Epigonus

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Epigonus is also a genus of the Epigonidae, the Deepwater Cardinalfishes.

Epigonus of Pergamum^[1] was the chief among the court sculptors to the Attalid dynasty at Pergamum in the late third century BCE. Pliny the Elder, who offers the only surviving list of the sculptors of this influential Pergamene school^[2] attributes to him works among the sculptures on the victory monument erected by Attalus I in the sanctuary of Athena at Pergamum to commemorate his victory over the Gauls of Galatia (223 BCE). Among works there by other sculptors, Pliny attributes to Epigonos^[3] The Trumpeter, probably the original of the marble copy known in modern times as The Dying Gaul ^[4], in the Capitoline Museums, Rome^[5], and a "Weeping Child pitifully caressing its murdered mother" (not identified). Another sculpture from the same monument exists in a marble copy of the Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife. Eight signed bases^[6] from the acropolis of Pergamum have lost their sculptures of valuable bronze, which was doubtless laboriously cut apart for the sake of the metal and refounded during Christian times.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ His father was Charios of Pergamum.
2. ^ "Several artists have represented the battles of Attalus and Eumenes against the Gauls: Isigonus [otherwise unknown; probably a slip for Epigonos], Pyromachus, Stratonicus, and Antigonus, who wrote books about his art." Natural History 34.84
3. ^ His "Isogonos" is doubtless a slip of the stylus.
4. ^ A curved Celtic horn rests by his side.
5. ^ Inv. No. 747
6. ^ The dedicatory inscriptions to Athena are translated by Stewart, op. cit.

[edit] Further reading

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