PRAXITELES, of Athens, the son of Cephissodotus, the greatest of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century B.c., who has left an imperishable mark on the history of art.
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 time of Alex ander the Great, or that king would have employed him. Pliny's date, 364 B.c., is probably that of one of his most noted works.
We possess one undisputed original work of Praxiteles, that of the marble statue of Hermes carrying the infant Dionysus (GREEK ART, Plate VI., fig. 3). The 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 play of surface is astonishing. In the head we have a remarkably rounded and intelligent shape, and the face expresses the perfection of health.
This statue is our best evidence for the style of Praxiteles. It altogether confirms and interprets the statements as to Praxiteles made by Pliny and other ancient critics. Gracefulness in repose, and an indefinable charm are also the attributes of works in our museums which appear to be copies of statues by Praxiteles. Per haps the most notable of these are the Apollo Sauroctonus, or the lizard-slayer, a youth leaning against a tree and idly striking with an arrow at a lizard, and the Aphrodite at the bath (GREEK ART, Plate VI., figs. 5, 6) of the Vatican, a copy of the statue made by Praxiteles for the people of Cnidus. There is a story that Phryne, who was supposed to have been Praxiteles' model, induced him to name his two finest works by telling him his studio was on fire. He named the Eros and the Satyr. The "Capitoline Faun" at Rome has been identified as a copy of this, and a torso in the Louvre may even be the original.
Excavations at Mantineia in Arcadia have brought to light the basis of a group of Leto, Apollo and Artemis by Praxiteles. This basis was doubtless not the work of the great sculptor himself, but of one of his assistants. Nevertheless it is pleasing and historically valuable. Pausanias (viii. 9, 1) thus describes the base, "on the base which supports the statues there are sculptured the Muses and 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.
Four points of composition may be mentioned, which appear to be in origin Praxitelean : ( r) a very flexible line divides the figures if drawn down the midst from top to bottom ; they all tend to lounging; (2) they are adapted to front and back view rather than to being seen from one side or the other; (3) trees, drapery and the like are used for supports to the marble figures, and included in the design, instead of being extraneous to it; (4) the faces are presented in three-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 Zeus, Poseidon or Athena. And in his hands the deities sink to the human level, or, indeed, sometimes almost below it. They have grace and charm in a supreme degree, but the element of awe and reverence is wanting. Between them Scopas with his gift for expressing emo tion, and Praxiteles, with his delicacy and grace, changed the whole aspect of such sculpture, and the development of later ages derives largely from these two.