DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0463
PRAXITELES- A21
CHAPTER XXXVI.
PRAXITELES.
01. 104-110 (B.C. 364-340).
PRAXITELES, who is generally considered as the greatest in the se-
cond triumvirate of Greek sculpture, was in all probability the son of
Ccphisodotus, and born in the Attic Demc Eresidce, at the end of
the fifth century B.C.' Pausanias2 says that he flourished in the
third generation after Alcamenes, and Pliny places his prime in the
years 364-360 B.C. We have, indeed, no fixed dates from any period
of his life, but there is good reason for believing that his first works
were executed about 01. 100 (B.C. 380), and that he was therefore a
younger contemporary of his chief rival in fame, Scopas, by about
four Olympiads.3 His first teacher was his own father, Ccphisodotus,
who, as we have seen, was a worker in bronze ; but he was early
associated with Scopas, who exercised great influence over him, and
drew him away from bronze to marble, in which material his greatest
works were executed.
We had occasion to remark above how very little notice is
taken of Scopas by ancient writers, considering the high merit of
his works. The very opposite ma)' be said of Praxiteles. His name
1 Some German write! s, on the rather
slender ground of a passage in Pausanias (v.
20. 2), have endowed Praxiteles wi'h a grand-
father of the same name. The existence of
a younger Praxiteles, a contemporary of
Theocritus, is sufficiently attested by two
inscriptions, and it is to him that the lately
discovered ' Hermes with the infant Diony-
sos ' in Olympia was liy some erroneously
referred. See W. Klein, Anhaco!. ,/r,r.
Mittheii. aus Oaternich, iv. p. I. Conf.
Brrrnn, Sitzung d. Kon. baicr. Acad, Nov. 6
1SS0.
■ nil 9. 1.
3 It seems probable that he lived to see
Alexander on the throne of Macedon ; for
this artist's favourite, Phryne, offered to
rebuild the walls of Thebes which Alexander
had destroyed for the honour of placing her
name upon them (Athen.eus, xiii. p. e<3.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
PRAXITELES.
01. 104-110 (B.C. 364-340).
PRAXITELES, who is generally considered as the greatest in the se-
cond triumvirate of Greek sculpture, was in all probability the son of
Ccphisodotus, and born in the Attic Demc Eresidce, at the end of
the fifth century B.C.' Pausanias2 says that he flourished in the
third generation after Alcamenes, and Pliny places his prime in the
years 364-360 B.C. We have, indeed, no fixed dates from any period
of his life, but there is good reason for believing that his first works
were executed about 01. 100 (B.C. 380), and that he was therefore a
younger contemporary of his chief rival in fame, Scopas, by about
four Olympiads.3 His first teacher was his own father, Ccphisodotus,
who, as we have seen, was a worker in bronze ; but he was early
associated with Scopas, who exercised great influence over him, and
drew him away from bronze to marble, in which material his greatest
works were executed.
We had occasion to remark above how very little notice is
taken of Scopas by ancient writers, considering the high merit of
his works. The very opposite ma)' be said of Praxiteles. His name
1 Some German write! s, on the rather
slender ground of a passage in Pausanias (v.
20. 2), have endowed Praxiteles wi'h a grand-
father of the same name. The existence of
a younger Praxiteles, a contemporary of
Theocritus, is sufficiently attested by two
inscriptions, and it is to him that the lately
discovered ' Hermes with the infant Diony-
sos ' in Olympia was liy some erroneously
referred. See W. Klein, Anhaco!. ,/r,r.
Mittheii. aus Oaternich, iv. p. I. Conf.
Brrrnn, Sitzung d. Kon. baicr. Acad, Nov. 6
1SS0.
■ nil 9. 1.
3 It seems probable that he lived to see
Alexander on the throne of Macedon ; for
this artist's favourite, Phryne, offered to
rebuild the walls of Thebes which Alexander
had destroyed for the honour of placing her
name upon them (Athen.eus, xiii. p. e<3.