AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS.
CHAP. 1. (1.)—THE HONOUR ATTACHED TO PAINTING.
I have now given at considerable length an account of the nature of
metals, which constitute our wealth, and of the substances that are
derived from them; so connecting my various subjects, as, at the
same time, to describe an immense number of medicinal compositions
which they furnish, the mysteries[1787] thrown upon them by the
druggists, and the tedious minutiæ of the arts of chasing,[1788] and
statuary,[1789] and of dyeing.[1790] It remains for me to describe
the various kinds of earths and stones; a still more extensive series
of subjects, each of which has been treated of, by the Greeks more
particularly, in a great number of volumes. For my own part, I propose
to employ a due degree of brevity, at the same time omitting nothing
that is necessary or that is a product of Nature.
I shall begin then with what still remains to be said with reference to
painting, an art which was formerly illustrious, when it was held in
esteem both by kings and peoples, and ennobling those whom it deigned
to transmit to posterity. But at the present day, it is completely
banished in favour of marble, and even gold. For not only are whole
walls now covered with marble, but the marble itself is carved out or
else marqueted so as to represent objects and animals of various kinds.
No longer now are we satisfied with formal compartitions of marble,
or with slabs extended like so many mountains in our chambers, but we
must begin to paint the very stone itself! This art was invented in the
reign of Claudius, but it was in the time of Nero that we discovered
the method of inserting in marble spots that do not belong to it, and
so varying its uniformity; and this, for the purpose of representing
the marble of Numidia[1791] variegated with ovals, and that of
Synnada[1792] veined with purple; just, in fact, as luxury might have
willed that Nature should produce them. Such are our resources when the
quarries fail us, and luxury ceases not to busy itself, in order that
as much as possible may be lost whenever a conflagration happens.
CHAP. 2. (2.)—THE HONOUR ATTACHED TO PORTRAITS.
Correct portraits of individuals were formerly transmitted to future
ages by painting; but this has now completely fallen into desuetude.
Brazen shields are now set up, and silver faces, with only some obscure
traces of the countenance;[1793] the very heads, too, of statues are
changed,[1794] a thing that has given rise before now to many a current
sarcastic line; so true it is that people prefer showing off the
valuable material, to having a faithful likeness. And yet, at the same
time, we tapestry the walls of our galleries with old pictures, and we
prize the portraits of strangers; while as to those made in honour of
ourselves, we esteem them only for the value of the material, for some
heir to break up and melt, and so forestall the noose and slip-knot of
the thief.[1795] Thus it is that we possess the portraits of no living
individuals, and leave behind us the pictures of our wealth, not of our
persons.
And yet the very same persons adorn the palæstra and the
anointing-room[1796] with portraits of athletes, and both hang up
in their chamber and carry about them a likeness of Epicurus.[1797]
On the twentieth day of each moon they celebrate his birthday[1798]
by a sacrifice, and keep his festival, known as the “Icas,”[1799]
every month: and these too, people who wish to live without being
known![1800] So it is, most assuredly, our indolence has lost sight
of the arts, and since our minds are destitute of any characteristic
features, those of our bodies are neglected also.
But on the contrary, in the days of our ancestors, it was these that
were to be seen in their halls, and not statues made by foreign
artists, or works in bronze or marble: portraits modelled in wax[1801]
were arranged, each in its separate niche, to be always in readiness
to accompany the funeral processions of the family;[1802] occasions
on which every member of the family that had ever existed was always
present. The pedigree, too, of the individual was traced in lines upon
each of these coloured portraits. Their muniment-rooms,[1803] too,
were filled with archives and memoirs, stating what each had done
when holding the magistracy. On the outside, again, of their houses,
and around the thresholds of their doors, were placed other statues
of those mighty spirits, in the spoils of the enemy there affixed,
memorials which a purchaser even was not allowed to displace; so that
the very house continued to triumph even after it had changed its
master. A powerful stimulus to emulation this, when the walls each
day reproached an unwarlike owner for having thus intruded upon the
triumphs of another! There is still extant an address by the orator
Messala, full of indignation, in which he forbids that there should be
inserted among the images of his family any of those of the stranger
race of the Lævini.[1804] It was the same feeling, too, that extorted
from old Messala those compilations of his “On the Families of Rome;”
when, upon passing through the hall of Scipio Pomponianus,[1805]
he observed that, in consequence of a testamentary adoption, the
Salvittos[1806]—for that had been their surname—to the disgrace of
the Africani, had surreptitiously contrived to assume the name of the
Scipios. But the Messalas must pardon me if I remark, that to lay a
claim, though an untruthful one, to the statues of illustrious men,
shows some love for their virtues, and is much more honourable than to
have such a character as to merit that no one should wish to claim them.
