Skopas echoes in Alexandrian Sculpture

The paper begins with a discussion of Pliny (HN 36.28) referring to a Janus pater transferred to Rome from Egypt in Augustan age. The sculpture, originally representing Hermes dikephalos, is dubiously attributed by Pliny to Praxiteles or Skopas and somebody identified it with the Hermes by Skopas mentioned in the epigram Anthologia Planudea 192, but this theory runs into serious difficulties. Then I examine some Ptolemaic sculptures, both portraits and idealized statues, characterized by the assimilation of stylistic elements derived from Skopas' art. In conclusion, I investigate through which channels the knowledge of Skopaic formal language penetrated into the Alexandrian cultural background. The analysis of two heads found in the area of the ancient Basileia suggests that Skopas' legacy possibly filtered into the artistic tradition of Alexandria through sculptors coming from Attica, in their turn strongly influenced by the teaching of the Parian master.