Pheidias

Pheidias (c.490–c.432 BC), Athenian sculptor, the most famous artist of the ancient world. He was a friend of Pericles, who gave him a leading role in his great building-programme in Athens; most notably, he was in charge of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon. A good deal of this sculpture survives (mostly in the British Museum), but Pheidias' gold and ivory (‘chryselephantine’) cult statue of Athena for the temple is not extant; the Greek traveller Pausanias (1. 24. 5) gives a description of it, from which several (much smaller) Roman copies have been identified. Another huge cult statue, considered Pheidias' masterpiece, was made for the temple of Zeus at Olympia, and is known only from its representation on coins and gems. Pheidias' style was serene and majestic; it is said that when asked what model he was going to use for the likeness of Zeus, he replied that he would model it on Homer's lines in the Iliad, ‘Cronion [Zeus] spoke, and nodded his dark brow, and the ambrosial locks waved from the king's immortal head; and he made great Olympus quake’ (1. 528). In 432 enemies of Pericles, trying to attack him through his friends, accused Pheidias of embezzling gold intended for the statue of Athena, but he was able to prove his innocence. He was then charged with impiety and sent to prison, where Plutarch says he died.