CHAP. 44.—WHO WAS THE FIRST TO MOULD FIGURES IN IMITATION
OF THE FEATURES OF LIVING PERSONS, OR OF STATUES.
The first person who expressed the human features by fitting
a mould of plaster upon the face, and then improving it by
pouring melted wax into the cast, was Lysistratus [Note] of Sicyon,
brother of Lysippus, already mentioned. It was he, in fact,
who first made it his study to give a faithful likeness; for
before his time, artists only thought how to make their portraits
as handsome as possible. The same artist, too, was the
first who thought of making models for his statues; a method
which afterwards became so universally adopted, that there
could be neither figure nor statue made without its model in
clay. Hence it would appear, that the art of modelling in
clay is more ancient than that of moulding in bronze. [Note]