#pheidias
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cassmorriswrites.com
#WIPSnips Dec 4: I was trying to figure out why I don't seem to use this word in reference to locations in Tovira (aesthetics inspired by Saxon England), but I do for locations in Requin (inspired by Byzantine Empire) and Coriol (early medieval Italy & France).

And my instincts were right!
Pheidias glared, folding his napkin in an agitated manner. “Sea-queen Signy Kollskeggdattir,” he said sourly. “Controls an untold number of ships. She’s the one causing me so much trouble in Saechen Bay.” “Perhaps I should tender my gratitude,” Lycus said aside to Damian, who snorted. In truth, that revelation made him want to skin the woman and hang her carcass from a hook to be a feast for ravens. In holding Saechen Bay, she choked off half of Requin’s population; not only Ptolegais, but the grand city of Eulamon and the capitol of Kamioch lay up-river from that body of water. The plundering of those shores, the storms of Lijari longships moving up those rivers—these were the things keeping Requin weak, fractured, uncertain.
December 4, 2025 at 3:05 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A classical Greek sculptural fragment of a foot stepping on the ground. We see a bit of the ground underneath the ball and toes of the foot. It feels like a light step. As it's from the Parthenon the design is attributed to Pheidias. British Museum
December 3, 2025 at 7:02 PM
apollo-magazine.com
Artus Quellinus is not a well-known name, but in his day he was compared to Pheidias or Bernini. In Amsterdam, Antonia Boström welcomes the chance to see what made him the greatest sculptor of the Flemish and Dutch baroque
The mighty sculptures of Artus Quellinus
The Flemish master brought mythic grandeur to the town hall of Amsterdam with his dramatic carvings, writes Antonia Boström
buff.ly
October 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
anisekstrong.bsky.social
I mean....
Olympian Zeus in the sculptured antique art of Quatremère de Quincy (1815), based on the descriptions of the lost sculpture of Pheidias at Olympia.
September 7, 2025 at 5:00 PM
anadae-the-4th.bsky.social
... An encased model of Her Eminence, Athena-Parthenos, as She was originally depicted by the architect, Pheidias, and me @ the Nashville Parthenon ✨ 🐍 🏛️ 🦉 ✨ www.nashvilleparthenon.com
July 18, 2025 at 8:23 PM
lronlacy.bsky.social
Drawing reconstructing the cult statue, #AthenaParthenos, in the #Parthenon in #Athens. The statue, by #Pheidias, was #chryselephantine (made of gold and ivory) and is reconstructed on the basis of #Pausanias’s description and ancient statuettes
May 20, 2025 at 2:43 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Hahaha! She’s doing it right, with a spear to clear her area of the dance floor. Those guys are toast …
The original 30-foot tall bronze Athena Promachos (‘Athena who fights in the front line) was sculpted in bronze by Pheidias around 456 BCE in Athens, where it stood on the Acropolis near the Parthenon, where it could be supposedly seen reflecting the sun by sailors at sea. Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, was of course the patron of the city of Athens, which was named for her. This over life-size marble version was sculpted between the 1st c. BCE and 1st c. CE. It was part of the collection of the famed Villa dei Papiri when it was buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE. She’s missing her spear, but she’s otherwise nearly complete. Roman, 1st c. BCE-1st c. CE Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum
May 4, 2025 at 5:16 PM
chapps.bsky.social
This warrior version of Minerva - based on the Greek Athena Promachos (‘First in Battle’) - remained consistent when she became a fully Roman deity. The Roman sculpture below, deliberately archaistic, is 50 BCE-25 CE. 🏺

#GettyVilla 📸 me
This statuette of Minerva once brandished a spear and shield, and is identifiable by the goddess' war-like pose and the protective aegis, bearing the head of the gorgon Medusa, that covers her chest and back. A griffin, a mythological creature known for its vigilance, crouches atop her helmet. The silver that embellishes the goddess' eyes, the gorgon's head, and the ornament on her helmet is still preserved, but the silver snakes that originally decorated the edge of her aegis are missing. This image of the goddess was intentionally created in an archaistic or old-fashioned style. It depicts a statue type, the Athena Promachos ("the first in battle"), that is known in many versions, most famously that created by the Greek sculptor Pheidias for the Athenian Acropolis in the 5th century BCE. The Romans admired Greek sculpture and often created works that resembled the earlier styles of the Greeks. Furthermore, older images of deities, or at least images that looked older, were considered more venerable. Roman, ca. 50 BCE-25 CE. Getty Villa (96.AB.176) - this no longer appears in the Getty catalogue and may have been deaccessioned (a note from the museum about that would have been nice).
May 4, 2025 at 5:03 PM
aicbyzantine.bsky.social
Relief of a Falling Warrior https://www.artic.edu/artworks/56166/
Around 435 BCE, the Greek sculptor Pheidias adorned the front of the shield at the side of his gold-and-ivory statue of Athena in the Parthenon with scenes of Greeks battling Amazons in the Trojan War. In Roman times, certain figures from this complex struggle were lifted out of their original context and enlarged to become decorative reliefs for the walls of a colonnade or courtyard. Here a wounded Greek warrior collapses to the ground after being struck a mortal blow from behind. The dying warrior’s noble countenance, the fillet or ribbon tied around his forehead, and his powerful, athletic body epitomize what Pheidias and his pupils sought to project as the ideal of mature male dignity in the decade when Athens was at the height of its power in the eastern Mediterranean world. Some five centuries later, collectors such as the Roman emperor Hadrian sought this Pheidian style, translated from a circular golden shield to a rectangular marble relief, to decorate their palaces and villas. Athenian sculptors of the Roman era made a good living creating and exporting such memories of past glories. This relief and a number of others were found near Athens in the harbor of Piraeus, where they had been lost in a disaster, likely while awaiting shipment. Gift of Alfred E. Hamill
March 24, 2025 at 6:18 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Here's an excellent comparison segment of the Parthenon frieze, currently in the #BritishMuseum, London.

