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Attributed to Praxiteles
(Greek, Athens, about 400/390–330/325 B.C.)
Apollo Sauroktonos ("Lizard-Slayer"),
probably 350–275 B.C. possibly 275 B.C.-A.D. 300
Bronze, copper and stone inlay
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2004.30
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Praxiteles
The Athenian sculptor Praxiteles is a towering figure in the history of art. With Phidias, Polyclitus, and Lysippus, he was one of the most acclaimed Greek artists of the Classical period.
Wealthy and famous in his own day (active about 380/70-330/25 B.C.), his fame has endured to the present day. His great influence and popularity can be attributed in part to a virtuoso command of his medium--sculpting in both marble and bronze--combined with a bold innovation of new figural types.
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Working in both marble and bronze, Praxiteles perfected a meticulous, soft-focus naturalism that was a departure from the more sharply defined sculpted figures of the fifth century B.C. By comparison with earlier conventions, his representations of gods, goddesses, and mythological characters seem less distant and grand, and more on an intimate and human scale.
His Aphrodite of Cnidus, carved ca. 350/40 B.C., introduced the nude female figure to western art and became one of the most famous sculptures in the Greek world. An androgynous sensuality, along with a languid and graceful contrappposto are all hallmarks of his style, seen in several Roman copies inspired by lost Praxitelean originals.
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Attributed to Praxiteles
(Greek, Athens, about 400/390–330/325 B.C.)
Apollo Sauroktonos ("Lizard-Slayer"),
probably 350–275 B.C. possibly 275 B.C.-A.D. 300
Bronze, copper and stone inlay
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2004.30
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Pliny: Eye Witness from the 1st century A.D.
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