s, Pheidias was brought to trial: the charge, embezzlement. A.W. Lawrence, who does not give specific sources, believes that he was exonerated from the embezzlement charges because all of the precious metal from the statue could be weighed. After the charge failed, he was again charged, publicly, this time with both misappropriating public funds and sacrilege. The latter charge existed because he had depicted himself and Perikles on the shield held by Athena. According to Lawrence, Plutarch writes that Pheidias died while in prison#.Plutarch and Early Evidence for Scandal, Imprisonment, and Sculpture Attributed to PheidiasMost of what we know about Pheidias is from a late first century biography of the sculptor, written by Plutarch. Scholars do have some difficulty with this source. Plutarch writes of Pheidias almost five hundred years after the sculptor is believed to have died. No one historian can conclude whether this particular biography is a factual account of the artist’s life or whether there has been some myth introduced into the story. Assuming that Plutarch’s words are factual, Pheidias was the “ergolabos” (or contractor) for the Athena Parthenon cult statue and the main designer of the ninety-two metopes of the Parthenon, as well as being the designer of the Pantheonic Procession. Plutarch points to the friendship between Pheidias and Perikles as being the downfall of the artist. As a politician, Perikles had many enemies that may have used Pheidias and his notoriety as an artist as a way of discrediting the leader. He believes that this may have been a possible reason why charges were brought against Pheidias.#Both Aristophanes and Plato make mention of Pheidias. Plato has only named one other artist, Polykleitus (a peer of Pheidias), in any of his writing, which leads Nigel Spivey to believe Pheidias had already become a “recognizable household name”. Plato mentions the art...
