Phidias
historical figure · 9 works · 11 mentions · 11 anchored passages
in the texts
On Moral Ends
Renowned Greek sculptor
But let us survey in our minds not these greatest arts — for lacking which men were by our ancestors called good-for-nothing — but I ask whether you think that — I do not say Homer, Archilochus, Pindar, but Phidias, Polyclitus, Zeuxis directed their arts to pleasure.
As Phidias can begin a statue from the first and complete it, and can take it begun by another and finish it, to this wisdom is like;
Letters to Lucilius
Renowned Greek sculptor, used as an analogy for the wise man's craft of making new friendships.
As Phidias, if he has lost a statue, will at once make another, so this craftsman in the making of friendships will put another in the place of the one lost.
If you had offered him marble, if you had offered him even a cheaper material, he would have made out of it the best that could be made from it.
Lucullus
Famous sculptor cited as an example of skill (art) that does not depend on Stoic 'knowledge'.
Or would Zeuxis, or Phidias, or Polyclitus have endured this — that they knew nothing, when in them there was such great skill?
On the Commonwealth
Greek sculptor whose admired works are cited among Athens's splendors, contrasted with the absence of a true commonwealth.
Did the ancient glory of the state, or the splendid aspect of the town, or the theatre, the gymnasia, the porticoes, or the noble Propylaea, or the citadel, or the admirable works of Phidias, or that magnificent Piraeus, make a commonwealth?
Stoic Paradoxes
Renowned Greek sculptor, creator of the statue of Minerva referenced as an unmatchable standard of art.
for it is not such as could be placed upon the citadel, like that Minerva of Phidias, but only such that it may be evident it came from the same workshop.
Tusculan Disputations
Greek sculptor who hid his own image in the shield of a statue of Minerva to be remembered.
For why did Phidias enclose a likeness of himself in the shield of Minerva, when it was not permitted to inscribe his name?
History of Modern Philosophy from Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time
Ancient Greek sculptor invoked as an exemplar of classical aesthetic achievement.
The Greek view of the world is as classic as the plastic art of Phidias and the epic of Homer;
On Benefits
Sculptor used as an analogy: the completion of his statue as an artwork is distinct from its later sale, illustrating that a benefit's 'fruit of conscience' is complete upon right giving, independent of repayment.
Phidias finished his work even if he did not sell it.
De Carnis Resurrectione
Sculptor whose working of ivory into the statue of Olympian Jupiter illustrates how a great craftsman ennobles matter.
The hands of Phidias work the Olympian Jupiter out of ivory, and it is adored;