Artists, who have transmitted these details in their works, bestow wonderful encomiums upon Telephanes, the Phocæan, a statuary but little known, they say, because he lived in Thessaly, where his works remained concealed; according to their account, however, he is quite equal to Polycletus, Myron, and Pythagoras. They more particularly commend his Larissa, his Spintharus, the pentathlete,[1447] and his Apollo. Others, however, assign another reason for his being so little known; it being owing, they think, to his having devoted himself to the studios established by Kings Xerxes and Darius.
Praxiteles, who excelled more particularly in marble, and thence acquired his chief celebrity, also executed some very beautiful works in brass, the Rape of Proserpine, the Catagusa,[1448] a Father Liber,[1449] a figure of Drunkenness, and the celebrated Satyr,[1450] to the Greeks known as “Periboetos.”[1451] He also executed the statues, which were formerly before the Temple[1452] of Good Fortune, and the Venus, which was destroyed by fire, with the Temple of that goddess, in the reign of Claudius, and was considered equal to his marble statue of Venus,[1453] so celebrated throughout the world. He also executed a Stephanusa,[1454] a Spilumene,[1455] an Œnophorus,[1456] and two figures of Harmodius and Aristogiton, who slew the tyrants; which last, having been taken away from Greece by Xerxes, were restored to the Athenians on the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great.[1457] He also made the youthful Apollo, known as the “Sauroctonos,”[1458] because he is aiming an arrow at a lizard which is stealing towards him. There are greatly admired, also, two statues of his, expressive of contrary emotions—a Matron in tears, and a Courtesan full of gaiety: this last is supposed to be a likeness of Phryne, and it is said that we can detect in her figure the love of the artist, and in the countenance of the courtesan the promised reward.[1459]
His kindness of heart, too, is witnessed by another figure; for in a chariot and horses which had been executed by Calamis,[1460] he himself made the charioteer, in order that the artist, who excelled in the representation of horses, might not be considered deficient in the human figure. This last-mentioned artist has executed other chariots also, some with four horses, and some with two; and in his horses he is always unrivalled. But that it may not be supposed that he was so greatly inferior in his human figures, it is as well to remark that his Alcmena[1461] is equal to any that was ever produced.
Alcamenes,[1462] who was a pupil of Phidias, worked in marble and executed a Pentathlete in brass, known as the “Encrinomenos.”[1463] Aristides, too, who was the scholar of Polycletus, executed chariots in metal with four and two horses. The Leæna[1464] of Amphicrates[1465] is highly commended. The courtesan[1466] Leæna, who was a skilful performer on the lyre, and had so become acquainted with Harmodius and Aristogiton, submitted to be tortured till she expired, rather than betray their plot for the extermination of the tyrants.[1467] The Athenians, being desirous of honouring her memory, without at the same time rendering homage to a courtesan, had her represented under the figure of the animal whose name she bore;[1468] and, in order to indicate the cause of the honour thus paid her, ordered the artist to represent the animal without a tongue.[1469]
Bryaxis executed in brass statues of Æsculapius and Seleucus;[1470] Bœdas[1471] a figure in adoration; Baton, an Apollo and a Juno, which are in the Temple of Concord[1472] at Rome.
Ctesilaüs[1473] executed a statue of a man fainting from his wounds, in the expression of which may be seen how little life remains;[1474] as also the Olympian Pericles,[1475] well worthy of its title: indeed, it is one of the marvellous adjuncts of this art, that it renders men who are already celebrated even more so.
Cephisodotus[1476] is the artist of an admirable Minerva, now erected in the port of Athens; as also of the altar before the Temple of Jupiter Servator,[1477] at the same place, to which, indeed, few works are comparable.
Canachus[1478] executed a nude Apollo, which is known as the “Philesian:”[1479] it is at Didymi,[1480] and is composed of bronze that was fused at Ægina. He also made a stag with it, so nicely poised on its hoofs, as to admit of a thread being passed beneath. One[1481] fore-foot, too, and the alternate hind-foot are so made as firmly to grip the base, the socket being[1482] so indented on either side, as to admit of the figure being thrown at pleasure upon alternate feet. Another work of his was the boys known as the “Celetizontes.”[1483]
Chæreas made statues of Alexander the Great and of his father Philip. Desilaüs[1484] made a Doryphoros[1485] and a wounded Amazon; and Demetrius[1486] a statue of Lysimache, who was priestess of Minerva sixty-four years. This statuary also made the Minerva, which has the name of Musica,[1487] and so called because the dragons on its Gorgon’s head vibrate at the sound of the lyre; also an equestrian statue of Simon, the first writer on the art of equitation.[1488] Dædalus,[1489] who is highly esteemed as a modeller in clay, made two brazen figures of youths using the body-scraper;[1490] and Dinomenes executed figures of Protesilaüs[1491] and Pythodemus the wrestler.
The statue of Alexander Paris is the work of Euphranor:[1492] it is much admired, because we recognize in it, at the same moment, all these characteristics; we see him as the umpire between the goddesses, the paramour of Helen, and yet the slayer of Achilles. We have a Minerva, too, by Euphranor, at Rome, known as the “Catulina,” and dedicated below the Capitol, by Q. Lutatius;[1493] also a figure of Good Success,[1494] holding in the right hand a patera, and in the left an ear of corn and a poppy. There is also a Latona by him, in the Temple of Concord,[1495] with the new-born infants Apollo and Diana in her arms. He also executed some brazen chariots with four and two horses, and a Cliduchus[1496] of beautiful proportions; as also two colossal statues, one representing Virtue, the other Greece;[1497] and a figure of a female lost in wonder and adoration: with statues of Alexander and Philip in chariots with four horses. Eutychides executed an emblematic figure of the Eurotas,[1498] of which it has been frequently remarked, that the work of the artist appears more flowing than the waters even of the river.[1499]