SCOPAS, probably of Parian origin, the son of Aristander, a great Greek sculptor of the 4th century B.C. Although classed as an Athenian, and similar in tendency to Praxiteles, he was really a cosmopolitan artist, working largely in Asia and Pelopon nesus. The extant works with which he is associated are the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (finished 349) and the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea (some time after 395). In the case of the Mausoleum, though no doubt the sculpture generally belongs to his school, we are unable to single out any special part of it as his own. A recent suggestion attributes the small "chariot-race" frieze to Scopas. But we have good reason to think that the pedimental figures from Tegea are Scopas' own early work. The subjects of the pedimental compositions were the hunting of the Calydonian boar and the battle between Achilles and Telephus. Four heads remain, that of Hercules, that of Atalanta and two of warriors: also part of the body of Atalanta and the head of the boar. Un fortunately all these are in very poor preservation; but it is allowed that they are our best evidence for the style of Scopas.
Ancient writers give us a good deal of information as to works of Scopas. He made for the people of Elis a bronze Aphrodite, riding on a goat (copied on the coins of Elis) ; a Maenad at Athens, running with head thrown back, and a torn kid in her hands was ascribed to him; of this Dr. Treu has published a
probable copy in the Albertinum at Dresden (Melanges Perrot, p. 317). Another type of his was Apollo as leader of the Muses, singing to the lyre. The most elaborate of his works was a great group representing Poseidon, Thetis and Achilles, accompanied by Nereids, Tritons and other sea-beings. On the basis of his known work, many extant statues can be confidently attributed to his influence and some may be direct copies.
Jointly with his contemporaries Praxiteles and Lysippus, Scopas may be considered as having completely changed the character of Greek sculpture. It was they who initiated the lines of de velopment which culminated in the schools of Pergamum, Rhodes and other great cities of later Greece. In most of the modern museums of ancient art their influence may be seen in three fourths of the works exhibited. At the Renaissance it was espe cially their influence which dominated Italian painting and through it modern art.
See B. Graf in Rom. Mittheit. (1889), 199; Urlichs, Scopas (Greifs waid, 1863).