To coincide with the Praxiteles exhibition, the Louvre's cultural and educational activities department proposes a selection of thematic trails for secondary school teachers, covering history, art history, the visual arts, literature and philosophy. Based on the French national curriculum, the trails can be accessed from the French version of the exhibition's mini-site, on the museum's main Web site at www.louvre.fr.

Praxiteles, like his fellow artists Phidias and Lysippos, is one of the best-known Greek sculptors of Antiquity. His work has had a significant influence on the development of Western art forms from the Renaissance to the present day. Famed in his own time (the 4th century BC) as the sculptor of the Aphrodite of Cnidus, one of the first female nudes, Praxiteles is known to us thanks to Greek and Latin literary sources, and through numerous Roman copies of his works. The monograph exhibition of his work at the Louvre presents the current state of research, linked to new archaeological discoveries and attributions.

The educational trails are based on analyses and comparisons of various works They also aim to review Praxiteles's output in the context of the development of ancient Greek statuary. The trails have been developed in partnership with the Musée de l'Arles et de la Provence antiques who have provided particular expertise in relation to one of the exhibition's most important works, the figure of Aphrodite popularly known as the "Arles Venus."