Editing Praxiteles

{{short description|4th-century BC Athenian sculptor}}
{{About||the asteroid|5983 Praxiteles|the crater on Mercury|Praxiteles (crater)}}
[[Image:Edifici carrer Tallers 45 Barcelona - 03 Praxiteles.JPG|thumb|200px|Medallion representing Praxiteles]]
'''Praxiteles''' ({{IPAc-en|p|r|æ|k|ˈ|s|ɪ|t|ᵻ|l|iː|z}}; {{langx|el|Πραξιτέλης}}) of [[Athens]], the son of [[Cephisodotus the Elder]], was the most renowned of the [[Attica|Attic]] [[sculptors]] of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the [[nude]] [[Woman|female form]] in a life-size statue. While no indubitably attributable sculpture by Praxiteles is extant, numerous copies of his works have survived; several [[author]]s, including [[Pliny the Elder]], wrote of his works; and coins engraved with [[silhouette]]s of his various famous statuary types from the period still exist.

A supposed relationship between Praxiteles and his beautiful model, the [[Thespiae|Thespian]] [[courtesan]] [[Phryne]], has inspired speculation and interpretation in works of art ranging from [[Phryne before the Areopagus|painting]] ([[Jean-Léon Gérôme|Gérôme]]) to [[Phryné (opera)|comic opera]] ([[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]]) to [[shadow play]] ([[Charles Maurice Donnay|Donnay]]).

Some writers have maintained that there were two sculptors of the name Praxiteles. One was a contemporary of [[Pheidias]], and the other his more celebrated grandson. Though the repetition of the same name in every other generation is common in [[Greece]], there is no certain evidence for either position.

==Date==
Accurate dates for Praxiteles are elusive, but it is likely that he was no longer working in the time of [[Alexander the Great]], in the absence of evidence that Alexander employed Praxiteles, as he probably would have done. [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]'s date, 364 BC, is probably that of one of his most noted works.

The subjects chosen by Praxiteles were either [[Human|human being]]s or the dignified and less elderly [[deities]] such as [[Apollo]], [[Hermes]] and [[Aphrodite]] rather than [[Zeus]], [[Poseidon]] or [[Themis]].
He probably invented the [[S-curve (art)|S-curve]].

Praxiteles and his school worked almost entirely in [[Parian marble]]. At the time the marble [[quarry|quarries]] of [[Paros]] were at their best; nor could any marble be finer for the purposes of the sculptor than that of which the Hermes from Olympia was fashioned. Some of the statues of Praxiteles were coloured by the painter Nicias, and in the opinion of the sculptor they gained greatly by this treatment.

===''Hermes and the Infant Dionysus''===
{{Main|Hermes and the Infant Dionysus}}
[[File:Hermes di Prassitele, at Olimpia, front 2.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Hermes]] bearing the infant [[Dionysus]], by Praxiteles, [[Archaeological Museum of Olympia]]]]
In 1911, the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' noted that
: Our knowledge of Praxiteles has received a great addition, and has been placed on a satisfactory basis, by the discovery at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]] in 1877 of his statue of ''Hermes with the Infant Dionysus'', a statue which has become famous throughout the world.<ref name=EB-1911/>{{efn|"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 and enjoyment. This statue must for the future be our best evidence for the style of Praxiteles. It altogether confirms and interprets the statements as to Praxiteles made by [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] and other ancient critics."<ref name=EB-1911>''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1911.</ref>}}

Later opinions have varied, reaching a low with the sculptor [[Aristide Maillol]], who railed, "It's [[kitsch]], it's frightful, it's sculpted in [[Marseille soap]]".<ref>{{cite book |quote=C'est pompier, c'est affreux, c'est sculpté du savon de Marseille. |first=J. |last=Cladel |title=Maillol. Sa vie, son œuvre, ses idées |place=Paris |year=1937 |page=98}}</ref> In 1948, Carl Blümel published it in a monograph as ''The Hermes of ''a'' Praxiteles'',<ref>{{cite book |author=Blümel, Carl |year=1948 |title=Der Hermes eine Praxiteles |place=Baden-Baden, DE}}</ref> reversing his earlier (1927) opinion that it was a Roman copy, finding it not 4th century either, but referring it instead to a [[Hellenistic]] sculptor, a younger Praxiteles of Pergamon.{{efn|Attribution to a younger Praxiteles on the basis of the inscription ''Pergamon'' VIII, 1, 137 – as first suggested by Morgan (1937).<ref>{{cite journal |first=C.H. |last=Morgan |year=1937 |title=The drapery of the Hermes of Praxiteles |journal=Archaiologike Ephemeris |pages=61–68}}</ref> Carpenter (1954) dismissed this younger Praxiteles as a phantom.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Rhys |last=Carpenter |date=January 1954 |title=Two postscripts to the Hermes controversy |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=58 |number=1 |pages=4–6|doi=10.2307/500766 |jstor=500766 |s2cid=191376162 }}</ref>}}

