Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia, 2000

Zeus of Artemision
his magnificent statue of Zeus, father of the gods, was made around 460 BC. It is one of the very few original Greek bronze sculptures that have survived to the present day. Unfortunately, we know little about it: neither where it was made, nor its place of worship. We do know that it was taken around 100 BC and loaded onto a ship, which sank off Cape Artemision on the Greek coast. The statue was probably headed for a private collection in Italy, where wealthy Romans were amassing hundreds of Greek sculptures in their villas and town-houses.

Drawing of a thunderbolt as it was depicted in Greek art F. Reidel, 2000

n 1926 AD, fishermen found the left arm in their nets. The rest of the statue was recovered in 1928. It was made in the lost-wax method of bronze casting, with each section cast separately and then welded together. The thunderbolt and eyes, which are now missing, were made of different materials, possibly silver and glass.

Scene from a cup, showing a bronze statue workshop: a furnace is being fired on the left, a smith is attaching an arm to a statue on the right, the statues head lies on the ground and on the wall are tools, a spare set of feet and sample drawings of other statues for clients and sculptors to consult Kylix (cup), after Furtwngler & Reichhold, plate 135

This essay is from the Powerhouse Museums website 1000 years of the Olympic Games at http://www.phm.gov.au/ancient_greek_olympics/

 Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia, 2000

he statue depicts Zeus about to hurl his thunderbolt into the distance. He stands just over two metres high, and his arms are disproportionately long, to compensate for the fact that he would have stood on a pedestal. This artistic device also allowed a series of powerful shapes to be created by the limbs of the statue, to increase the initial impact on the viewer. His stern face, gazing into the distance at his invisible target, the perfection of his body, and his great size would have reinforced the sense of awe in the ancient worshipper. he statue is now on permanent display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. A team of experts travelled to the Museum from Australia and using a high resolution scanner captured the virtual facsimile shown in 3D on the website.

T T

Cliff Ogleby, Dept. of Geomantics, University of Melbourne, scanning the Zeus of Artemision

This essay is from the Powerhouse Museums website 1000 years of the Olympic Games at http://www.phm.gov.au/ancient_greek_olympics/

 Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia, 2000

Bibliography
C. C. Mattusch Greek Bronze Statuary From the Beginnings through the Fifth Century BC, Cornell University Press, 1988 The Severe Style in Greek Sculpture, Princeton University Press, 1970 Greek Sculpture: An Exploration (volumes 1 & 2), Yale University Press, 1990

B. S. Ridgway

A. Stewart

Images Palmette Terracotta akroterion from the workshop of Pheidias at Olympia, made around 430 BC, from Olympia II: Die Baudenkmler von Olympia, R. Adler, R. Borrmann, W. Drpfeld, F. Graeber & P. Graef, 1892/1966, Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert (1966 reprint), Amsterdam, Plate CCXXII no. 3 used with permission from Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert Line drawing F. Reidel, 2000

Thunderbolt

Drawing of a bronze foundry scene kylix (cup), (Berlin F2294), Attic red-figure, 490-480 BC, attributed to the Foundry Painter, found in Vulci, Italy after a drawing in Griechische Vasenmalerei III, A. Furtwngler, K. Reichhold & F. Hauser, F. Bruckmann A. G., Munich 1910/1932; plate 135

This essay is from the Powerhouse Museums website 1000 years of the Olympic Games at http://www.phm.gov.au/ancient_greek_olympics/