Praxiteles Case Study

Praxiteles ca. 400-330 BC

I have yet to read a piece written on the ancient Greek sculpture Praxiteles that doesn't define him as the most famous sculptor of Greek culture. His career is known to spend from 370 to 340 B.C. Praxiteles being that of a famous sculptor we know very little of his actual personal life and the few things that have been noted cannot be considered definite but rather to considered as strong speculations. This lead me to question if he had much of a personal life, whether or not he was entirely rapped up in his works or extremely discrete. That which we do know of him was that he is said to be the son of an also great sculptor Kephisodotus. It is easy to understand why Praxiteles would become a great sculptor. The profession of a sculpture was considered to very popular in the time of Praxiteles and with the relation to his father a great sculptor it wouldn't be hard for him to gained recognition.

Praxiteles techniques set him aside from other sculptors of his time. He was always trying new styles but the main goal of Praxiteles was for his sculptures to come to life and for them to be as realistic as possible.

Most sculptures where using bronze to create their pieces marble was a favorite of Praxiteles. The smooth finish and shine added to the delicately crafted designs. He also had color added to his pieces another feature leading them to be more realistic. Praxiteles used the nude human form for almost all his full body sculptures.

His work was greatly admired and influenced much of Roman art culture, so much so that many roman artists did replicas of his work. Its believed in my opinion one of the best things that could of happen because much of his work we've been able to see has been by way of the Roman replicas. Praxiteles has only one surviving piece and it is Hermes and the infant Dionysus which is on exhibit Archaeological Museum of Olympia.

The piece Hermes and the infant Dionysus is reminiscent of Praxiteles fathers style of grouping two figures together in a sculpture creating a relationship. In the sculpture Praxiteles shows "Dionysus as a baby being carried by Hermes to the muses by whom he will be raised. Although Hermes' right forearm is lost, it was originally raised to dangle a bunch of grapes in front of Dionysus. It was said that Praxiteles way of humor in this piece with the child reaching for them greedily, " a reference to his destiny to become the god of wine."

Another more controversial piece of Praxiteles was the Aphrodite of Knidos.