258 THE GREEKS
The Hermes was not particularly famous in antiquity, but Praxiteles was the
author of what, after the Zeus of Pheidias, was the most famous statue in the ancient
world, the Cnidian Aphrodite. Pliny tells us that Praxiteles made and sold together
two statues of the goddess, one draped and for this reason preferred by the people
of Cos while the other, which they had refused, was wholly nude and bought by the
people of Cnidos. When later an offer was made to purchase the statue for the price
of their national debt, the Cnidians refused, for the statue was their main claim to
fame. Pliny goes on to say that the shrine in which it was displayed was entirely open
so that it could be viewed from any angle, from which it was equally admirable
(Natural History,36, 20–22). The original does not survive but it was much copied by
the Romans (see fig. 65). In a modest pose, Aphrodite is about to take a bath. As in
the case of Hermes, there is a fine contrast between the intricate drapery and the
smoothness of the body (Praxiteles is noted for the softness of his modelling). In
addition to the obvious charms of the curvaceous body, a later admirer of the original,
Lucian, of the second century AD, comments on ‘the liquid gaze of the eye, so clear
and full of charm’ (The Art of Portraiture,6), a characteristic not apparent in the cruder
Roman copy. When Praxiteles was asked which of his own works in marble he placed
the highest, he replied: ‘The ones to which Nicias has set his hand’, according to Pliny
who adds ‘so much value did he assign to his colouring of surfaces’ (Natural History,
35, 133). The Cnidian Aphrodite, like other Greek statues, owed its effect partly to the
touch of the painter, a point which it is difficult for the modern onlooker to appreciate,
accustomed as we are to the plain white surface of the marble.
The Hellenistic period (from the conquest of Alexander in 323)
A notable innovator in the later in the later fourth century whose art straddles the
later classical period and the Hellenistic age is Lysippus of Sicyon (c.370–315). He
was influential and had a number of artistic followers, including his three sons. He
worked in bronze, and was extremely prolific and popular; many Roman copies of
his statues are extant. On the testimony of Cicero he seems consciously to have
rejected the canonical ideal represented by Polyclitus’ doryphoros(Brutus86, 296),
preferring, according to the later Latin writer Pliny, nature rather than any artist as
his model. Pliny assesses his contribution as follows:
Lysippus is said to have contributed greatly to the art of bronze statuary by
representing the details of the hair and by making his heads smaller than the old
sculptors used to do, and his bodies more slender and firm, to give his statues the
appearance of greater height. He scrupulously preserved the quality of ‘symmetry’
(for which there is no word in Latin) by the new and hitherto untried method of