Cephisodotus the Elder
Illustration — Roman copy of the Eirene (Glyptothek, Munich) • Illustration — Bust of Artemis Soteira of Cephisodotus the Elder, Roman copy of the 1st-2nd century CE (Pavia City Museums, Italy) Cephisodotus or Kephisodotos (flourished c. 400 – c. 360 BC) was a Greek sculptor, perhaps the father or an uncle of Praxiteles, one of whose sculptor sons was Cephisodotus the Younger.
Cephisodotus the Elder
Creator:Kephisodotos · This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy · CC0
- Born
- 500.
- Died
- 400.
- Nationality
- Classical Athens.
- Occupation
- sculptor and artist.
- Known for
- Eirene and Plutus group.
- Languages
- Ancient Greek.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Roman copy of the Eirene (Glyptothek, Munich) • Illustration — Bust of Artemis Soteira of Cephisodotus the Elder, Roman copy of the 1st-2nd century CE (Pavia City Museums, Italy) Cephisodotus or Kephisodotos (flourished c. 400 – c. 360 BC) was a Greek sculptor, perhaps the father or an uncle of Praxiteles, one of whose sculptor sons was Cephisodotus the Younger.
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- Identity
- resolved
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Authority files
wikidata · Q378772 · wikipedia · Cephisodotus the Elder
In this article
Biography
Biography
The one noted work of his was Eirene (Peace) bearing the infant Ploutos (Wealth), ca 380–370 BC, of which a Roman point copy exists at the Glyptothek, Munich, and fragments in various collections. The Eirene, commissioned by the city of Athens and set up on the Areopagus, was attributed to Cephisodotus by Pausanias in the 2nd century AD. Cephisodotus also made, as did his son, a figure of Hermes carrying the child Dionysus, unless ancient critics have made two works of one. He sculpted certain statues for the city of Megalopolis, founded by Epaminondas in 369 BC; Pausanias noted them in its principal temple in the 2nd century AD. Two heads long thought to be feminine and inserted in female busts, one formerly in the Lansdowne collection and the other in the Massarenti collection, Rome, now recognized to be of Apollo, were attributed to Cephisodotus by Dorothy Kent Hill in 1974.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
400
Cephisodotus the Elder died.
500
Cephisodotus the Elder born.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q378772: Cephisodotus the Elder
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Cephisodotus the Elder”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Cephisodotus, the Elder, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2011
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
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.Pliny places the elder Cephisodotus in the 102nd Olympiad, i.e. 371-368 BC.
- 2."Praxiteles' father's name is not recorded, "but, given Greek practice of handing down names and crafts in the family, it is likely that if not Praxiteles' father, he was a relation" (Martin Robertson, A Shorter History of Greek Art [Cambridge University Press]) 1981, p. 138).
- 3.Dates as in H.K. Süsserott, Griechische Plastik des 4. Jahrhunderts vor Christus (1938) p 141f; the annual sacrifices to Eirene began in 371, Isocrates informs us
- 4.The Eirene was illustrated by Attic vase-painters on Panathenaic prize amphorae bearing the name of the eponymous archon for 360-359 (Robertson 1981, p. 139).
- 5.Pausanias, I.8.2 (notes the statue at Athens), IX.16.2, "It was a clever idea of these artists to place Wealth in the arms of Fortune, and so to suggest that she is his mother or nurse. Equally clever was the conception of Cephisodotus, who made the image of Peace for the Athenians with Wealth in her arms".
- 6.Cephisodotus. 702.
- 7.The Lansdowne antiquities were dispersed at auction in 1930; the Lansdowne head was in the collection of William Randolph Hearst, donated to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, on loan to the J. Paul Getty Museum.
- 8.Sold in 1902 and now at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
- 9.Dorothy Kent Hill, "Apollo by Kephisodotos the Elder" The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, 1 (1974:81-84); the two heads are different in scale and cannot be point copies of a single original (p. 81).
References
Citations
References
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scholarly publication
Cephisodotus, the Elder, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011Crossref registry
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
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.
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