Polycharmus
（
*Polu/xarmos), a sculptor, two of whose works stood in Pliny's time in the portico of Octavia at Rome (
Plin. Nat. 36.5. s, 4.10). One of these works was Venus washing herself; but what the other was is doubtful, on account of the corrupt state of the passage in Pliny.
As it stands in the common editions, it is,
Venerem lavantem sese, Daedalum stantem Polycharmus, which is the reading of the inferior MSS., and seems to be only a conjectural emendation of the unintelligible readings of the older MSS. The Codex Reg. II. gives
lavantem sese de dulsa stantem, and the Bamberg MS.,
lavantem se sed aedalsas stantem. Sillig conjectures
lavantem se, sed et aliam stantem, and L. Jahn,
lavantem se, ad aedem aliam stantem. (Sillig,
Cat. Artif. p. 359, and edition of Pliny,
l.c. ; Jahn,
Kunstblatt, 1833, No. 37; and collation of the Bamberg MS. appended to Sillig's edition of Pliny, vol. v. p. 443.)
There are several beautiful statues of Venus, stooping on one knee, in the attitude of washing herself, which are supposed to be copies of the work of Polycharmus.
The finest is in the Vatican.
Further Information
Mus. Pio-Clem. vol. i. pl. 10; Clarac, pl. 345, No. 698; Müer,
Archäol. d. Kunst, § 377, n. 5 ;
Denkmäler d. Alten Kunst, vol. ii. pl. xxvi. fig. 279.
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