Bupalus (Βούπαλος) and Athenis, were sons of Archermus, and members of the celebrated school of sculpture in marble which flourished in Chios in the 6th century BC.

They were contemporaries of the poet Hipponax, whom they were said to have caricatured. Bupalus encountered the animosity of the poet the cause of which is said to have been the refusal of Bupalus to give his daughter in marriage to Hipponax, while others inform us that it was owing to a statue made in derision of the poet by Bupalus.

Their works consisted almost entirely of draped female figures, Artemis, Fortune, the Graces, when the Chian school has been well called a school of Madonnas. Augustus brought many of the works of Bupalus and Athenis to Rome, and placed them on the gable of the temple of Apollo Palatinus.

Sources

• Bupalos a skilful temple-architect and carver of images, who made the statue of Fortune at Smyrna, was the first whom we know to have represented her with the heavenly sphere upon her head and carrying in one hand the horn of Amaltheia, as the Greeks call it, representing her functions to this extent. The poems of Pindar later contained references to Fortune, and it is he who called her Supporter of the City. Pausanias 4.30.6
• Who it was who first represented the Graces naked, whether in sculpture or in painting, I could not discover. During the earlier period, certainly, sculptors and painters alike represented them draped. At Smyrna, for instance, in the sanctuary of the Nemeses, above the images have been dedicated Graces of gold, the work of Bupalus; and in the Music Hall in the same city there is a portrait of a Grace, painted by Apelles. At Pergamus likewise, in the chamber of Attalus, are other images of Graces made by Bupalus; Pausanias 9.35.6
  
  

• Pliny NH 36.11

Sculptors

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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