In short, the list of his statues of superhuman beings,
though it does include an Eros and a Dionysus, looks as if he had
no especial predilection for the soft loveliness of youth, but
rather for mature and vigorous forms. He was famous as a portrait-
sculptor and made numerous statues of Alexander, from whom he
received conspicuous recognition. Naturally, too, he accepted
commissions for athlete statues; five such are mentioned by
Pausanias as existing at Olympia. An allegorical figure by him of
Cairos (Opportunity) receives lavish praise from a late
rhetorician. Finally, he is credited with a statue of a tipsy
female flute-player. This deserves especial notice as the first
well-assured example of a work of Greek sculpture ignoble in its
subject and obviously unfit for any of the purposes for which
sculpture had chiefly existed (cf. page 124).
It is Pliny who puts us in the way of a more direct acquaintance
with this artist than the above facts can give. He makes the
general statement that Lysippus departed from the canon of
proportions previously followed (i.
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