PRAXITELES, praks-it'e-lez, Greek sculp tor: b. probably, about 400 B.C. He was an Athenian by birth, the contemporary of Scopas (q.v.), and one of the greatest sculptors of ancient times. The date of his death is un known; but his life must have been long, since nearly three score works are mentioned as executed by him. He lived in the age of great est opulence in Greek art, an age succeeding that of Phidias and one which had outgrown the austere vigor displayed in the works of the earlier master. During the time of Praxiteles the life of the individual was less merged in that of the body politic, and became more highly developed. This fact consequent upon the growth of wealth in private possession made the work of the sculptor in demand for the adornment of private houses instead of temples of worship. Praxiteles worked for private buyers, and many of his statues went to Asia Minor as well as Greece. Antiquity placed the highest estimate upon his statue of Aphro dite, and people traveled in large numbers to Cnidus to see it. Lucian records seeing it there about 150 A.D. The statue has disappeared, but an idea of its form may be derived from a Cnid ian coin, bearing its effigy, struck in honor of Plautilla. The greatest of his extant works is the statue of the youthful Hermes bearing on his arm the infant Dionysus. This statue, de scribed by Pausanius, was discovered in 1877 by German excavators, at Olympia, where it now remains. The face, which is perfectly pre served, gives to postenty a revelation of the exquisite beauty of the Greek face. The muti lated statue of Demeter from Cnidus, now pre served in the British Museum, is probably by Praxiteles; but the Hermes is the only un questionable one. Pausanias records that Prax iteles regarded his statue of Eros and one of a satyr as his greatest works. This Eros was
presented to Phryne, the courtesan, who posed for the Cnidian Venus, and was afterward placed in the temple at Thespim. There was another Eros at Parium on the Hellespont. The Satyr, represented leaning gracefully with his arm on a support, is preserved in reproduc tion in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, and furnished Hawthorne with his inspiration for his romance, 'The Marble
The 'Apollo Sauroktonos' (Lizard-Killer), a motive original with Praxiteles, is also known to posterity in reproductions in the Louvre and elsewhere. Reproductions of other works of Praxiteles, the authenticity of which, however, is frequently very doubtful, may be found in many museums and private collections, especially in Athens, Berlin, Dresden, Florence, London, Naples, Paris and Rome. Good casts of his most im portant works are to be seen in practically every art museum in this country, especially in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Praxiteles produced in addition to statues por trait busts and genre-scenes, the latter being in the form of sculptured reliefs. His work, which exercised a great influence upon the fur ther development of Greek art, charms by its perfection of grace and its refined and noble expression of human emotions. Consult Kekule, R. von S., 'Der Kopf des Praxitelischen Her mes' (Stuttgart 1881) ; Amelung, W., 'Die Basis des Praxiteles aus Mantinea) (Miinchen 1895) ; Furtwaengler, A., 'Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture' (ed. by E. Sellers, London 1895) ; Klein, W.,