Many artists after Phidias have indeed adopted similar ideas, especially his focus on ideal proportions, balance, and harmonious composition, to make their artworks feel more pleasing and beautiful to viewers.

What “this” refers to

In your sentence, “applied this in their artworks” most naturally points to the classical ideals associated with Phidias:

  • Idealized human form rather than strict realism.
  • Balanced, harmonious compositions that feel calm and ordered.
  • Proportions designed to embody a kind of “perfect” beauty.

These ideas became core to what is now called the Classical style in Greek art, and later Western art more broadly.

Artists influenced after Phidias

Many later artists did not copy Phidias directly, but they followed his classical ideals:

  • Renaissance sculptors like Michelangelo and Donatello drew on ancient Greek statuary, including works in the tradition of Phidias, for their idealized, powerful bodies and calm grandeur.
  • Neoclassical sculptors such as Antonio Canova deliberately revived Greek Classical balance and ideal proportions, echoing the “noble simplicity” admired in works attributed to Phidias’s era.
  • Even modern sculptors like Henry Moore studied ancient Greek marbles to understand how simplified, idealized forms could still feel powerful and beautiful.

All of them believed that using such proportions, balance, and idealization would make their works more universally beautiful and satisfying to the eye.

How you can use this line

For a short “Quick Scoop” style note, you might frame it like this:

Many artists who lived after Phidias embraced the classical ideals of balanced proportions and idealized form, convinced that these principles would make their works enduringly pleasing and beautiful to the human eye.

This keeps your original idea, but clarifies what “this” is and connects it directly to Phidias’s long‑lasting influence.