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Praxiteles

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Praxiteles (IPA: [prækˈsɪtlˌiz]) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the greatest of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC, who has left an imperishable mark on the history of art.

Venus- Roman copy of Greek original by Praxiteles at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

It has been maintained by some writers that there were two sculptors of the name, one, a contemporary of Pheidias, the other, his more celebrated grandson. Though it is common in Greece for the same name to repeat every other generation, there is no certain evidence for either position.


Date

Accurate dates for Praxiteles are elusive. It seems clear that he was no longer working in the time of Alexander the Great, or that king would have employed him. Pliny's date, 364 BC, is probably that of one of his most noted works.

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.

Praxiteles and his school worked almost entirely in marble. At the time the marble 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 is made. 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

File:Hermes by Praxiteles.jpg
Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles

In 1911 the Encyclopaedia 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 in 1877 of his statue of Hermes with the Infant Dionysus, a statue which has become famous throughout the world."[1] Later opinions have varied, reaching a low with the sculptor Aristide Maillol, who railed "It's kitsch, it's frightful, it's sculpted in soap from Marseille".[2] In 1948 Carl Blümel published it in a monograph as The Hermes of a Praxiteles[3], reversing his earlier (1927) opinion that it was a Roman copy, finding it not fourth century either but referring it instead to a Hellenistic sculptor, a younger Praxiteles of Pergamon.[4]

The sculpture was located where Pausanias had seen it in the late second century CE[5]Hermes is represented as 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, C. Waldstein noted in 1882, remarking that Hermes looks past the child, "the clearest and most manifest outward sign of inward dreaming."[6]

Opposing arguments have been made that the statue is a copy by a Roman copyist.[7] Since the Romans adopted much of Greek culture and art this is a possibility. Mary Wallace suggested a second-century date and a Pergamene origin on the basis of the sandal type.[8] 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

As with the 'Hermes and Dionysus', gracefulness in repose, and an indefinable charm are also the attributes of works in museums which appear to be copies of statues by Praxiteles. Perhaps the most notable of these are the Apollo Sauroktonus, or the lizard-slayer, a youth leaning against a tree and idly striking with an arrow at a lizard (Louvre Museum), and the Aphrodite of Knidos at the museums of The Vatican, which is a copy of the statue made by Praxiteles for the people of Cnidus, and by them valued so highly that they refused to sell it to King Nicomedes, who was willing in return to discharge the whole debt of the city, which, says Pliny, was enormous.

On June 22, 2004, the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), announced the acquisition of an ancient bronze sculpture of Apollo Sauroktonos, believed to be the only near-complete original work by Praxiteles. The dating and attribution of the sculpture will continue to be studied, the museum noted. This piece 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.

Capitoline Satyr

The Satyr of the Capitol at Rome has commonly been regarded as a copy of one of the Satyrs of Praxiteles; but we cannot identify it in the list of his works. Moreover, the style is hard and poor; a far superior replica exists in a torso in the Louvre. The attitude and character of the work are certainly of Praxitelean school.

Leto, Apollo and Artemis

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, I) thus describes the base, "on the base which supports the statues there are sculptured the Muses and Marsyas playing the flutes (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.

'Aphrodite' and 'Head of Hermes'

A head of Aphrodite at Petworth in England, and a head of Hermes in the British Museum, have been claimed by authorities as actual works of Praxiteles. Both are charming works, but seem rather by the successors of Praxiteles than by himself.

Roman copies

Besides these works, connected with Praxiteles on definite evidence, there are in our museums works without number of the Roman age, statues of Hermes, of Dionysus, of Aphrodite of Satyrs and Nymphs and the like, in which a varied amount of Praxitelean style may be discerned.

Praxitelean style

Five points of composition may be mentioned, which appear to be in origin Praxitelean, however these points cannot prove to be conclusive.

  1. a very flexible line divides the figures if drawn down the midst from top to bottom; they all tend to be lounging
  2. they are adapted to front and back view rather than to be seen from one side or the other
  3. trees, drapery, and the like are used for supports to the marble figures, and are included in the design instead of being extraneous to it
  4. the faces are presented in three-quarter view.
  5. the statue was found on the same site on which Pausanias described it

References

  1. ^ "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 and other ancient critics." (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911.
  2. ^ "C'est pompier, c'est affreux, c'est sculpté du savon de Marseille"
  3. ^ Blümel, Der Hermes eine Praxiteles (Baden-Baden) 1948.
  4. ^ Rhys Carpenter dismissed this Praxiteles as a phantom.
  5. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.17.3 refers to the stone sculpture as techne of Praxiteles
  6. ^ C. Waldstein, "Hermes with the Infant Dionysos. Bronze Statuette in the Louvre." The Journal of Hellenic Studies 3 (1882), (pp. 107-110) p 108.
  7. '^ The career of the Olympia Hermes reputation was summed up by R. E. Wycherley, "Pausanias and Praxiteles" Hesperia Supplements 20 (Studies in Athenian Architecture, Sculpture and Topography. Presented to Homer A. Thompson, 1982), pp. 182-191. Wycherley's advice was to trust to the judgment of Pausanias in this matter.
  8. ^ "Sutor supra Crepidam" A.J.A 44 (1940) pp 366-67.
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

See also

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