There is a new invention too, which we must not omit to notice. Not
only do we consecrate in our libraries, in gold or silver, or at all
events, in bronze, those whose immortal spirits hold converse with
us in those places, but we even go so far as to reproduce the ideal
of features, all remembrance of which has ceased to exist; and our
regrets give existence to likenesses that have not been transmitted
to us, as in the case of Homer, for example.[1807] And indeed, it is
my opinion, that nothing can be a greater proof of having achieved
success in life, than a lasting desire on the part of one’s fellow-men,
to know what one’s features were. This practice of grouping portraits
was first introduced at Rome by Asinius Pollio, who was also the
first to establish a public library, and so make the works of genius
the property of the public. Whether the kings of Alexandria and of
Pergamus, who had so energetically rivalled each other in forming
libraries, had previously introduced this practice, I cannot so easily
say.
That a strong passion for portraits formerly existed, is attested
both by Atticus, the friend of Cicero, who wrote a work on this
subject,[1808] and by M. Varro, who conceived the very liberal idea of
inserting, by some means[1809] or other, in his numerous volumes, the
portraits of seven hundred individuals; as he could not bear the idea
that all traces of their features should be lost, or that the lapse of
centuries should get the better of mankind. Thus was he the inventor
of a benefit to his fellow-men, that might have been envied by the gods
themselves; for not only did he confer upon them immortality, but he
transmitted them, too, to all parts of the earth; so that everywhere
it might be possible for them to be present, and for each to occupy
his niche. This service, too, Varro conferred upon persons who were no
members of his own family.
CHAP. 3. (3.)—WHEN SHIELDS WERE FIRST INVENTED WITH PORTRAITS UPON
THEM; AND WHEN THEY WERE FIRST ERECTED IN PUBLIC.
So far as I can learn, Appius Claudius, who was consul with P.
Servilius, in the year of the City, 259, was the first to dedicate
shields[1810] in honour of his own family in a sacred or public
place.[1811] For he placed representations of his ancestors in the
Temple of Bellona, and desired that they might be erected in an
elevated spot, so as to be seen, and the inscriptions reciting their
honours read. A truly graceful device; more particularly when a
multitude of children, represented by so many tiny figures, displays
those germs, as it were, which are destined to continue the line:
shields such as these, no one can look at without a feeling of pleasure
and lively interest.
CHAP. 4.—WHEN THESE SHIELDS WERE FIRST PLACED IN PRIVATE HOUSES.
More recently, M. Æmilius, who was consul[1812] with Quintus Lutatius,
not only erected these shields in the Æmilian Basilica,[1813] but in
his own house as well; in doing which he followed a truly warlike
example. For, in fact, these portraits were represented on bucklers,
similar to those used in the Trojan War;[1814] and hence it is that
these shields received their present name of “clypei,” and not, as
the perverse subtleties of the grammarians will have it, from the
word “cluo.”[1815] It was an abundant motive for valour, when upon
each shield was represented the features of him who had borne it. The
Carthaginians used to make both their bucklers and their portraits
of gold, and to carry them with them in the camp: at all events,
Marcius, the avenger of the Scipios[1816] in Spain, found one of this
kind on capturing the camp of Hasdrubal, and it was this same buckler
that remained suspended over the gate of the Capitoline Temple until
the time when it was first burnt.[1817] Indeed, in the days of our
ancestors, so assured was the safety of these shields, that it has
been a subject of remark, that in the consulship of L. Manlius and
Q. Fulvius, in the year of the City, 575, M. Aufidius, who had given
security for the safety of the Capitol, informed the senate that the
bucklers there which for some lustra[1818] had been assessed as copper,
were in reality made of silver.
CHAP. 5.—THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ART OF PAINTING. MONOCHROME PAINTINGS.
THE EARLIEST PAINTERS.
We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of the art
of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration.
