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PRAXITELES

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 256 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRAXITELES , of See also:

Athens. the son of Cephissodotus, the greatest of the See also:Attic sculptors of the 4th See also:century B.C., who has See also:left an imperishable See also:mark on the See also:history of See also:art. It has been maintained by some writers that there were two sculptors of the name, one a eoutemporary of See also:Pheidias, the other, more celebrated, of two generations later. This duplication is de-fended in See also:Furtwangler's Masterpieces of See also:Greek See also:Sculpture (pp. 99, 102, seq.) but on insufficient grounds. There is, however, no See also:reason why the See also:great Praxiteles should not have had a See also:grand-See also:father of the same name: all that we can say is that at See also:present we have no certain See also:evidence that this was the See also:case. Though Praxiteles may be considered as in some ways well known to us, yet we have no means for fixing his date accurately. It seems clear that he was no longer working in the See also:time of See also:Alexander the Great, or that See also:king would have employed him. See also:Pliny's date, 364 B.C., is probably that of one of his most noted See also:works. Our knowledge of Praxiteles has received a great addition, and has been placed on a satisfactory basis, by the See also:discovery at See also:Olympia in 1877 of his statue of See also:Hermes bearing the See also:infant See also:Dionysus, a statue which has become famous throughout the See also:world (GREEK ART, fig. 43 and See also:Plate VI. fig. 82). Hermes is represented as in the See also:act of carrying the See also:child Dionysus to the See also:nymphs who were charged with his rearing.

He pauses on the way, and holds out to the child a bunch of grapes to excite his See also:

desire. The See also:young child can hardly be regarded as a success; he is not really childlike. But the figure of the Hermes, full and solid without being fleshy, at once strong and active, is a 'masterpiece, and the See also:play of See also:surface is astonishing. In the See also:head we have a remarkably rounded and intelligent shape, and the See also:face expresses the perfection of See also:health and enjoyment. This statue must for the future be our best evidence for the See also:style of Praxiteles. It altogether confirms and interprets the statements as to Praxiteles made by Pliny and' other See also:ancient critics. Gracefulness in repose, and an indefinable See also:charm are also the attributes of works in our museums which appear to be copies of statues by Praxiteles. Perhaps the most notable of these are the See also:Apollo Sauroctonus, or the See also:lizard-slayer, a youth leaning against a See also:tree and idly striking with an arrow at a lizard, and the See also:Aphrodite at the See also:bath (GREEK ART, Plate V., fig. 71) of the Vatican, which is a copy of the statue made by Praxiteles for the See also:people of See also:Cnidus, and by them valued so highly that they refused to sell it to King Nicomedes, who was willing in return to See also:discharge the whole See also:debt of the See also:city, which, says Pliny, was enormous. The Satyr of the Capitol at See also:Rome has commonly been regarded as a copy of one of the See also:Satyrs of Praxiteles; but we cannot identify it in the See also:list of his works. Moreover, the style is hard and poor; a far See also:superior replica exists in a torso in the Louvre. The attitude and See also:character of the See also:work are certainly of Praxitelean school.

Excavations at See also:

Mantineia in See also:Arcadia have brought to See also:light the basis of a See also:group of Leto Apollo and See also:Artemis by Praxiteles. This basis was doubtless not the work of the great sculptor him-self, but of one of his assistants. Nevertheless it is pleasing and historically valuable. See also:Pausanias (viii. 9, 1) thus describes the See also:base, " on the base which supports the statues there are sculptured the See also:Muses and See also:Marsyas playing the flutes." Three slabs which have survived represent Apollo, Marsyas, a slave, and six of the Muses, the slab which held the other three having disappeared. A head of Aphrodite at Petworth in See also:England, and a head of Hermes in the See also:British Museum (See also:Aberdeen Hermes), have lately been claimed by competent authorities as actual works of Praxiteles. Both are charming works, but rather by the successors of Praxiteles than by himself. Besides these works, connected with Praxiteles on definite evidence, there are in our museums works without number of the See also:Roman See also:age, statues of Hermes, of Dionysus, of Aphrodite, of Satyrs and Nymphs and the like, in which a varied amount of Praxitelean style may be discerned. Four points of See also:composition may be mentioned, which appear to be in origin Praxitelean: (1) a very flexible See also:line divides the figures if See also:drawn down the midst from See also:top to bottom; they all tend to lounging; (2) they are adapted to front and back view rather than to being seen from one See also:side or the other; (3) trees, drapery and the like are used for supports to the See also:marble figures, and included in the See also:design, instead of being extraneous to it; (4) the faces are presented in three-See also:quarter view. The subjects chosen by Praxiteles were either human beings or the less elderly and dignified deities. It is Apollo, Hermes and Aphrodite who attract him rather than See also:Zeus, See also:Poseidon or See also:Athena. And in his hands the deities sink to the human level, or, indeed, sometimes almost below it.

They have See also:

grace and charm in a supreme degree, but the See also:element of See also:awe and reverence is wanting. Praxiteles and his school worked almost entirely in marble. At the time the marble quarries of See also:Paros were at their best; nor could any marble be finer for the purposes of the sculptor than that of which the Hermes is made. Some of the statues of Praxiteles were coloured by the painter See also:Nicias, and in the See also:opinion of the sculptor they gained greatly by this treatment. (P.

End of Article: PRAXITELES

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