flourished 0441; 370330 BC, Greece
Greek sculptor.
His only known surviving work, the marble Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus , displays delicate modeling and exquisite surface finish. A few other works survive in Roman copies. His most celebrated work was the Aphrodite of Cnidus , which Pliny the Elder considered the best statue in the world. Through Praxiteles' influence, figures were increasingly shown standing in graceful, sinuous poses, leaning lightly on some support, a pose further developed by sculptors of the Hellenistic Age . Greatest and most original of the 4th-century Attic sculptors, he profoundly influenced the later course of Greek sculpture.