The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six
thousand years before it passed into Greece; a vain boast, it is very
evident.[1819] As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at
Sicyon, others at Corinth; but they all agree that it originated in
tracing lines round the human shadow.[1820] The first stage of the
art, they say, was this, the second stage being the employment of
single colours; a process known as “monochromaton,”[1821] after it
had become more complicated, and which is still in use at the present
day. The invention of line-drawing has been assigned to Philocles, the
Egyptian, or to Cleanthes[1822] of Corinth. The first who practised
this line-drawing were Aridices, the Corinthian, and Telephanes, the
Sicyonian, artists who, without making use of any colours, shaded
the interior of the outline by drawing lines;[1823] hence, it was
the custom with them to add to the picture the name of the person
represented. Ecphantus, the Corinthian, was the first to employ colours
upon these pictures, made, it is said, of broken earthenware, reduced
to powder. We shall show on a future[1824] occasion, that it was a
different artist of the same name, who, according to Cornelius Nepos,
came to Italy with Demaratus, the father of the Roman king, Tarquinius
Priscus, on his flight from Corinth to escape the violence of the
tyrant Cypselus.
CHAP. 6.—THE ANTIQUITY OF PAINTING IN ITALY.
But already, in fact, had the art of painting been perfectly developed
in Italy.[1825] At all events, there are extant in the temples at
Ardea, at this day, paintings of greater antiquity than Rome itself;
in which, in my opinion, nothing is more marvellous, than that they
should have remained so long unprotected by a roof, and yet preserving
their freshness.[1826] At Lanuvium, too, it is the same, where we
see an Atalanta and a Helena, without drapery, close together, and
painted by the same artist. They are both of the greatest beauty, the
former being evidently the figure of a virgin, and they still remain
uninjured, though the temple is in ruins. The Emperor Caius,[1827]
inflamed with lustfulness, attempted to have them removed, but the
nature of the plaster would not admit of it. There are in existence
at Cære,[1828] some paintings of a still higher antiquity. Whoever
carefully examines them, will be forced to admit that no art has
arrived more speedily at perfection, seeing that it evidently was not
in existence at the time of the Trojan War.[1829]
CHAP. 7. (4.)—ROMAN PAINTERS.
Among the Romans, too, this art very soon rose into esteem, for it
was from it that the Fabii, a most illustrious family, derived their
surname of “Pictor;” indeed the first of the family who bore it,
himself painted the Temple of Salus,[1830] in the year of the City,
450; a work which lasted to our own times, but was destroyed when the
temple was burnt, in the reign of Claudius. Next in celebrity were the
paintings of the poet Pacuvius, in the Temple of Hercules, situate in
the Cattle Market:[1831] he was a son of the sister of Ennius, and the
fame of the art was enhanced at Rome by the success of the artist on
the stage. After this period, the art was no longer practised by men of
rank; unless, indeed, we would make reference to Turpilius, in our own
times, a native of Venetia, and of equestrian rank, several of whose
beautiful works are still in existence at Verona. He painted, too,
with his left hand, a thing never known to have been done by any one
before.[1832]
Titidius Labeo, a person of prætorian rank, who had been formerly
proconsul of the province of Gallia Narbonensis, and who lately died
at a very advanced age, used to pride himself upon the little pictures
which he executed, but it only caused him to be ridiculed and sneered
at. I must not omit, too, to mention a celebrated consultation upon
the subject of painting, which was held by some persons of the highest
rank. Q. Pedius,[1833] who had been honoured with the consulship and a
triumph, and who had been named by the Dictator Cæsar as co-heir with
Augustus, had a grandson, who being dumb from his birth, the orator
Messala, to whose family his grandmother belonged, recommended that he
should be brought up as a painter, a proposal which was also approved
of by the late Emperor Augustus. He died, however, in his youth, after
having made great progress in the art. But the high estimation in
which painting came to be held at Rome, was principally due, in my
opinion, to M. Valerius Maximus Messala, who, in the year of the City,
490, was the first to exhibit a painting to the public; a picture,
namely, of the battle in which he had defeated the Carthaginians and
Hiero in Sicily, upon one side of the Curia Hostilia.[1834] The same
thing was done, too, by L. Scipio,[1835] who placed in the Capitol a
painting of the victory which he had gained in Asia; but his brother
Africanus, it is said, was offended at it, and not without reason, for
his son had been taken prisoner in the battle.[1836] Lucius Hostilius
Mancinus,[1837] too, who had been the first to enter Carthage at the
final attack, gave a very similar offence to Æmilianus,[1838] by
exposing in the Forum a painting of that city and the attack upon it,
he himself standing near the picture, and describing to the spectators
the various details of the siege; a piece of complaisance which secured
him the consulship at the ensuing Comitia.
