Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/532

Rh 520 PRAXITELES. made the voyage to Cnidus expressly to behold it. So highly did the Cnidians themselves esteem their treasure, that when King Nicomedes offered them, as the price of it, to pay oif the whole of their heavy public debt, they preferred to endure any sulFering rather than part with the work which gave their city its chief renown. It was afterwards carried, with the Saraian Hera and the Lindian Athena, to Constantinople, where it perished by fire, with innumerable other works of art, in the reign of Justinian. (Zonar. xiv. 2.) The temple in which it stood at Cnidus was so constructed, that the beauties of the statue could be seen equally well from every point of view. Of the numerous descriptions and praises of the statue, which abound in the ancient authors, the one which gives us the best notion of it is that of Lucian {A7nor. 13, 14, vol. ii. pp. 411, 412 ; comp. Iniag. 6, vol. ii. p. 463.) The material was the purest and most brilliant Parian marble ; the form was in every respect perfect ; the position of the left hand was the same as in the Venus de Me- dici ; the right hand held some drapery which fell over a vase standing by her ; the face wore a gentle smile ; and the whole expression was supposed by the ancients to indicate the appear- ance of the goddess when Paris adjudged to her the prize of beauty : OvT6 ere Upa^iTer}s rexvacraro, ovd' 6 alSapos, 'AA* ovTws effTTj?, ws irore Kpivo/xeuT], an opinion, which, however well it may have accorded with the grace and beauty of the work, cannot be regarded as the true expression of the intention of the artist, for the drapery and vase by the side of the figure indicate that she has either just left or is about to enter the bath. The representation of the goddess as standing before Paris is rather to be seen in the Venus de Medici and in the copy, by Menophantus, of the Aphrodite in the Troad. (Plato, Epig. 10, ap. Bvnnck, Anal. vol. i. p. 171, Anth. Flan. iv. 161, Jacobs, Anth. Pal. App. vol. ii. p. 675 ; comp. Even in Anth. Plan. iv. 166, Jacobs, I. c, p. 676, and several other epigrams, which stand with these in the An- thology of Planudes ; Auson. Epig. 6Q ; Athenag. Legal, pro Christ. 14, p. 61 ; Jacobs, in VVieland's Attisches Museum, vol. iii. pp. 24, f., 29, f.) This statue appears to have been the first instance in which any artist had ventured to represent the goddess entirely divested of drapery. The artist modelled it from a favourite 'courtezan named Phryne (Ath. xiii. pp. 585, 591), of whom also he made more than one portrait statue. (Pans. ix. 27. § 4. 8. 5, X. 14. § 5. 8. 7 ; Aelian. V. H. ix. 32 ; Tatian. Oral, ad Graec. 53, p. 115, ed. Worth.) This statue was, therefore, a new ideal of the goddess ; which was frequently imitated by suc- ceeding artists. It is, however, very doubtful which, or whether any, of the existing statues of Venus, are copies of the Cnidian Aphrodite. Its type is preserved on coins of Cnidos, struck in ho- nour of Plautilla, and on gems : the marble statues, which are probably copies of it, are the following : one in the garden of the Vatican ; another in the Museo Pio-Clementino, which, however, is sup- posed by Bottiger to be a copy of the Coan, on account of the drapery which covers part of the figure, which Visconti, and most of the subse- quent writers, take to be a mere addition made by the arti%t in copying the Cnidian statue ; PRAXITELES, another, which was formerly in the Braschi pa- lace, and is now in the Glyptothek at Munich ; there are also some busts after it. (Rasche, Lex Rei Num. s. v. Cnidus; Eckhel, Doct. Num. Vet vol. ii. p. 580 ; Lippert, Dactyl, i. 1. 81 ; Perrier, No. 85 ; Episcopius, No. 86 ; Mus. Pio-Clem. i. I I ; Flaxman, Lectures on Sculpture, pi. xxii. ; Miiller, A^rch. d. Kunst, § 127, n. 4, Denktn'dler d. alt. Kunst, vol. i. pi. xxxv. No. 146, a, b. c. d., vol. ii. pi. XXV. No. 277.) It has been the sub- ject of much discussion among the writers on art, whether or not the Venus de Medici is an imita- tion of the Cnidian Aplirodite. {Hee Ueyne, Antiq. Au/sdtze, vol. i. pp. 123, f. ; Winckelmann, Gesch. d. Kunst, b. v. c. 2. § 3 ; Meyer, zu Winck. I. c, and Deilage viii. zu b. ix., Gesch. d. Kunst, vol. i. p. 113; Visconti, Mus. PioClem. vol. i. p. 18 ; Levezow, Ob die Med. Ven. ein Bild. d. Kiiid. sei ; Thiersch, Epochen, p. 288 ; Miiller, Arch. d. Kunst, I. c.) The truth appears to be that Cleomenes, in making the Venus de Medici, had the Venus of Praxiteles in his mind, and imitated it in some degree ; but the difference in the treatment of the subject is sufficient to prevent the one being con- sidered a copy of the other. Types between the two are seen in the Aphrodite of Menophantus and in the Capitoline Venus ; of which the latter, while preserving the drapery and vessel of the Cnidian statue, has almost exactly the attitude and expression of the Venus de Medici. (See Miiller, Denkmdler, vol. ii. pi. xxvi. n. 278.) The supposed copies of the Coan Venus are even more doubtful than those of the Cnidian. Indeed, with the exception of that in the Museo Pio- Clementino, already mentioned, there is none which can with any probability be regarded as a copy of it. A fine conjectural restoration of it is given in plate xxiii. to Flaxman's Lectures on Sculpture. Besides the Coan and the Cnidian, Praxiteles made other statues of Aphrodite, namely : one in bronze which, Pliny tells us, was considered equal to the Cnidian, and which perished at Rome in the fire in the reign of Claudius (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 10) ; another, of Pentelic marble, at Thes- piae (Pans. ix. 27. § 3) ; another at Alexandria on Mt. Latmus. (Steph. Byz. s. v.) 2. Eros, and otJier divinities connected with Aphrodite. Praxiteles made two marble statues of Eros, of the highest celebrity, the one of which was dedicated at Thespiae, the other at Parium on the Propontis. Like all the early Greek artists, Praxiteles represented Eros, not as a child, but as in the flower of youth. The statue at Thespiae, which was of Pentelic marble, with the wings gilt (Julian. Or. ii. p. 54, c), was dedicated by Phryne (Lucian, Ain. 14, 17 ; Pans. ix. 27. § 3), and an interesting • story is told of the manner in which she became possessed of it. Praxiteles, in his fondness for Phryne, had promised to give her whichever of his works she might choose, but he was unwilling to tell her which of them, in his own opinion, was the best. To discover this, she sent a slave to tell Praxiteles that a fire had broken out in his house, and that most of his works had already perished. On hearing this message, the artist rushed out, exclaiming that all his toil was lost, if the fire had touched his Satyr or his Eros. Upon this Phryne confessed the stratagem, and chose the Eros. (Pans. i. 20. §2.) When Mum- mius plundered Thespiae, like other Greek cities, of the works of art, he spared this statue, and it