Plato, copy of Silanion's work, Glyptothek of Munich

Silanion, a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. He was noted as a portrait-sculptor. Of two of his works, his heads of Plato and of Sappho, we possess what seem to be copies. Both are of simple ideal type, the latter of course not strictly a portrait, since Sappho lived before the age of portraits. The best copy of the Plato is in the Glyptothek of Munich. He wrote a treatise on proportions (Vitruvius vii, introduction).

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.