Kresilas - My Favourite Planet People

Kresilas (Κρησίλας; Latin, Cresilas; also referred to as Ctesilas or Ctesilaüs; circa 480-410 BC), was a Greek sculptor from Kydonia (Κυδωνία, today Chania), on the north coast of Crete, working on mainland Greece in the mid to late 5th century BC, during the High Classical period.

He is thought to have been a student of Dorotheos of Argos (Δωρόθεος), and may have worked with him at Delphi and at Hermione in the eastern Peloponnese. This theory is mainly based on the discovery of signatures of the two artists on the bases of related statues at both places (see Kresilas signatures below). From literary and epigraphical evidence, he appears to have worked between around 450 and 410 BC mainly in Athens, probably as a follower of the school of Myron, known for its idealistic portraiture.

Five statue bases inscribed with the signature of Kresilas have so far been discovered: three on the Athens Acropolis, one at Delphi and one at Hermione. Another signed base found at Pergamon may belong to a copy of one of his works. See Kresilas signatures below.

Kydonia was colonized by Aegina in 515 BC, and since the lettering on some of the statue bases is thought to be in the Aeginetan alphabet, it has been suggested that Kresilas was from a family of Aeginetan origin [1].

Pliny the Elder mentioned a bronze statue of a dying man and a portrait of the Athenian general and statesman Pericles (Περικλῆς, circa 495-429 BC) by "Ctesilaüs", thought to be an error and meant to refer to Cresilas (Kresilas). He does not tell us where these sculptures originally stood, nor where they were to be found in his time, although he appears to be claiming to have seen them himself.

"Cresilas executed a statue of a man fainting from his wounds, in the expression of which may be seen how little life remains; as also the Olympian Pericles, well worthy of its title: indeed, it is one of the marvellous adjuncts of this art, that it renders men who are already celebrated even more so."

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 34, chapter 19. At Perseus Digital Library.

Later in the same chapter he stated, "Desilaüs made a Doryphoros [spear carrier] and a wounded Amazon". This is also thought to be an error for Kresilas. The names Ctesilaüs and Desilaüs are otherwise unknown.

Pausanias twice mentioned a statue of Pericles on the Athens Acropolis. It is not clear whether he was writing about one or two separate statues. He did not describe the statue (or statues) or name the sculptor(s).

"On the Athenian Acropolis is a statue of Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, and one of Xanthippus himself, who fought against the Persians at the naval battle of Mycale. But that of Pericles stands apart, while near Xanthippos stands Anacreon of Teos..."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 1, chapter 25, section 1. At Perseus Digital Library.

"In addition to the works I have mentioned ... There are two other offerings, a statue of Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, and the best worth seeing of the works of Pheidias, the statue of Athena called Lemnian after those who dedicated it."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 1, chapter 28, section 2. At Perseus Digital Library.

Plutarch wrote that several artists had made portraits of Pericles.

"His personal appearance was unimpeachable, except that his head was rather long and out of due proportion. For this reason the images of him, almost all of them, wear helmets, because the artists, as it would seem, were not willing to reproach him with deformity."

Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, The Life of Pericles, chapter 3, section 2. At LacusCurtius.

Despite Plutarch's testimony, it has been assumed by some modern writers that Pliny's portrait of Pericles by Kresilas was the same as the statue on the Acropolis mentioned by Pausanias. If Pliny had seen the statue himself, it was either in Athens or had been taken to Italy (perhaps Rome), in which case the portrait Pausanias saw in Athens around a century later was a copy or a work by a different sculptor.

Nevertheless, it is thought that extant marble busts and heads, identified as portraits of Pericles wearing a Corinthian helmet perched on top of his head, are Roman period copies of a bronze statue made by Kresilas around 440-430 BC. The first three of these were found around Rome between 1779 and 1780:

A marble herm bust bearing the inscription ΠΕΡΙΚΛΗΣ ΞΑΝΘΙΠΠΟΥ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΣ (Pericles, son of Xanthippos, Athenian), found in 1779 during excavations financed by Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) at the "Villa Tiburtina of Cassius" (Pianella di Cassio or Praedium Cassianum), Tivoli, near Rome. Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican Museums. Inv. No. 269 (see photo, above right).

"The Townley Pericles" (see photo, above right), a marble herm bust, inscribed ΠΕΡΙΚΛΗΣ (Pericles). 2nd century AD. Height 58.42 cm. Also found at the "Villa Tiburtina of Cassius", Tivoli, in 1779. British Museum, London. Inv. No. GR 1805.7-3.91 (Sculpture 549, Inscription 1097). [3]

The third, not so well sculpted bust is in the Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican Museums.

Also a badly damaged head of Pericles made of Pentelic marble, restored as a herm bust, in the Barracco Museum, Rome. Inv. No. MB 96 (see photo, below right). From the Alexandre Castellani Collection.

A marble head of Pericles from a statue, found on Lesbos (see photo, below right). Pentelic marble. Height 53 cm. Purchased in 1901 by an anonymous "friend of the museum" from Dr. Kjellberg in Upsala for 6000 marks. Altes Museum, Berlin. Inv. No. Sk 1530 (K 127). [4]

According to Pliny (Natural History, Book 34, chapter 19), Kresilas made a bronze statue of an Amazon for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus for which he was awarded third place in a competition with his contemporaries Pheidias, Polykleitos, Kydon and Phradmon.

"The most celebrated of these artists, though born at different epochs, have joined in a trial of skill in the Amazons which they have respectively made. When these statues were dedicated in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, it was agreed, in order to ascertain which was the best, that it should be left to the judgment of the artists themselves who were then present: upon which, it was evident that that was the best, which all the artists agreed in considering as the next best to his own. Accordingly, the first rank was assigned to Polycletus, the second to Phidias, the third to Cresilas, the fourth to Cydon, and the fifth to Phradmon."

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 34, chapter 19. At Perseus Digital Library.

The mention of "Cydon" after "Cresilas" is thought to be an error made either by Pliny or a manuscript copyist, and have originally referred to Kresilas of Kydonia. One or more of the Amazon statues resulting from this contest may have been models for several extant copies of the "Wounded Amazon" type [5]. Some scholars have doubted that such a competition ever took place.

Having attributed the heads of Pericles to Kresilas, scholars since the 19th century, particularly the German archaeologist Adolf Furtwängler [6], have seen sufficient similarities in Roman period statues of the Homeric hero Diomedes (see photo below right) and those of the "Athena Velletri" type, as well as a portrait of an athlete, to ascribe them to the same artist. There is no literary evidence for these conjectures, which have been refuted by several scholars. The "Athena Velletri" type has also been attributed to Alkamenes on equally uncertain grounds. [7]

A bronze statue by a sculptor named Kresilas is mentioned in a fragment of a poem by the ancient Greek epigrammatic poet Poseidippos of Pella (Ποσείδιππος, circa 310-240 BC). The fragment, from the collection of epigrams known as the Milan Papyrus [8], praises his statue of the Homeric hero Idomeneus:

"Unhesitatingly praise that bronze Idoneneus
of Kresilas. How precisely he made it, we saw well.
Idomeneus cries: 'Good Meriones, run!
... having been long immobile'."

Milan papyrus, AB 64 (X 26-29).

Idomeneus (Ἰδομενεύς) was a king of Crete and grandson of Minos, who led the Cretan armies to the Trojan War (Homer, The Iliad, Book 2, line 645). Meriones (Μηριόνης) was his half-brother and charioteer. The Cretan associations have strengthened speculation that the sculptor mentioned is Kresilas of Kydonia.