The stage, too, which was erected for the games celebrated by Claudius
Pulcher,[1839] brought the art of painting into great admiration, it
being observed that the ravens were so deceived by the resemblance, as
to light upon the decorations which were painted in imitation of tiles.
CHAP. 8.—AT WHAT PERIOD FOREIGN PAINTINGS WERE FIRST INTRODUCED AT ROME.
The high estimation in which the paintings of foreigners were held at
Rome commenced with Lucius Mummius, who, from his victories, acquired
the surname of “Achaicus.” For upon the sale of the spoil on that
occasion, King Attalus having purchased, at the price of six thousand
denarii, a painting of Father Liber by Aristides,[1840] Mummius,
feeling surprised at the price, and suspecting that there might be
some merit in it of which he himself was unaware,[1841] in spite of
the complaints of Attalus, broke off the bargain, and had the picture
placed in the Temple of Ceres;[1842] the first instance, I conceive, of
a foreign painting being publicly exhibited at Rome.
After this, I find, it became a common practice to exhibit foreign
pictures in the Forum; for it was to this circumstance that we are
indebted for a joke of the orator Crassus. While pleading below the Old
Shops,[1843] he was interrupted by a witness who had been summoned,
with the question, “Tell me then, Crassus, what do you take me to be?”
“Very much like him,” answered he, pointing to the figure of a Gaul in
a picture, thrusting out his tongue in a very unbecoming manner.[1844]
It was in the Forum, too, that was placed the picture of the Old
Shepherd leaning on his staff; respecting which, when the envoy of the
Teutones was asked what he thought was the value of it, he made answer
that he would rather not have the original even, at a gift.
CHAP. 9.—AT WHAT PERIOD PAINTING WAS FIRST HELD IN HIGH ESTEEM AT ROME,
AND FROM WHAT CAUSES.
But it was the Dictator Cæsar that first brought the public exhibition
of pictures into such high estimation, by consecrating an Ajax and
a Medea[1845] before the Temple of Venus Genetrix.[1846] After him
there was M. Agrippa, a man who was naturally more attached to rustic
simplicity than to refinement. Still, however, we have a magnificent
oration of his, and one well worthy of the greatest of our citizens,
on the advantage of exhibiting in public all pictures and statues; a
practice which would have been far preferable to sending them into
banishment at our country-houses. Severe as he was in his tastes, he
paid the people of Cyzicus twelve hundred thousand sesterces for two
paintings, an Ajax and a Venus. He also ordered small paintings to be
set in marble in the very hottest part of his Warm Baths;[1847] where
they remained until they were removed a short time since, when the
building was repaired.
CHAP. 10.—WHAT PICTURES THE EMPERORS HAVE EXHIBITED IN PUBLIC.
The late Emperor Augustus did more than all the others; for he
placed in the most conspicuous part of his Forum, two pictures,
representing War and Triumph.[1848] He also placed in the Temple of
his father,[1849] Cæsar, a picture of the Castors,[1850] and one of
Victory, in addition to those which we shall mention in our account
of the works of the different artists.[1851] He also inserted two
pictures in the wall of the Curia[1852] which he consecrated in the
Comitium;[1853] one of which was a Nemea[1854] seated upon a lion,
and bearing a palm in her hand. Close to her is an Old Man, standing
with a staff, and above his head hangs the picture of a chariot
with two horses. Nicias[1855] has written upon this picture that he
“inburned”[1856] it, such being the word he has employed.
In the second picture the thing to be chiefly admired, is the
resemblance that the youth bears to the old man his father, allowing,
of course, for the difference in age; above them soars an eagle, which
grasps a dragon in its talons. Philochares[1857] attests that he is the
author of this work, an instance, if we only consider it, of the mighty
power wielded by the pictorial art; for here, thanks to Philochares,
the senate of the Roman people, age after age, has before its eyes
Glaucion and his son Aristippus, persons who would otherwise have been
altogether unknown. The Emperor Tiberius, too, a prince who was by no
means very gracious, has exhibited in the temple dedicated by him,
in his turn, to Augustus, several pictures which we shall describe
hereafter.[1858]
CHAP. 11. (5.)—THE ART OF PAINTING.