ca. 438-432 BCE, designed by Pheidias.
📸 me
Marble relief (Block II) from the West frieze of the Parthenon. The frieze shows the procession of the Panathenaic festival, the commemoration of the birthday of the goddess Athena. Here two horsemen are shown reining back their horses. The leading horseman turns round to look back at his companion, while raising his left hand to his head. He wears a cloak that is pulled close against his neck, while billowing out to the side. Holes in his hair probably once served for the insertion of a metal wreath. The other horseman wears a chlamys. The horses are pierced with drill-holes where metal reins were inserted. British Museum (1816,0610.47)
February 21, 2025 at 1:29 AM
chapps.bsky.social
The spectacular ancient #Thrace exhibit had to close early at the #GettyVilla, so I'll continue to feature pieces on Bluesky. This gorgeous little gold jug from a man's grave - one of several in a tumulus - features two quadrigae with a Herakles knot handle. 🏺 #ancientbluesky

ca. 350-300 BCE
📸 me
The remarkable gold jug from Tomb III has a spherical body, short neck, and flaring rim (cat. 51d). The handle is open-work, made of two gold rods in the form of a Herakles knot, a motif that became particularly popular in the Early Hellenistic period. The rim is decorated with Ionic and Lesbian cymation, and a band of linked palmettes runs around the shoulders. The body of the jug is decorated with two antithetical depictions of two-wheeled winged chariots drawn by four horses each, separated by a large palmette. The charioteers are male, short-haired, and possibly wearing scale armor. While the shape resembles that of a Pheidias mug-an Athenian shape that was popular in Thrace in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE (cats. 47e, 47f) - and the scene is clearly influenced by Greek iconography, the jug is undoubtedly of local Thracian workmanship. Its manufacture in gold suggests that it had special functions, possibly related to ritual. 3/4 view from the rear of the gold jug, showing the beautifully rendered Herakles knot handle. The ends of the 'ropes' making the knot are curled like vegetative tendrils. Below, we can see the mirrored chariots, each a quadriga, with a man - certainly a warrior - dressed in chain mail in each car.
February 16, 2025 at 4:39 PM
samuelstolton.bsky.social
The inscriptions detail revenues and expenses of Athenian officials responsible for managing the statue's construction. The huge sums of money imply that Pheidias' Athena may have been considered some sort of a state reserve in times of emergency.
January 27, 2025 at 5:04 PM
samuelstolton.bsky.social
These replica slabs contain the accounts for the construction of Pheidias' gold and ivory statue of Athena, which stood at the centre of the Parthenon.
January 27, 2025 at 5:04 PM
th-whm.bsky.social
Fama, Pheidias und die Zitronenpresse.

(Kunstakademie Dresden, letzten Freitag)
January 9, 2025 at 8:34 PM
jam2.bsky.social
Athena-Hope Farnese:Roman copy of Greek statue by Pyrrhos of the school of Pheidias C5th B.C.
December 16, 2024 at 12:53 PM
shtutina.bsky.social
A perfect foot.
#inawe #pheidias