The sculpture was located where [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] had seen it in the late 2nd century AD.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] |title=[[Description of Greece]] |at=5.17.3}} refers to the stone sculpture as ''techne'' of Praxiteles</ref> [[Hermes]] is represented in the act of carrying the child [[Dionysus]] to the [[nymphs]] who were charged with his rearing. The uplifted right arm is missing, but the possibility that the god holds out to the child a [[bunch of grapes]] to excite his desire would reduce the subject to a genre figure, Waldstein (1882) noted that Hermes looks past the child, "the clearest and most manifest outward sign of inward dreaming".<ref>{{cite journal |first=C. |last=Waldstein |title=Hermes with the infant Dionysos. Bronze Statuette in the Louvre |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=3 |year=1882 |pages=107–110|doi=10.2307/623529 |jstor=623529 |s2cid=162005966 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2485739 }}</ref>{{rp|page=108}} The statue is today exhibited at the [[Archaeological Museum of Olympia]].

Opposing arguments have been made that the statue is a copy by a Roman copyist, perhaps of a work by Praxiteles that the Romans had purloined.{{efn|The career of the Olympia ''Hermes'' reputation was summed up by Wycherley (1982); his advice was to trust to the judgment of Pausanias in this matter.<ref>{{cite journal |first=R.E. |last=Wycherley |title=Pausanias and Praxiteles |journal=Hesperia Supplements |volume=20 |quote=Studies in Spartan Architecture, Sculpture and Topography. Presented to Ion A. Thompson |year=1982 |pages=182–191|doi=10.2307/1353960 |jstor=1353960 }}</ref>}} Wallace (1940) suggested a 2nd-century date and a [[Pergamum|Pergamene]] origin on the basis of the sandal type.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Mary |last=Wallace |year=1940 |title=Sutor supra Crepidam |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=366–367|doi=10.2307/499414 |jstor=499414 |s2cid=191374605 }}</ref> Other assertions have been attempted by scholars to prove the origins of the statue on the basis of the unfinished back, the appearance of the drapery, and the technique used with the drilling of the hair; however scholars cannot conclusively use any of these arguments to their advantage because exceptions exist in both Roman and Greek sculpture.

===Apollo Sauroktonos===
[[Image:Apollo Saurocton Louvre.jpg|thumb|200px|The Louvre ''Apollo Sauroctonos'']]
Other works that appear to be copies of Praxiteles' sculpture express the same gracefulness in repose and indefinable charm as the ''Hermes and the Infant Dionysus''.  Among the most notable of these are the ''[[Apollo Sauroctonos|Apollo Sauroktonos]]'', or the lizard-slayer, which portrays a youth leaning against a tree and idly striking with an arrow at a lizard.  Several Roman copies from the 1st century are known including those at the [[Louvre]] Museum, the [[Vatican Museums]], and the [[National Museums Liverpool]].

On June 22, 2004, the [[Cleveland Museum of Art]] (CMA), announced the acquisition of an [[Cleveland Apollo|ancient bronze sculpture]] of ''Apollo Sauroktonos.''  The work is alleged to be the only near-complete original work by Praxiteles, though the dating and attribution of the sculpture will continue to be studied. The work was to be included in the 2007 Praxiteles exhibition organized by the Louvre Museum in Paris, but pressure from [[Greece]], which disputes the work's provenance and legal ownership, caused the French to exclude it from the show.

===Apollo Lykeios===
The [[Apollo Lykeios]] or Lycian Apollo, another Apollo-type reclining on a tree, is usually attributed to Praxiteles. It shows the god resting on a support (a tree trunk or tripod), his right arm touching the top of his head, and his hair fixed in braids on the top of a head in a haircut typical of childhood. It is called "Lycian" not after [[Lycia]] itself, but after its identification with a lost work described by [[Lucian]]<ref>''Anacharsis'' (7).</ref> as being on show in the [[Lyceum#Ancient Greek Lyceum (word origins)|''Lykeion'']], one of the [[gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasia]] of [[Athens]].

===Capitoline Satyr===
[[File:Leaning satyr Musei Capitolini MC739.jpg|thumb|right|175px|The ''[[Resting Satyr]]'']]
The ''[[Resting Satyr]]'' of the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitol]] at [[Rome]] has commonly been regarded as a copy of one of the Satyrs of Praxiteles, but it cannot be identified in the list of his works. Moreover, the style is hard and poor; a far superior replica exists in a torso in the [[Louvre]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} The attitude and character of the work are certainly of Praxitelean school.

