Praxiteles

Praxiteles. Greek sculptor from Athens, active in the mid-4th century bc. His fame among Greek sculptors, today as in his own time, is second only to that of Phidias. Various works of his described by ancient authors are known through Roman copies, and a marble statue of Hermes and the Infant Dionysus, found at Olympia in 1877 in the location where it was described by Pausanias (now in the Olympia Museum), is considered by some authorities to be from his own hand. If this is so, it can be claimed as the only surviving original statue by an identified Greek sculptor of the first rank. Certainly it has a delicacy in the modelling of forms and a subtlety of finish far removed from the workmanship seen in most Roman copies, and it shows the sensuous charm and gentle grace for which he was renowned. In antiquity his most famous work was the Aphrodite of Cnidus, known through several copies. This much-imitated work was the first free-standing life-size female nude in Greek art and Pliny described it as ‘the finest statue not only by Praxiteles but in the whole world’. Praxiteles' influence was profound. The tenderness and intimacy of his work marked a move away from the remote idealization of the classical period, to an art more concerned with human emotion, and his graceful, sinuous poses, with the figure often shown leaning on a support, became part of the general currency of Hellenistic sculptors. His preference for working in marble made the material popular again after it had long been eclipsed by bronze.