www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
December 16, 2024 at 4:30 AM
vjmalletft.bsky.social
Pheidias was obviously from Clacton...
December 3, 2024 at 5:09 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Comment under our story on possible Parthenon frieze deal: "Labours [sic] hatred of the British people and our history [sic] on show for everyone to see. They are a huge threat to the country." Our history! That famous Briton Pheidias! on.ft.com/3Zi5LNd
Greece hopeful of deal on Parthenon Sculptures as Starmer meets Mitsotakis
[FREE TO READ] Downing Street reiterates that UK prime minister will not stand in way of deal between Athens and British Museum
on.ft.com
December 3, 2024 at 4:59 PM
marlengodwin.bsky.social
amen to that!
Why the British Museum should hand back the Elgin Marbles The Parthenon Marbles (formerly known as the Elgin Marbles), designed and executed by Pheidias to adorn the Parthenon, are perhaps the greatest of all classical sculptures. In 1801, Lord Elgin, then ambassador to the Turkish government, had chunks of the frieze sawn off and shipped to England, where they were subsequently seized by Parliament and sold to the British Museum to help pay off his debts. This scandal, exacerbated by the inept handling of the sculptures by their self-appointed guardians, remains unresolved to this day. In his fierce, eloquent account of a shameful piece of British imperial history, Christopher Hitchens makes the moral, artistic, legal and political case for re-unifying the Parthenon frieze in Athens. The opening of the New Acropolis Museum emphatically trumps the British Museum’s long-standing (if always questionable) objection that there is nowhere in Athens to house the Parthenon Marbles. With contributions by the late Nadine Gordimer and Professor Charalambos Bouras, The Parthenon Marbles will surely end all arguments about where these great treasures belong, and help bring a two-centuries-old disgrace to a just conclusion. https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2045-the-parthenon-marbles?_pos=1&_psq=parthon&_ss=e&_v=1.0
November 19, 2024 at 2:20 PM
mirandamckennitt.bsky.social
Liked on YouTube: AMY LEE - "Love Exists" (Official Lyric Video) https://buff.ly/2ZvUkCC The official lyric video for Amy Lee's new single, "Love Exists".

Directed by Laban Pheidias.

Subscribe to Amy Lee on YouTube at: https://buff.ly/4dWY8Ss
Like Amy…
Amy Lee on Apple Music
Listen to music by Amy Lee on Apple Music.
buff.ly
September 15, 2024 at 8:57 AM
classicsacademy.bsky.social
Bigger than life-size 1st century reproduction of the statue of Athene Promachos which stood on the Acropolis. Original by Pheidias c.456 BC.

This marble statue was discovered in the Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum.

🏛 National Archaeological Museum Naples

🏺Ancientbluesky
January 24, 2024 at 10:41 PM
chapps.bsky.social
This is my own photo of this terracotta - not as nice as the museum’s glamor shot! This Aphrodite originally held an offering - a dove or an libation bowl. Once brightly painted, she still bears traces of red pigment. 🏺 #polychromy
Leaning on a pillar, this terracotta statuette of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, wears a large wreath of flowers and a cloak draped around her hips. The goddess's pose is based on a much earlier, clothed statue of Aphrodite made by the sculptor Pheidias in the 400s B.C. In accordance with later Hellenistic tastes, the terracotta's artist chose to depict her semi-nude to emphasize her sensuality. The goddess's outstretched left hand originally held an offering, probably either a dove or an offering bowl. The figurine, originally brightly painted, still bears traces of red paint. The city of Tanagra in northern Greece was a leading producer of small terracotta figurines, which were exceedingly popular in the 300s and 200s B.C. Women, especially elaborately and stylishly dressed women, were the favorite subject matter, but the figurines also often portray handsome youths, children, and Eros, the winged young god of love. 250–200 BCE Tanagra, Greece Getty Villa Mus. (55.AD.7) 📸 my own
December 4, 2023 at 2:18 AM
chapps.bsky.social
Leaning on a pillar, Aphrodite, goddess of love, wears a large wreath of flowers and a cloak draped around her hips. Her pose is based on a much earlier, clothed statue made by the sculptor Pheidias in the 400s BCE.

Terracotta, 3rd c. BCE, Tanagra, Greece. 🏺
#GettyVilla 1/
December 4, 2023 at 2:16 AM
partialhistorians.bsky.social
Marble relief of a warrior ~ C2nd CE

This fragment depicts a wounded Greek warrior - a Roman era reimagining of the ancient Greek style of sculpture of the C5th BCE.

🏛 Art Institute, Chicago; 1928.257
📍 Piraeus harbour, off the coast of Athens
#ReliefWednesday
🏺ClassicsBluesky
Description from the museum: “The dying warrior’s noble countenance, the fillet or ribbon tied around his forehead, and his powerful, athletic body epitomize what Pheidias and his pupils sought to project as the ideal of mature male dignity in the decade when Athens was at the height of its power in the eastern Mediterranean world. Some five centuries later, collectors such as the Roman emperor Hadrian sought this Pheidian style, translated from a circular golden shield to a rectangular marble relief, to decorate their palaces and villas. Athenian sculptors of the Roman era made a good living creating and exporting such memories of past glories. This relief and a number of others were found near Athens in the harbor of Piraeus, where they had been lost in a disaster, likely while awaiting shipment.”
November 29, 2023 at 10:43 AM
roamintheempire.bsky.social
For ReliefWednesday, a fragment of an early 2nd century CE marble copy of the shield of Athena Parthenos depicting an Amazonomachy, with Perikles and the sculptor Pheidias depicted among the combatants. From Athens. Now in the British Museum.

AncientBlueSky 🏺
Fragment of a marble shield depicting a battle between the Greeks and Amazons with a Gorgon at center.
September 27, 2023 at 2:20 PM