was the son of Charmidas, and was born about 490 B.C. The facts regarding his education are few and detached. But knowing the result of his training, we can in a general way infer its character, and thus eke out the scanty narrative. He began to study sculpture under a certain Hippas, supposed by some to be the well-known Hegias; and then under Ageladas of Argos. Nor, while under their instruction, did he content himself with a servile observance of stereotyped rules. His bold and vigorous genius pursued his art into all its relations with other arts and sciences. He acquired an experimental knowledge of painting and pictorial effect. He was not unacquainted with the principles of architecture. There was scarcely a department of general information into which his investigating mind did not wander. At the same time his soul kindled its ardour, and nursed its creative energies, by frequent contact with the great genius of Homer. Under such an invigorating discipline it was natural that new and enlarged views of the sculptor's art should dawn upon the mind of Phidias. Accordingly, he began to repudiate the prevalent custom of taking a common-place figure, and then representing it in an attitude stiff and affected, and with a garment falling into formal geometrical lines. The legitimate subject, he thought, should be one of the most perfect specimens of human nature as viewed by an imaginative mind. The bearing ought to be easy and dignified, and the drapery ought to flow in the free and ever-varying folds of nature. Especially in the statues of the gods was it necessary for the sculptor to rise above the dull level of ordinary life. No dimensions could be too grand and imposing to body forth ineffable power; no materials could be too costly to represent immortal health and beauty; no draperies could be too variegated and elaborate to imitate the gorgeous dresses of the court of heaven. Imagination should rise to its highest efforts in the conception, and art should lavish all its resources in the execution. These elevated and catholic principles Phidias set himself to establish. He carried them into practice in a gold and ivory statue of Minerva at Pellene, in a group of bronze statues at Delphi, and in several other works which he executed. He also inculcated them upon a number of pupils; and thus, in course of time, overturned the old, and established a new school of sculpture.

About 444 B.C., Phidias, in the full maturity of his genius and fame, entered upon the brightest part of his career. It was then that the great Pericles chose him for his coadjutor in the high task of raising Athens to the very climax of beauty and magnificence. Appointed overseer of the public works, the sculptor was employed in superintending the erection of the edifices on the Acropolis. The architects Ictinus and Callicrates, several painters, and many artisans all worked under his inspection. He himself designed the numerous sculptures, assigned them to his pupils and to other sculptors to be executed, and frequently gave them the last polish with his own exquisite chisel. Under the busy hands of so many workmen, the Parthenon rose up perfect in form, and enriched with every kind of decoration and device. To complete the general effect and put the finishing stroke upon this great enterprise, the superintendent himself executed, among other images, two colossal statues of Pallas, the presiding genius of the place. The one, a bronze statue, represented the goddess in her warlike character, and was called, on that account, the Athena Promachos. Stationed on a pedestal on the summit of the Acropolis, and rising out from among the surrounding architecture, until she overlooked a great part of Attica, she kept guard over the city in the attitude of a combatant. Her left arm extended a shield, and her right hand brandished a spear, as if ready to hurl destruction at any daring invader. Still more imposing was the statue of the same divinity which stood within the Parthenon. Her height was nearly 40 feet; her nude parts were made of ivory; and her drapery and ornaments were of solid gold. She now appeared in her character of the patron goddess of the city. The excited air of battle had given place to the settled attitude of calm deliberation. Her shield stood by her left side. Her spear stood against her left shoulder. A dragon lay coiled at her feet. With her left hand she leaned upon her shield, and with her right hand she extended an image of victory. Nor were the decorations out of harmony with such a noble mien. A golden sphinx in the middle, and a golden gryphon on each side, adorned her helmet; a string of golden serpents formed the fringe of Phidias, her legs; and a golden garment flowed down to her feet. On the outer side of her shield the Amazons fought with the Athenians; on the inner side the gods overcame the giants; and on the base which supported the entire work, Pandora received her graces and fascinations from the assembled divinities. In fact the eye of the spectator, while roaming over the grand statue, and passing from the grand statue to the magnificent expanse and painted and sculptured walls of the temple, could see nothing but what was beautiful and harmonious in the entire scene.

