Calamis
5th century BC) was a sculptor of ancient Greece. He was possibly from Boeotia, but nothing certain is known of his life although he is credited with having lived in Athens, and his sculptures are representative of Athenian sculpture. Although none of his works survives, he is known for his talent and skill in sculpting animals, especially horses, as opposed to the human body.
Also recorded as Kalamis
Calamis
Copy of Kalamis · Jastrow (2006) · Public domain
- Born
- 500.
- Died
- 460. · Athens.
- Occupation
- sculptor.
- Movements
- art of Classical Greece.
- Known for
- Bronze chariot with Hieron at Olympia.
- Languages
- Ancient Greek.
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Calamis. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q918382
In this article
Biography
Biography
He is known to have worked in marble, bronze, gold, and ivory, and was famed for statues of horses, which Pliny says were unrivaled. • Illustration — Omphalos Apollo, Roman copy, Capitoline Museums. According to Pausanias (9.16.1), Calamis produced a statue of Zeus Ammon for Pindar, and mentions a Hermes Criophorus for Tanagra (9.22.1), which was later depicted on Roman coins of the city. His statue of Apollo Alexikakos stood in front of the Temple of Apollo Patroos in Athens. He produced his most ambitious work, a 30-cubit statue of Apollo for Apollonia Pontica (on modern St. Ivan Island, Bulgaria; Pliny the Elder 4.92, 34.39, Strabo 7.6.1, p. His Sosandra was praised by Lucian, and may have been copied for Aspasia, which in turn was copied by the Romans.
The recorded working language is Ancient Greek. Works named in the authority record are Bronze chariot with Hieron at Olympia.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
460
Calamis died at Athens.
500
Calamis born.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Calamis (5th century BC), revision 1357599366 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Muller-Duffeu, 243.
- 2.Léon Lacroix, , p.244.
- 3.Boardman, 79.
- 4.Claude Rolley. La sculpture grecque : 1, Des origines au milieu du Ve siècle. Picard. 1994. 978-2-7084-0448-9.
- 5.Bernard Holtzmann. La sculpture grecque. Librairie Générale Française. 2010. 978-2-253-90599-8.
- 6.L'Art grec. École du Louvre. Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais. 2011.
- 7., I, 3, 4.
- 8.Ma884.
- 9.Ma691.
- 10., VII, 319 ; , XXXIV, 39 et Appien, Illyriques, 30.
- 11.Pausanias, I, 23, 2.
- 12.Lucien, Portraits, 6. Voir aussi Portraits, 4 et Dialogue des courtisanes, III, 2.
- 13.Muller-Dufeu, 245.
- 14.Boardman, 80.
- 15.Muller-Dufeu, n 688.
- 16.Dont le nom est devenu Aleméné par les traductions des différents éditeurs. Le professeur Jan Six de l'université d'Amsterdam pense qu'il faut lire ce nom comme étant Algoumén, signifiant en grec la Douloureuse. Cette douloureuse était l'original de la statue dite de Pénélope au Vatican qui offre des analogies frappantes avec les trônes sculptés de l'ancienne collection Ludovisi ainsi qu'avec l'Aurige de Delphes, œuvres ayant déjà été rapportées à Calamis (in Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1914, 58-3, ).
- 17.Copie d'une œuvre de Calamis découverte dans le secteur de Sosandra des Thermes de Baïes et conservée au musée archéologique de Naples.
- 18.Qui porte un bélier
- 19.Hermès et Dionysos de Tanagra furent reproduites sur les monnaies de la cité, (Cf. Léon Lacroix, Les reproductions de statues sur les monnaies grecques, 1949, Librairie Droz, bibliothèque de la faculté de philosophie et Belles-Lettres, Université de Liège, fasc. CXVI, chapitre II., ).
- 20.Pausanias. Pausaniás, cesta po Řecku II. 416 vysvětlivky. 1974.
- 21.Inscriptiones Graecae, IG II³ 496 http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/347353?&bookid=877&location=1360
- 22.Michael Scott, Delphi and Olympia, str. 137
- 23.Karl Julius Sillig, Pliny (the Elder.), Dictionary of the Artists of Antiquity, str. 34
- 24.Pausanias. Pausaniás, cesta po Řecku II. 302. 1974.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q918382: CalamisWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Sculpture
6,174 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- C. SivaramamurtiArtist
- C.C. van Asch van WijckArtist
- Cady NolandArtist
- Caitlin CherryArtist
- Calixte DakpoganArtist
- Calle ÖrnemarkArtist
- CallimachusArtist
- Camille AlaphilippeArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Calamis?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.