Tisi'crates
1. An eminent Greek statuary, of the school of Lysippus, to whose works those of Tisicrates so nearly approached, that many of them were scarcely to be distinguished from the works of the master. Such were his Theban Old Man, his King Demetrius, and his statue of Peucestes, who saved the life of Alexander the Great.
The words added by Pliny to his mention of the last work,
dignus tanta gloria, show the high estimation in which the artist was held. (
Plin. Nat. 34.8. s. 19.8.) Pliny introduces the name of Tisicrates in such a way as to cause a doubt, whether he was the disciple of Lysippus himself or of his son Euthycrates; but we think he means the former.
The artist's date may be fixed at about Ol. 120, B. C. 300.
He appears to have excelled in equestrian groups. Pliny also mentions a
biga of his, to which the artist Piston added the figure of a woman (
l.c. § 32).
There is another passage of Pliny, in which the name of Tisicrates occurs in the common editions (
l.c. § 12) ; where the reading
Tisicratis rests on no other authority than a conjecture of Gronovius.
The more probable conjecture of Sillig,
Amphicratis, has been tendered certain by the authority of the Bamberg MS.
Further Information
See AMPHICRATES, and Jan's Supplement to Sillig's Pliny.
