The prestigious sculptor John Flaxman is celebrated and described in six essays followed by a catalogue illustrating the various dimensions of Flaxman's work. Flaxman's drawings are considered along with his better known sculptures. What was the basis of his famous 'chaste' linear style - the influence of Fuseli, of ancient vase-painting, his own search for simplicity and purity? This book with its several different approaches presents the best and only recent study of this sculptor pivotal to the very definition of English and European Neoclassicism.