John Flaxman, an English sculptor, born in York, July 6, 1755, died in London, Dec. 9, 1826. In the workshop of his father, a moulder of figures in London, he acquired his first ideas of form. Showing a strong inclination for modelling, he was placed at the royal academy. After many years of severe study, during which he supported himself by designing for the Wedgwoods and others, and produced some meritorious works, including a monument to the poet Collins in Chichester cathedral, he went in 1787 to Rome. He had read the Greek poets in the original, and produced two series of outline illustrations of Homer and Aeschylus, by which he is perhaps more widely known than by any of his other works. His series of illustrations of Dante is almost equally celebrated. After seven years' sojourn in Rome ho returned to England, and commenced a series of Scriptural compositions, remarkable for religious fervor and pathos, Of the numerous statues which he executed, those of Nelson, Howe, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mansfield, and Kemble are the best known. His Shield of Achilles" is one of the finest achievements of modern art.

Flaxman was a member of the royal academy, in which he also filled the chair of professor of sculpture, to which he was appointed in 1810. He received for his designs for the Iliad and Odyssey, 73 in all, 15s. each, and for many of his models for Wedgwood only half a guinea. His lectures were published in 1829, and a new edition with a memoir in 1838.