Scopas, Greek sculptor, fl. 4th cent. B.C., b. Paros. Although numbered among the Athenians, he wandered from place to place and did not attach himself to any school. He was the first to express violent feeling in marble faces. Some mutilated fragments from the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, of which he is recorded as architect, furnish evidence of his style and method. They are in the national museum at Athens. He is also credited with work on the temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos. Of his nonarchitectural work, known through Roman copies, are a statue of Meleager (Fogg Mus., Cambridge, Mass.); an Apollo Citharoedus (Villa Borghese, Rome); and the celebrated Ludovisi Ares (Rome).

or Skopas

(flourished 4th century BC, Greece) Greek sculptor and architect. Ancient writers ranked him with Praxiteles and Lysippus as one of the major sculptors of the late Classical period. He helped establish the expression of powerful emotions as an artistic theme. He apparently worked on three monuments: the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. Of many freestanding sculptures attributed to him, the Maenad in Dresden and the Pothos in Rome are the most noteworthy.

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This article is about the ancient sculptor. For the ancient writer whose name appears in some manuscripts as "Scopas", see Agriopas.

Scopas or Skopas (Ancient Greek: Σκόπας; c. 395 BC-350 BC) was an Ancient Greek sculptor and architect, born on the island of Paros. Scopas worked with Praxiteles, he sculpted parts of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, especially the reliefs. He led the building of the new temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. Similar to Lysippus, Scopas is in his art a successor of the Classical Greek sculptor Polyclitus. The faces of the heads almost in quadrat with deeply sunken eyes and a slightly opened mouth are specific characters in the figures of Scopas.

Works after Scopas are preserved in the British Museum (reliefs) in London; fragments from the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens; the celebrated Ludovisi Ares in the Palazzo Altemps, Rome; a statue of Pothos restored as Apollo Citharoedus in the Capitoline Museum, Rome; and a statue of Meleager in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Literature

• Andreas Linfert: Von Polyklet zu Lysipp. Polyklets Schule und ihr Verhältnis zu Skopas v. Paros. Diss. Freiburg i. B. 1965.
• Andrew F. Stewart: Skopas of Paros. Noyes Pr., Park Ridge, N.Y. 1977. ISBN 0-8155-5051-0
• Andrew Stewart: Skopas in Malibu. The head of Achilles from Tegea and other sculpures by Skopas in the J. Paul Getty Museum J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, Calif. 1982. ISBN 0-89236-036-4