Thus much then with reference to the dignity of this now expiring art.
We have already[1859] stated with what single colours the earlier
artists painted, when speaking of these pigments under the head of
metals. The new modes of painting which were afterwards discovered,
and are known as “neogrammatea,”[1860] the names of the artists, their
different inventions, and the periods at which these inventions were
adopted, will all be described when we come to enumerate the painters:
for the present, however, the proposed plan of this work requires,
that I should enlarge upon the nature of the several colours that are
employed.
The art of painting at last became developed, in the invention of
light and shade, the alternating contrast of the colours serving to
heighten the effect of each. At a later period, again, lustre[1861] was
added, a thing altogether different from light. The gradation between
lustre and light on the one hand and shade on the other, was called
“tonos;” while the blending of the various tints, and their passing
into one another, was known as “harmoge.”[1862]
CHAP. 12. (6.)—PIGMENTS OTHER THAN THOSE OF A METALLIC ORIGIN.
ARTIFICIAL COLOURS.
Colours are either[1863] sombre or florid, these qualities arising
either from the nature, of the substances or their mode of combination.
The florid colours are those which the employer supplies[1864] to
the painter at his own expense; minium,[1865] namely, armenium,
cinnabaris,[1866] chrysocolla,[1867] indicum, and purpurissum. The
others are the sombre colours. Taking both kinds together, some
are native colours, and others are artificial. Sinopis, rubrica,
parætonium, melinum, eretria and orpiment, are native colours. The
others are artificial, more particularly those described by us when
speaking of metals; in addition to which there are, among the more
common colours, ochra, usta or burnt ceruse, sandarach, sandyx,
syricum, and atramentum.
CHAP. 13.—SINOPIS: ELEVEN REMEDIES.
Sinopis[1868] was discovered in Pontus; and hence its name, from the
city of Sinope there. It is produced also in Egypt, the Balearic
islands, and Africa; but the best is found in Lemnos and Cappadocia,
being extracted from quarries there. That part is considered the best
which has been found adhering to the rock. In the native mass, it has
its own proper colour within, but is spotted on the exterior; the
ancients made use of it for tone.[1869]
There are three kinds of sinopis, the red, the pale red, and the
intermediate. The price of the best is twelve denarii per pound; it
is used both for painting with the brush, and for colouring wood. The
kind which comes from Africa sells at eight asses per pound; the name
given to it is “cicerculum.”[1870] That[1871] which is of the deepest
red is the most in use for colouring compartitions. The sinopis known
as the dull[1872] kind, being of a very tawny complexion, sells also
at the price of eight asses per pound; it is used principally for the
lower[1873] parts of compartitions.
Used medicinally, sinopis is of a soothing nature, and is employed as
an ingredient in plasters and emollient poultices. It admits of being
easily used, whether in the form of a dry or of a liquid composition,
for the cure of ulcers situate in the humid parts of the body, the
mouth and the rectum, for instance. Used as an injection, it arrests
looseness of the bowels, and, taken in doses of one denarius, it acts
as a check upon female discharges. Applied in a burnt state, with wine
in particular, it has a desiccative effect upon granulations of the
eyelids.
CHAP. 14.—RUBRICA; LEMNIAN EARTH: FOUR REMEDIES.
Some persons have wished to make out that sinopis is nothing else but
a kind of rubrica[1874] of second-rate quality, looking upon earth
of Lemnos as a rubrics of the highest quality. This last approaches
very nearly to minium,[1875] and was as highly esteemed among the
ancients as the island that produces it: it was never sold except
in sealed packages, a circumstance to which it was indebted for its
additional name of “sphragis.” It is with this material that they give
the under-coating to minium, in the adulteration of which it is also
extensively employed.
In medicine it is very highly esteemed. Applied to the eyes in the form
of a liniment, it allays defluxions and pains in those organs, and
arrests the discharges from lachrymal fistulas. To persons vomiting
blood, it is administered with vinegar to drink. It is taken also
internally for affections of the spleen and kidneys; and by females for
the purpose of arresting flooding. It is employed too, to counteract
the effects of poisons, and of stings inflicted by sea or land
serpents; hence it is that it is so commonly used as an ingredient in
antidotes.
CHAP. 15.—EGYPTIAN EARTH.
