File:Six Greek sculptors (1915) (14781300274).jpg

Identifier: sixgreeksculptor00gard (find matches)
Title: Six Greek sculptors
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Gardner, Ernest Arthur, 1862-1939
Subjects: Sculptors Sculpture, Greek
Publisher: London : Duckworth and Co. New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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e god. If Phidias added somethingto the accepted religion * by ennobling the currentconception of the gods, and by raising those who sawhis statues into a diviner atmosphere, Praxiteles alsobrought the gods nearer to men by making them morehuman. We feel this above all in the Hermes. He isnot looking straight at the child, but away past him ;his eyes are not wide open, but as if resting, withoutconcentration, upon some object not far away. Thewhole expression is one of rest and reverie, rather thanof any definite activity either physical or intellectual.Body and face alike are those of a young man of per-fect physical and mental development, but not undulytrained or specialised; the forms throughout are farremoved from the over-soft, almost effeminate modellingthat we find in many imitations or copies of the workof Praxiteles. The position of the figure also, thoughthe extra support under the left elbow gives it an easeand grace beyond what we find in fifth-century sculp- Plate XI, IV
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HEAD OF HERMES, BY PRAXITELES To face p. 146 PRAXITELES 147 ture, which only gives variety by the varying amountof weight thrown on the two legs, has nothing of theaffectation of a somewhat similar pose in later art. Wesee a healthy and vigorous nature in a moment ofrelaxation, not a morbid or indolent one in its habitualattitude; Hermes rests, but he does not loll. Whatis, however, more characteristic of the work of Praxi-teles as we see it in the Hermes is the wonderful facilityand truth of the modelling, the distinction of thefeatures, the easy sweep of all the lines and surfaces offace and figure, and, combined with these, a treat-ment of the surface which gives to it the apparentwarmth and elasticity of flesh. There are only veryfew pieces of sculpture surviving from Greek timeswhich have this last quality in a degree approachingthat in which it may be seen in the Hermes, and thesehave almost all been claimed by one authority oranother as originals from the hand of Praxiteles;amo

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