Praxiteles

Greek sculptor

• Born: c. 370 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Athens, Greece
• Died: c. 330 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Unknown

The subtle expression of personal emotions, such as tenderness and laziness, through marble statuary is the trademark of Praxiteles. His most famous work, a rendering of the Aphrodite of Knidos, established Western civilization’s standard of perfection in the female figure.

Early Life

Although very little is known of his early life, Praxiteles (prak-SIHT-uhl-eez) came from a long line of Greek sculptors. His grandfather and father were both sculptors, as were his two sons and perhaps a nephew. At least seven of the line were also named Praxiteles.

Praxiteles’ father was the Athenian sculptor Kephisodotos (sometimes spelled Cephisodotus), whose most famous sculpture is titled Peace and Wealth. The original statue, which was probably erected soon after Athens’s victory over Sparta in 375 b.c.e., depicts a mother, the goddess Peace, fondly holding her infant son, Wealth. The tenderness of the mother and the playfulness of the child display a marked departure from earlier Greek statues, which expressed such public virtues as courage and honor. Also, the subject, a family scene, is very different from the usual subjects of Olympian gods and heroic humans. Praxiteles carried on and far surpassed the subtler, intimate tradition established by his father.

In addition to Peace and Wealth, Kephisodotos carved another statue, Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus, which had a more direct effect on the son. Kephisodotos’s Hermes and Praxiteles’ Hermes share both subject matter and arrangement. Although the original is lost, the fact that there are several Roman copies attests the popularity of Kephisodotos’s statue. On the other hand, most historians agree that the Hermes found in the Olympia excavations is indeed the original work of the son. Fortunately, the condition of the statue is quite good, as it is missing only the right forearm and the two legs below the knee. Because the Hermes is the most muscular of Praxiteles’ known statues, it is probably an early work. The smooth, sensuous young men appear to belong to a later period, during which Praxiteles was sculpting his famous female figures.

No statues of Praxiteles can be dated with absolute certainty, but his major works were carved between about 370 and 330. Early, dated works include portions of the Altar of Artemis at Ephesus, which was begun around 356, and the Artemis at Brauron, around 346.

Life’s Work

Although ancient writers mention almost sixty works by Praxiteles, the surviving originals include only three heads and the major portion of one statue, the aforementioned Hermes. The Hermes was found on May 8, 1877, at the temple of Hera at Olympia. In Greek legend, Hermes, the messenger of the gods, is charged with taking young Dionysus back to the nymphs of Crete. Dionysus is a great embarrassment to Zeus, as the baby is the result of Zeus’s indiscretion with a human woman. In banishing Dionysus to Crete, Zeus hopes to escape the jealousy of his wife, Hera. In Praxiteles’ conception, the statue is a masterpiece of psychological complexity. Hermes, gazing tenderly at the young god, is clearly in no hurry to leave Olympus. Leaning lightly against a tree, he has placed the babe in his left arm and amuses himself by dangling in his right hand something, probably a bunch of grapes, for Dionysus. The fact that the infant Dionysus, who is eagerly grabbing at the grapes, will grow up to be the god of wine and intoxication is evidence of Praxiteles’ urbane sense of humor.

Another statue that illustrates the Praxitelean sense of humor is the Apollo Sauroctonos, or Lizard Slayer. Here Praxiteles makes fun of the Greek legend in which the fierce young sun god Apollo slays Pythus, a fire-breathing dragon, in order to win control of Delphi. Leaning dreamily against a tree trunk and holding an arrow in his right hand, Praxiteles’ Apollo seems to have barely enough energy to swat an everyday lizard that is climbing up the trunk. While the original bronze statue is lost, reproductions occur on the coins of several city-states and in several Roman replicas, notably a marble statue in the Louvre and one in the Vatican.

Related to the Lizard Slayer in stance is the Satyr. Both statues bear Praxiteles’ personal stamp. In fifth century statuary, satyrs were savage half-goat, half-man beasts with large tails and devilish eyes. Praxiteles’ satyr is instead a strong and active youth with pointed ears and a small stub of a tail. There is in his face, however, a strong sensual expression that suggests that some of the old animal instinct still lingers.

