The first Greek sculptor to dare to represent the female nude in monumental statuary, Praxiteles today remains one of the most celebrated artists of antiquity. His renown alone would be ample justification for the presentation of a monographic exhibition dedicated to his oeuvre. However, the difficulties raised
by archaeological exploration necessitate a refinement of this
approach: although the exhibition is organized with the aim of offering, to the highest extent possible, a survey of Praxiteles’ career as a sculptor, it is above all an invitation to focus on the
marks left on the history of art by this elusive figure, in order to arrive at a better understanding of Praxiteles and his art.
The exhibition brings together for the first time the largest possible number of works in marble and bronze that can fairly be claimed to be characteristic of his style, so as to allow visitors to contemplate the various images, placed in historiographic perspective, that have been given of this great master over the centuries, from antiquity to the present, thus illuminating a Praxiteles sometimes idealized, often imagined, and whom we hope in the end to have rediscovered.
No major exhibition devoted to Greek and Roman statuary has ever been presented in France, despite its importance in the
development of Western artistic forms, although two recent European events applying a monographic approach to an
ancient artist have shown how this might be done: an exhibition dedicated to Polykleitos was presented in Germany (Liebighaus,
Frankfurt, 1990) and a large body of works were assembled in Italy in order to represent the career of Lysippos (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 1995). Following upon these previous successes, and emboldened by the honor of holding within its collections a large number of marble works (all recently restored) that have been associated, either closely or distantly, with Praxiteles, the Louvre could thus organize, by supplementing this sizable core derived from its own collections with around 100 works loaned by several other European museums, an exhibition designed to celebrate the esteemed creator of works as illustrious as the Aphrodite of Knidos, Apollo Sauroktonos (The Lizard-Slayer) and the Eros at Thespiae.
Furthermore, the opportunity to present such an exhibition is particularly of interest at this time due to the debates which have arisen within Praxitelean studies during the last two decades.
Taking as their basis the seminal analyses of A. Furtwängler and W. Klein, more recent researchers have occasionally refuted
certain attributions thought to be definitive, but have also proposed new ones, thus creating areas of contention which are underscored by the exhibition, as contributing to an overall appreciation of the importance of Praxiteles.
