C'ALAMIS, a very celebrated Greek sculptor, of the 5th century before Christ. Neither his native place nor the exact period of his career is known ; he was however contemporary with Phidias, but probably his senior in years, as, according to Cicero and Quintilian, who probably expressed the general opinion, notwithstanding tho general excellence of his works, there was a hardness in his style. He worked in various styles, in marble, in bronze, and ivory, and as an engraver in gold. He was also very famous for his horses, in which, Pliny says, he was without a rival.
Many works by Calamis are mentioned in ancient writers, Greek and Latin, but one in particular claims attention; this is the 'Apollo' of the Servilian gardens at Rome, mentioned by Pliny, and by some supposed to be the 'Apollo Belvedere' of the Vatican at Rome. This supposition however completely sets aside the criticisms of Cicero and Quintilian upon the style of Calamis, for this work, so far from being hard, would be effeminately delicate for any male character below a divieity.
Calamis made two other statues of 'Apollo :' the 'Apollo Alexi kakos' (' Deliverer from Evil'), which Pausanias saw at Athens; and the colossal 'Apollo,' made for the city of Apollonia in 111yricum, and which, according to Strabo, was brought to Roma by Lucullus, and placed in the Capitol. Junius and Harduin supposed that Pliny and Pausanias speak of the same work ; but it is not at all probable that a work which was in Rome in Pliny's time would be in Athens in the time of Pausanias. This inconsistency has been pointed out before; but many have been misled by the opinion, and it seems to have sug gested the idea which Visconti and Flaxman have adopted, that the 'Apollo Belvedere' and the Apollo Alexikakoe of Calamis are the same, or at least that the former is a marble copy of the bronze original by Calamis. Sillig supposes that the statue mentioned by
Pausanias must have been of bronze, because it was placed in the open air ; this does not follow however, as many of the ancient Greek marbles were placed in the open air. It was dedicated in honour of Apollo after the delivery of Athens from the plague, in 01. 87. 4 (3.0. 429), during the Peloponnesian war. It is the latest work by Calamis mentioned, and must have been made at least three or four years after the death of Phidias. His earliest work which is noticed is a pair of bronze horses mounted by boys, for the triumphal car of Onatas, placed by Deinomenes, the son of Hiero, at Olympia, in OL 78. 2 (n.o. 467), in commemoration of Hiero's victory at the Olympic games, twelve years after the battle of Marathon.
Lucian also, in his description of Panthea, has recourse to the aid of Calamis. He takes some of Panthea's charms from a statue of Sosandra by Calamis, which he mentions also iu his Hetwrean Colloquies' as a paragon of beauty. Many other works by Calamis are mentioned by ancient writera—as an ' iEsculapius ' at Corinth, a Victory' at Elia, a ' Bacchus' and a 'Mercury' at Tanagra, a Venus' at Athens, 'Jupiter Ammon' at Thebes, 'Hermione ' at Delphi, &c.
(Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxxiii. 12, xxxiv. 8, xxxvi. 4 ; Pausanias, i. 3; Lucian, Imag. 6, Dial. Mcretr. iii.; Cicero, Brutus, 18; Quiutilian, Inst. Orator., xii. 10; Strabo, vii. 491; Junius, Catal. Artificun& ; Sillig, Catal. Artificunt ; Thiersch, Epochen der Bildenden Kunst, &c.)