"Agesander" redirects here. For other uses of this name, see Agesander (disambiguation)

Agesander (disambiguation)

Agesander can refer to more than one thing:*Agesander of Rhodes, one of the sculptors of the celebrated "Laocoön and his Sons"...

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Agesander (Gr.

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 , also Agesandros, Hagesander, Hagesandros, or Hagesanderus) was a sculptor

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 from the island of Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...

. His name occurs in no author except Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

, and until very recently we have known of only one work which he executed, albeit one very highly renowned work. In conjunction with Polydorus and Athenodorus, Agesander sculpted Laocoön and his Sons

Laocoön and his Sons

The statue of Laocoön and His Sons , also called the Laocoön Group, is a monumental sculpture in marble now in the Vatican Museums, Rome. The statue is attributed by the Roman author Pliny the Elder to three sculptors from the island of Rhodes: Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus...

, a work which has been ranked by some among the most perfect specimens of art, although modern critics suspect the trio of being "high-class copyists".

Controversy over the general date of Agesander's life has never quite been settled. 18th century art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann

Johann Joachim Winckelmann

Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art...

 felt certain he was a contemporary of Lysippos

Lysippos

Lysippos was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period. Problems confront the study of Lysippos because of the difficulty of...

 in the 4th century BC; others have placed him as late as 68 AD, in the reign of Nero

Nero

Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

. Modern scholarly consensus puts the likely time frame as between 50 BC and 25 AD. Another theory is that Agesander and the other two all possessed the same names as sculptors from an earlier period.

In 1959, other works of this trio were discovered at Spelunca

Sperlonga

Sperlonga is a coastal town in the province of Latina, Italy, about half way between Rome and Naples.Surrounding towns include Terracina to the West, Fondi to the North, Itri to the North-East, and Gaeta to the East.-History:...

, where the emperor Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...

 had a celebrated villa. The scenes were not entirely identifiable, but are thought to all feature Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....

.