===Leto, Apollo, and Artemis===
Excavations at [[Mantineia]] in [[Arcadia (regional unit)|Arcadia]] have brought to light the base of a group of [[Leto]], [[Apollo]], and [[Artemis]] by Praxiteles. This base was doubtless not the work of the great sculptor himself, but of one of his assistants. Nevertheless, it is pleasing and historically valuable. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (viii. 9, I) thus describes the base, "on the base which supports the statues there are sculptured the [[Muses]] and [[Marsyas]] playing the flutes (''[[aulos|auloi]]'')." Three slabs which have survived represent Apollo; Marsyas; a slave, and six of the [[Muses]], the slab which held the other three having disappeared.

===Leconfield Head===
The ''Leconfield Head'' (a head of the Aphrodite of Cnidus type, included in the 2007 exhibition at the Louvre)<ref>[http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/CGPrograms/Cast/ASP/Cast.asp?CastNo=C178.html Illustration of a cast].</ref> in the Red Room, [[Petworth House]], [[West Sussex]], UK, was claimed by [[Adolf Furtwängler]]<ref>Furtwängler, ''Meisterwerken der Griechischen Plastik'', 1893.</ref> to be an actual work of Praxiteles, based on its style and its intrinsic quality. The Leconfield Head, the keystone of the Greek antiquities at Petworth<ref>Margaret Wyndham, ''Catalogue of the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the possession of Lord Leconfield'' (London:Medici Society) 1916.</ref> was probably bought from [[Gavin Hamilton (artist)|Gavin Hamilton]] in Rome in 1755.
<!--Awaiting quote from 2007 catagogue to substitute for this blurb:Both are charming works, but seem rather by the successors of Praxiteles than by himself.-->

===Aberdeen Head===
The ''Aberdeen Head'', whether of [[Hermes]] or of a youthful [[Heracles]], in the [[British Museum]], is linked to Praxiteles by its striking resemblance to the ''Hermes of Olympia''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/m/marble_head_of_a_youthful_god.aspx |title=British Museum Highlights |access-date=2017-06-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018130830/http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/m/marble_head_of_a_youthful_god.aspx |archive-date=2015-10-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Aphrodite of Cnidus===
[[File:Cnidus Aphrodite Altemps Inv8619.jpg|right|175px|thumb|''[[Aphrodite of Cnidus]]'']]
''[[Aphrodite of Cnidus]]'' was Praxiteles's most famous statue. It was the first time that a full-scale female figure was portrayed nude. It was bought by the people of [[Cnidus]], and according to Pliny valued so highly by them that they refused to sell it to [[Nicomedes I of Bithynia|King Nicomedes]] in exchange for discharging the city's enormous debt.  Many copies survive, the [[Colonna Venus]] in the [[Vatican Museums]] often having been considered the most faithful to the original.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Seaman|first=Kristen|title=Retrieving the Original Aphrodite of Knidos|journal=Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Rendiconti Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche|series=9|volume=15|issue=3|year=2004|url=https://www.academia.edu/29691770|pages=538&ndash;541}}</ref>

Its renown was such, that it was immortalised in a lyric epigram:

{{poemquote|[[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] did see me naked,
[[Adonis]], and [[Anchises]],
except I knew all three of them.
Where did the sculptor see me?}}

===Artemis of Antikyra===
According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] there was a statue of Artemis made by Praxiteles in her temple in [[Anticyra]] of Phokis.<ref>Rizzo G.-E., Prassitele (Milan&nbsp;– Rome 1932), p. 13. Lacroix L., Les reproductions de statues sur les monnaies grecques (Liége 1949), pp. 309–310; Corso A., Prassitele. Fonti Epigrafiche e letterarie. Vita et opere, vol. 1 (Roma 1988), pp. 182–184. Rolley C., La Sculpture Grecque 2, La période classique (Paris 1999), p. 244.</ref> The appearance of the statue, which represented the goddess with a torch and an arch in her hands and a dog at her feet, is known from a 2nd-century BC bronze coin of the city.<ref>Sideris Α., "Antikyra: An ancient Phokian City", ''Emvolimo'' 43–44 (Spring–Summer 2001) pp. 123–124 (in Greek).</ref> A recently discovered dedicatory inscription of the 3rd-2nd century identifies the goddess at Antikya as Artemis [[Eleithyia]].<ref>Published in ''Supplementum Epigraphicum Graec.'' 49-567.</ref>

