Six Greek sculptors / by Ernest A. Gardner.

  • Ernest Arthur Gardner
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Six Greek sculptors / by Ernest A. Gardner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to Praxiteles the composition of his Hermes; we have, indeed, a more direct anticipation in a Hermes nursing the Infant Dionysus, which Pliny attributes to Cephiso- dotus, if we are to trust Pliny’s statement; but it is possible the compiler may have confused some reference to the two works. In any case, Praxiteles has made the subject his own by the freshness and originality of his treatment. And what is true of the composition and subject is true also of the proportions of the body and the character of the head. I11 both alike we may re¬ cognise the Attic tradition which may be traced back to Alcamenes and Myron ; yet this fact merely emphasises the regular and organic development of Greek sculpture, and in no way detracts from the originality and individuality of Praxiteles. The Hermes, though recorded by Pausanias and invaluable to us as an identified statue, was by no means among the best-known works of Praxiteles. These seem to have been sought rather amid the cycle of Aphrodite and Dionysus, deities more identified with human passions and delights. There was more scope here for that “infusion of the passions of the soul into marble” which Diodorus attributes to Praxiteles. This does not mean that Praxiteles, like his great contemporary Scopas, preferred to represent figures in violent or passionate action or emotion ; his gods and goddesses mostly repre-
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