#lysippus

[grundoonmgnx]

Dylan Anthony Roworth, The Pancrastine, 2025

Oil on canvas, 40 x 48 in

Attributed to Pergamene school and Follower of Lysippus, The Wrestlers, circa 370-300 BCE

[tragediambulante]

The Wrestlers, Pergamene school, 379-300 B.C

[theromaboo]

What was the funny story about Tiberius in Pliny?

I'm glad you asked!

This is a story you can find in Pliny the Elder's Natural History, 34.62.

So there was this sculpter named Lysippus (he's super famous) and he made a statue depicting a man using a body scraper. During the time of Tiberius, this statue was set up in front of the Baths of Agrippa, no less (!). A very fitting location.

Tiberius loved this statue a lot. Probably a little bit more than the average person loves a statue. Apparently at first he managed to control himself, but eventually he gave in to temptation and set up the statue in his bedchamber (!) putting another statue in its place.

And the people were mad. They were not impressed with the replacement statue apparently. A ton of people gathered at the theatre shouting "Give us back the man using a body scraper!" Which is honestly a really funny image.

Even though Tiberius had fallen in love with this statue, he returned it in the name of peace. The end.

That statue must've been really seriously amazing to warrant such a... story. I wonder what it looked like.

[lionofchaeronea]

Statuette (bronze inlaid with silver) of Alexander the Great, standing in contrapposto and wearing the aegis. He may once have held a spear or lance in his right hand and the Palladion in his left. Roman Imperial copy (1st-3rd cent. CE) after an original thought to have been sculpted by Lysippus during Alexander's lifetime. Perhaps from Alexandria; now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

[charlesreeza]

Hercules, marble, 2nd century 

Louvre Museum

[canforasoap]

Satiro Danzante [Dancing Satyr] -  Roman copy (ca. A.D. 220) after a Greek original by Lysippos (4th century BCE). Galleria Borghese, Rome

[lionofchaeronea]

Portrait of Aristotle. Roman-era copy (1st or 2nd cent. CE) in Pentelic marble, after a lost bronze original by the Greek sculptor Lysippus. Now in the Louvre. Photo credit: Eric Gaba (Sting)/Wikimedia Commons.

[lionofchaeronea]

Hellenistic terracotta figurine depicting Heracles in repose, perhaps modeled after an original by Lysippus.  Thought to have come from Southern Italy; now in the National Gallery Prague-Kinský Palace.  Photo credit: Zde/Wikimedia Commons.