Epigonus

For other uses, seeEpigonus (disambiguation).

Epigonus(Greek:Ἐπίγονος) ofPergamumwas the chief among the courtsculptorsto theAttaliddynasty atPergamumin the late third century BCE.

Biography

Pliny the Elder,who offers the only surviving list of the sculptors of this influential Pergamene school,attributes to him works among the sculptures on the victory monument erected byAttalus Iin the sanctuary of Athena at Pergamum to commemorate his victory over theGaulsofGalatia(223 BCE). Among works there by other sculptors, Pliny attributes to Epigonosa masterfulTrumpeterand "his infant pitiably engaged in caressing its murdered mother"; the male figure in his group, once part of the dedication of Attalus I at Pergamon, is probably the original of the marble copy known in modern times asThe Dying Gaul,in theCapitoline Museums,Rome.TheWeeping Child pitifully caressing its murdered motheris "associated with the so-calledDead Amazonin Naples, a copy of a group which was once part of the later, second Gallic dedication of Attalos, at Athens.... From drawings of this composition made in the Renaissance, we learn that the child was removed from the Naples statue during the sixteenth century ".Another sculpture from the same monument exists in marble copy of theGaul Killing Himself and His Wife,formerly in theLudovisi collection.Eight signed basesfrom the acropolis of Pergamon have lost their sculptures of valuable bronze, which was doubtless laboriously cut apart for the sake of the metal and refounded during Christian times.

Further reading

• Andrew Stewart,One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant WorksT.150, T.151 (Perseus website on-line)