The original Satyr of Praxiteles, which stood in a temple of Dionysus at Athens, was a favorite collector’s piece among the Romans, as more than seventy copies still exist. One of the best is the copy in the Capitol Museum in Rome. It is this statue that Nathaniel Hawthorne saw in 1858 and that inspired him to write his novel The Marble Faun (1860). Hawthorne, intrigued by the possibility of a real man who actually embodied all the characteristics he saw in the faun, or satyr, created a character whose combination of total innocence and animalistic instincts made him unprepared to exist in the real world. The Louvre has a fragmentary version of the Satyr, but the execution of that statue is generally considered to be quite good. A few writers have theorized that it might be the original. Although the Satyr in the Capitol is complete, it is clearly a Roman copy.

Evidence that the Satyr was one of Praxiteles’ personal favorites is related by the ancient historian Pausanias. According to the story, Phryne, Praxiteles’ mistress, asked for the most beautiful of the sculptor’s works. Praxiteles agreed, but he refused to say which one of his works he thought the most beautiful. Phryne secretly arranged for one of her slaves to run in and declare that Praxiteles’ studio was on fire. On hearing the news, Praxiteles ran for the door, claiming that all of his labor was lost if the flames had taken the Satyr and Eros.

Phryne chose the Eros, god of love, and gave it to her native town of Thespiae in Boeotia. This statue made Thespiae famous. Unfortunately, the very popularity of the statue may have led to its destruction. Pausanias explains that the Roman emperor Caligula took it, but when Claudius I assumed power, he restored the sacred statue to Thespiae. Then Emperor Nero took it away a second time. Pausanias believes that the Eros eventually perished by fire in Rome. On the other hand, some art historians theorize that the Eros of Thespiae may survive in a headless statue that was excavated from the Palatine in Rome and is now held in the Louvre. Others have speculated that a torso in the Museum of Parma may, in fact, be the original.

What is certain is that the Eros once more illustrates Praxiteles’ distinctive style. As Greek legend developed over the centuries, the character of Eros grew younger. In his poem Theogonia (c. 700 b.c.e.; Theogony, 1728), Hesiod describes Eros as one of the oldest gods. In that version, Eros comes into existence before Aphrodite and even accompanies her at her birth from the sea to Mount Olympus. After Praxiteles, third century artists would conceive of Eros as the child of, rather than the companion to, Aphrodite. Eventually, the child becomes a mischievous, winged baby, the Cupid on a Valentine’s Day card. In the Praxitelean conception, Eros stands between those surface interpretations. He is a delicate, dreamy youth, symbolizing the power of love to capture the soul, a fitting gift from the artist to his mistress.

All the works thus far discussed have been statues depicting male figures. However, it is Praxiteles’ conception of the female form for which he is best known and most admired. His most celebrated work was the Aphrodite of Knidos, for which Phryne was the model. About 360, the city of Kos commissioned the sculptor to carve an Aphrodite, but the citizens were scandalized when they found that their statue of Aphrodite was nude. Praxiteles then made a clothed goddess of love, but the city of Knidos (sometimes spelled Knidus or Cnidus) was delighted to buy the nude Aphrodite. It was an enormously popular statue. Tourists came from all over the Mediterranean region to see the work of Parian marble, and Pliny the Elder pronounced it the finest statue yet made in Greece. King Nicomedes of Bithynia offered to buy the statue and in return excuse the city’s huge public debt, but the Knidians refused. A number of ancient poets composed verses honoring the statue; the legend has it that men were crazed with desire on viewing it.

The statue, which is thought to have been the first freestanding female nude, was put in an open shrine so that the goddess could be seen and admired from all sides. Aphrodite stands in a graceful pose, one hand held in front of her, the other grasping her drapery, which falls on a water jar. The goddess is represented at the moment that she steps into her bath. Her gaze is turned to the left, supposedly to see an intruder. Only her right hand makes any effort to cover up, and the slight smile displays a hint of welcome.

Reproductions of the Aphrodite are found on Roman coins of Knidos as well as in small, practically complete statuettes. The best replicas of the head are those in the Louvre and in Toulouse. Full-sized Roman copies exist in the Vatican, Brussels, and Munich museums, the most-often photographed and reprinted one being the Vatican version.

As a result of the Aphrodite of Knidos and other sculptures of Aphrodite by Praxiteles, the nude female figure became one of the most common forms of statuary, but the goddess was increasingly portrayed as a mortal. One example is the statue titled Venus of Medici, which may have been carved by Kephisodotos and Timarchos, the sons of Praxiteles. Here the magnificent Praxitelean ideal woman has been transformed into a mere coquette.