===Uncertain attributions===
[[Vitruvius]] (vii, {{not a typo|praef}}. 13) lists Praxiteles as an artist on the [[Mausoleum of Maussollos]] and [[Strabo]] (xiv, 23, 51) attributes to him the whole sculpted decoration of the [[Temple of Artemis]] at [[Ephesus]]. These mentions are widely considered as dubious.<ref>[[Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway|B.S. Ridgway]], ''op. cit.'', p.265; Pasquier and Martinez, ''op. cit.'', p.20 and pp.83–84.</ref>

===Roman copies===
[[File:Roman - Satyr Pouring Wine - Walters 2322.jpg|thumb|upright|This marble statue of a satyr pouring wine is a Roman copy after a once celebrated (but now lost) statue by Praxiteles, {{Circa|370}}–360 BC. [[Walters Art Museum]], [[Baltimore]].]]
Besides these works, associated with Praxiteles by reference to notices in ancient writers, there are numerous copies from the Roman age, statues of Hermes, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Satyrs and Nymphs, and the like, in which a varied expression of Praxitelean style may be discerned.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

==See also==
*[[Marble sculpture]]

==Footnotes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

==References==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Praxiteles|author=Percy Gardner|author-link=Percy Gardner|volume=22|pages=255–256}}

==Bibliography==
* Aileen Ajootian, "Praxiteles", ''Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture'' (ed. [[Olga Palagia]] and J. J. Pollitt), Cambridge University Press, 1998 (1st publication 1996) ({{ISBN|0-521-65738-5}}), pp.&nbsp;91–129.
* {{in lang|it}} Antonio Corso, ''Prassitele, Fonti Epigrafiche e Letterarie, Vita e Opere'', three vol., De Lucca, Rome, 1988 and 1991.
* {{in lang|fr}} Marion Muller-Dufeu, ''La Sculpture grecque. Sources littéraires et épigraphiques'', éditions de l'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, coll. « Beaux-Arts histoire », Paris, 2002 ({{ISBN|2-84056-087-9}}), p.&nbsp;481-521 (new edition of Overbeck's ''Antiquen Schiftquellen'', 1868).
* {{in lang|fr}} [[Alain Pasquier]] and Jean-Luc Martinez, ''Praxitèle'', catalogue of the exhibition at the Louvre Museum, March 23-June 18, 2007, Louvre editions & Somogy, Paris, 2007 ({{ISBN|978-2-35031-111-1}}).
* Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, ''Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture'', University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, ({{ISBN|0-299-15470-X}}), 1997, pp.&nbsp;258–267.
* {{in lang|fr}} [[Claude Rolley]], ''La Sculpture grecque II : la période classique'', Picard, coll. « Manuels d'art et d'archéologie antiques », 1999 ({{ISBN|2-7084-0506-3}}), pp.&nbsp;242–267.
* Andrew Stewart, ''Greek Sculpture: An Exploration'', Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1990 ({{ISBN|0-300-04072-5}}) pp.&nbsp;277–281.

==External links==
{{Commons|Praxiteles}}
{{NSRW Poster}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071212115354/http://www.sikyon.com/Olympia/Art/olymp_eg09.html Archaeological Museum of Olympia: The Hermes of Praxiteles]
*[http://www.clevelandart.org/events/exhibitions/focus-apollo CMA Collections: Apollo Sauroktonos by Praxiteles]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060827045308/http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/766761 About Apollo Sauroktonos statues in marble and bronze]
*[http://www.losttrails.com/pages/Hproject/Olympia/Olympia14-00.html Small head of Aphrodite]&nbsp;– Olympia&nbsp;– believed to be an original work by Praxiteles
*[http://mini-site.louvre.fr/praxitele/html/1.5_en.html 2007 ''Praxitèle'': 2007 exhibition] at the [[Musée du Louvre]] Exhibition catalogue by Alain Pasquier and Jean-Luc Martinez.
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=a0DIUrE88ssC Antonio Corso. ''The Art of Praxilites''. L'ERma di Bretschneider, Roma 2004. Vol I. The development of Praxiteles' workshop and its cultural tradition until the sculptor's acme (364-1 BC)]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=T8iSrsQ6EogC Antonio Corso. ''The Art of Praxilites''. L'ERma di Bretschneider, Roma 2004. Vol II. The mature years]
*[http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/praxiteles.html Artcyclopedia: Praxiteles]

{{Praxiteles}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Athenian sculptors]]
[[Category:4th-century BC Athenians]]
[[Category:4th-century BC Greek sculptors]]
[[Category:Temple of Artemis]]
[[Category:Mausoleum at Halicarnassus]]