Praxiteles is the ancient Greek sculptor associated with naturalistic, relaxed poses and works such as the Aphrodite of Knidos. His figures often combine ideal beauty with a gentle weight shift, supple curves, and an informal sense of physical presence.
Praxiteles was an Athenian sculptor active in the fourth century BC and the son of Cephisodotus the Elder. The original Aphrodite of Knidos, made in the mid-fourth century BC, is lost, but Roman copies preserve its general type. It was revolutionary as one of the first life-sized, fully nude female figures in Greek art and became a model for later images of Venus.
The Aphrodite was installed as a cult statue at Knidos and showed the goddess preparing for a ritual bath, with drapery and a water vessel nearby in surviving versions. Its pose is itself a form of contrapposto, but the question asks for the sculptor, not the stance. Polykleitos is more closely associated with idealized male proportions, Phidias with the Parthenon’s sculptural program, and Myron with energetic works such as the Discobolus.