alkamenes]
* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?target=en&all_words=Alcamenes&phrase=&any_words=&exclude_words=&documents= Perseus Digital Library: Alcamenes]
* [http://archaeosammlungen.uni-graz.at/index.php?id=133&L=2 Herma by Alcamenes - Uni Graz] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225065047/http://archaeosammlungen.uni-graz.at/index.php?id=133&L=2 |date=2018-02-25 }}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Pergamene sculpture]]
[[Category:5th-century BC Greek sculptors]]
[[Category:Ancient Athenian sculptors]]
[[Category:Ancient Lemnos]]
[[Category:Metics in Classical Athens]]
[[Category:People from Lemnos]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]