A Portrait-study (4)

Lycinus Were you ever at Cnidus?

Polystratus I was.

Lycinus Then you have seen the Aphrodite, of course?

Polystratus That masterpiece of Praxiteles’s art! I have.

Lycinus And heard the story they tell there,—of the man who fell in love with the statue, and contrived to get shut into the temple alone, and there enjoyed such favours as a statue is able to bestow.—But that is neither here nor there.—You have seen the Cnidian Aphrodite, anyhow; now I want to know whether you have also seen our own Aphrodite of the Gardens,—the Alcamenes.

Polystratus I must be a dullard of dullards, if that most exquisite of Alcamenes’s works had escaped my notice.

Lycinus I forbear to ask whether in the course of your many visits to the Acropolis you ever observed the Sosandra of Calamis[*].

Polystratus Frequently.

Lycinus That is really enough for my purpose. But I should just like to know what you consider to be Phidias’s best work.

Polystratus Can you ask?—The Lemnian Athene, which bears the artist’s own signature; oh, and of course the Amazon leaning on her spear.