The fifth-century Sophist Gorgias of Leontini, contemporary with many great developments in painting and sculpture, refers to the seductive power of artworks to explain Helen's attraction to Paris:

But when painters perfectly complete out of many colours and many objects a single object and form, they delight the sight. The making of figures and the fashioning of statues provides something pleasant for the eyes. Thus some things naturally give distress and others pleasure to the sight. Many things create in many people love and desire of many actions and bodies. So, if Helen's eye, pleased by Paris' body, transmitted an eagerness ,and striving of love to her soul, what is surprising?

Source: Gorgias of Leontini, Praise of Helen, pp. 18-19.