The perfection of sculpture seems to have been attained under Praxiteles and Lysippua They were contemporary, and each effected in his way what was before wanting to its completion. It is believed that there are imitations of some of the works of Praxiteles in the various modern collections of sculpture. Among these are the Sleeping Faun, at Slunich ; the Cupid of the Vatican, at Rome; statues of Venus, believed to be copies of the far-famed Venus of Cnidue; and the Apollo Souroctonus, at Rome.
The death of Alexander the Great (324 n.c.) was followed by the dismemberment of his vast empire. The arts suffered in some measure by these divisions and contentions; but it is difficult to assent to Winckelman's opinion, that after the death of that prince there was nothing left except a class of mere imitators. Each of the artists above mentioned left numerous scholars, who still preserved the high cha racter of sculpture by their own successful practice. Among the most distinguished of these sculptors are Cephisodotus and Eubulus, the sons of Praxiteles; Pamphilus, his scholar ; the before-mentioned Daip pus, Medea, and Euthycrates, the sons, and Tialerates, the scholar, of Lyaippus (the \WAa of the latter are said to have been so excellent that they were often mistaken for those of Lysippus himself); Xeno crates, who also wrote a treatise on his art ; Chares, the Lyndian, tho author of the famous Colossus of Rhodes; Dameas, Eutychydee, and l'hwnix. Hemlocks of Rhodes is mentioned as having been employed by the earlier Seletteithe. Isigonus, Pyromachus, and Stratonicus illustrated by their art the victories of Attains and Eumenes over the Gauls ; and the Ptolemies also for a time were protectors and patrons of artists. To the above names many others might be added, sufficient both in number and talent to warrant the belief that sculpture was not only still encouraged and practised on the best principles, but that there were artists living quite capable of aiding its progress by their own genius. The assertion therefore of Pliny (xxxiv. 8), that from the 120th to the 155th Olympiad the art was almost extinct, seems utterly groundless. To this or about this period antiquaries have attributed some of the most interesting remains of ancient sculpture that have reached our times. Amongst these may be noticed the well-known statue of the Hermaphrodite, at Paris ; the fine fragment called the Torso of the Belvedere, at Rome ; the Hercules, called the Farness, at Naples; end the statue called the Fighting Gladiator. To
these some have added the group called the Toro Earnest:, at Naples, representing Dirce, Zethus, and Amphiou with the bull, and even the group of Laocoon and his sons.
The fatal blow to the existence of the arta in Greece was given by the success of the Roman arms. Lucius Mummius had been sent by the senate against the Achteans. He engaged the Greek army near Corinth, the principal city of the famous Achican League, and com pletely defeated it. The city was immediately devoted to destruction, and sacked by the conquerors. The Romanis carried away from this celebrated seat of the arts, as well as from the other cities of Greece which fell into their hands, the greater part of the fine productions both in Fainting and sculpture, which had been accumulated for cen turies. These were forthwith transported as spoil to Rome, which became filled, for the first time, with the most splendid monuments of Grecian Mato and genius. This event occurred in the ]SSth Olympiad, or 146 a.c. Athens, which may be considered as the great centre of art, and the favourite asylum of the most distinguished artists of Greece, hail suffered a variety of fortune since the time of Pericles, when her glory may be said to have been at its zenith. Her political importance declined from about that period, but she still seems to have maintained a character as the abode of literature and of art long after her political influence was at an end. At length she was doomed to share, in full, the calamities and humiliations to which other Grecian cake had been subjected by the victories of the Romans. Having vainly enibityoureil to impede the progress of the Roman army into thvece, Athens had to submit to what she might fairly consider a barbarian conqueror. In the year 86 lac. she received as her master the haughty and unrelenting Sulk. The history of ancient sculpture in Greece may be said to close at this time. After the establishment of the Roman empire, the Greek. uo longer had either the higher Inducements or the mean. to carry on the exercise of the arta in what may be considered their native country ; and their professors were -driven to seek employment and an asylum among their conquerors.