The fame of this great masterpiece was still ringing through Greece, when the Eleians, about 437 B.C., invited Phidias to finish and decorate their temple of Jupiter Olympius. Repairing to the plain of Olympia with his scholars, he set up his studio close beside the wall of the Altis, within hearing of the murmur of the sacred olives. In that quiet retreat he began to execute a gold and ivory statue of Jove 60 feet in height. After the lapse of four years the image was completed, was set up in the temple, and was found to surpass every other work of art that the race of men had ever yet witnessed. It was seen to be a striking embodiment of the Zeus of Homer. There, in awful state, and with the most stupendous proportions, sat the almighty king of the gods. There was the serene dignity of countenance which becomes the sovereign of the skies; there were the dark eye-brows and clustering locks whose motion shakes the spheres; there were the shoulders of strength which move and control the dread artillery of heaven. With his left hand he leaned upon the sceptre of the universe, and with his right hand he extended a winged Victory. Nor did the imagination of the artist confine itself to the figure. It also lavished its creations upon the furniture and embellishments of the god. A chaplet of olive crowned his brow. A robe of solid gold, garnished with lilies and other flowers, swathed his limbs. Four golden lions supported his footstool. On the back of the throne, above his head, appeared the Hours and the Graces. At each corner of the throne a Victory danced upon a sphinx that was tearing a Theban youth. The cedar throne itself was bespangled with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones; and displayed painted and sculptured representations of the destruction of Niobe's children, the contests of Hercules, and other exploits of the heroic age. On the base which supported the entire fabric appeared sculptured figures of the deities in gold, and the interesting inscription—"Phidias, the Athenian, son of Charmidas, made me." So dazzling and sublime indeed, was the general effect, that the Jupiter Olympius became the wonder of the world. Its almost superhuman magnificence threw all succeeding artists into despair, and absolutely set at defiance all competition. It seemed, according to an old epigrammatist, as if Phidias had either ascended to heaven to see Jove, or Jove had descended to earth to sit to Phidias. Some visitors even felt themselves to be in the real presence-chamber of the Thunderer, and expected to see him rise from his throne, and throw off the roof of the temple with his mighty head and shoulders.

Filled with satisfaction at his unparalleled success, Phidias returned to Athens in 432 B.C., only to meet an end which was fearfully discordant with his peaceful and illustrious career. The aristocratic faction were then indirectly aiming at Pericles by attacking the intimate friends of that democratic leader. The old sculptor, as a notable associate of the great statesman, was immediately doomed to persecution. A certain Menon, who had worked in the capacity of an underling at the Parthenon, accused him of having appropriated the gold intended for the garment of Minerva. Even after this charge had been triumphantly refuted by Phidias, who had taken the precaution of fixing on the drapery of the goddess in such a manner that it could easily be unloosed and weighed, his persecutors did not desist. They arraigned him for having inserted his own portrait and that of Pericles in the representation of the battle between the Athenians and the Amazons on the shield of the same statue. This accusation was sustained, and before the year was closed, the ill-requited Phidias died in prison.

The only extant works which retain any traces of the delicate chisel of Phidias are the sculptures which have been recovered of late years from the ruins of the Parthenon. The finest specimens of these were transferred to England by Lord Elgin in 1803, were deposited in the British Museum in 1816, and are now known by the name of the "Elgin Marbles." (In addition to the ordinary histories of ancient art, see Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography; and Müller's De Phidiae Vita et Operibus, Gottingen, 1827. Quatremère de Quincy, in his Jupiter Olympien, and Flaxman, in his Lectures on Sculpture, have attempted, with the aid of the descriptions of ancient authors, to give drawings of the Minerva of the Parthenon and of Jupiter Olympius.)