Significance

Coming from a long line of sculptors, Praxiteles stands at the climax of a family of distinguished artists. Inspired by his father’s softer, subtler treatment of subjects that the fifth century artists had treated with monumental but impersonal dignity, Praxiteles imbued statues with psychological complexities that give his work its universal appeal. The fleet-footed Hermes pauses for a moment of tenderness, the infant Dionysus turns greedy, the mature Eros becomes a sensual young man, and the heroic Apollo loses his fighting spirit so that he seems to lack the energy even to engage in lizard slaying, a popular Mediterranean boy’s sport.

The crowning achievement of Praxiteles’ work is his series of Aphrodites, especially the famous nude that he sold to the Knidians. The fifth century sculptors tended to carve nude males and clothed females. For example, the Peace by Kephisodotos is weighted down with heavy drapery. Praxiteles’ female nude created a sensation and a whole new style of artistic expression. The intricately worked hair, the finely chiseled facial features with their play of emotions, and the perfectly proportioned body of the Aphrodite of Knidos set the standard for female beauty. Although Praxiteles did not invent the concept of a statue’s standing free in order to be seen in a three-dimensional space, the success of the Aphrodite’s backside (her dimpled buttocks were especially admired) inspired other artists to carve freestanding nude females also.

Another Praxitelean innovation, although certainly not an invention, was the expanded employment of the S-curve, or contrapposto, for the body outline, which allows for a more natural, animated stance. The S-curve allows the Apollo Sauroktonos to lean casually against his tree trunk and the Hermes to hold the babe in one arm while he raises the other arm over his head.

Also, the surface of Praxitelean statues was technically outstanding. Ancient writers who saw the original, painted statues remarked that the body surfaces were smoothly polished and that the modeling of the hair was particularly realistic. Unfortunately, the Hermes is the only fairly complete work that can be taken to be an original, and many historians and archaeologists dispute even that attribution. It is so far superior to any of the Roman copies of other works by Praxiteles that the more admired original statues must have been exquisite indeed.

The many facets of Praxiteles’ work meant that his work was difficult to copy accurately. While many contemporaries and the sculptors of the third and second centuries were able to capture the outward forms of the statues, they were unable to evoke the complex human emotions. The effect of the Praxitelean style in the hands of inferior artists seems to be merely mannered and elegant.

Bibliography

Boardman, John. Greek Art. Rev. ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996. Regarded as a standard work in the field of classical art, this book provides an overview of the masterpieces of ancient Greece as well as commentary on recent discoveries and controversies of interpretation surrounding the world’s best-known works of art and architecture.

Furtwängler, Adolf. Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture. Edited by A. L. N. Oikonomides. Chicago: Argonaut, 1964. Takes a close look at the original monuments in order to reevaluate generally held theories of attribution and dating.

Kjellberg, Ernst, and Gösta Säflund. Greek and Roman Art: 3000 B.C. to A.D. 550. Translated by Peter Fraser. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970. Catalogs all the major examples of the Greek and Roman art forms. Dates, sizes, and describes included works.

Paris, Pierre. Manual of Ancient Sculpture. Edited by Jane E. Harrison. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Aristide D. Caratzas, 1984. A chapter on Scopas and Praxiteles discusses the works of both sculptors at length. Of particular interest is a reproduction of the Aphrodite of Knidos seen on a Knidian coin.

Pollitt, J. J. Art and Experience in Classical Greece. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Focuses on the period between c. 480 and 323 b.c.e. and seeks to integrate art styles with historical experience. Particularly useful in describing the emotional states depicted in various statues by Praxiteles.

Richter, Gisela. A Handbook of Greek Art. Oxford, England: Phaidon, 1987. For many years curator of Greek and Roman art in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Richter presents one of the most authoritative accounts of Greek architecture and sculpture. Traces the historical evolution of Greek sculpture and adds biographical information wherever possible. Includes extensive bibliography and lucid chronology.

Richter, Gisela. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks. Rev. ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1970. Contains a consecutive, chronological study of the human figure, drapery, and composition. Includes extensive footnotes and bibliography.

Waldenstein, Charles. “Praxiteles and the Hermes with the Infant Dionysus.” In The Art of Pheidias. Washington, D.C.: McGrath, 1973. Originally published only seven years after the discovery of the Hermes, this article contains an in-depth study of the state of the statue when it was first excavated, its importance to the Greeks for whom it was carved, and its relation to other sculptors’ versions of the messenger god.