Of the other kinds of rubrica, those of Egypt and Africa are of the
greatest utility to workers in wood, from the fact of their being
absorbed with the greatest rapidity. They are used also for painting,
and are found in a native state in iron-mines.[1876]
CHAP. 16.—OCHRA: REMEDIES DERIVED FROM RUBRICA.
It is from rubrica also, that ochra[1877] is prepared, the rubrica
being burnt[1878] in new earthen pots well luted with clay. The more
highly it is calcined in the furnace, the better the colour is. All
kinds of rubrica are of a desiccative nature, and hence it is that they
are so useful for plasters, and as an application even for erysipelas.
CHAP. 17.—LEUCOPHORON.
Half a pound of Pontic sinopis, ten pounds of bright sil,[1879] and
two pounds of Greek melinum,[1880] well mixed and triturated together
for twelve successive days, produce “leucophoron,”[1881] a cement used
for applying gold-leaf to wood.
CHAP. 18.—PARÆTONIUM.
Parætonium[1882] is so called from the place[1883] of that name in
Egypt. It is sea-foam,[1884] they say, solidified with slime, and
hence it is that minute shells are often found in it. It is prepared
also in the Isle of Crete, and at Cyrenæ. At Rome, it is adulterated
with Cimolian[1885] earth, boiled and thickened. The price of that of
the highest quality is fifty denarii per six pounds. This is the most
unctuous of all the white colours, and the most tenacious as a coating
for plaster, the result of its smoothness.
CHAP. 19.—MELINUM: SIX REMEDIES. CERUSE.
Melinum, too, is a white colour, the best being the produce of the Isle
of Melos.[1886] It is found also in Samos; but this last kind is never
used by painters, in consequence of its being too unctuous. The persons
employed in extracting it, lie at full length upon the ground, and
search for the veins among the rocks. In medicine it is employed for
much the same purposes as eretria;[1887] in addition to which, it dries
the tongue, acts as a depilatory, and has a soothing effect. The price
of it is one sestertius per pound.
The third of the white pigments is ceruse, the nature of which we
have already[1888] explained when speaking of the ores of lead; there
was also a native ceruse, formerly found on the lands of Theodotus
at Smyrna, which the ancients made use of for painting ships. At
the present day, all ceruse is prepared artificially, from lead and
vinegar,[1889] as already stated.
CHAP. 20.—USTA.
Usta[1890] was accidentally discovered at a fire in the Piræus,
some ceruse having been burnt in the jars there. Nicias, the artist
above-mentioned,[1891] was the first to use it. At the present day,
that of Asia, known also as “purpurea,” is considered the best. The
price of it is six denarii per pound. It is prepared also at Rome by
calcining marbled sil,[1892] and quenching it with vinegar. Without the
use of usta shadows cannot be made.[1893]
CHAP. 21.—ERETRIA.
Eretria takes its name from the territory[1894] which produces it.
Nicomachus[1895] and Parrhasius made use of it. In a medicinal point
of view, it is cooling and emollient. In a calcined state, it promotes
the cicatrization of wounds, is very useful as a desiccative, and
is particularly good for pains in the head, and for the detection
of internal suppurations. If the earth, when applied[1896] with
water, does not dry with rapidity, the presence of purulent matter is
apprehended.
CHAP. 22.—SANDARACH.
According to Juba, sandarach and ochra are both of them productions of
the island of Topazus,[1897] in the Red Sea; but neither of them are
imported to us from that place. The mode of preparing sandarach we
have described[1898] already: there is a spurious kind also, prepared
by calcining ceruse in the furnace. This substance, to be good, ought
to be of a flame colour; the price of it is five asses per pound.
CHAP. 23.—SANDYX.
Calcined with an equal proportion of rubrica, sandarach forms
sandyx;[1899] although I perceive that Virgil, in the following
line,[1900] has taken sandyx to be a plant—
“Sandyx itself shall clothe the feeding lambs.”
The price of sandyx[1901] is one half that of sandarach; these two
colours being the heaviest of all in weight.
CHAP. 24.—SYRICUM.
Among the artificial colours, too, is syricum, which is used as an
under-coating for minium, as already[1902] stated. It is prepared from
a combination of sinopis with sandyx.
CHAP. 25.—ATRAMENTUM.
Atramentum,[1903] too, must be reckoned among the artificial colours,
although it is also derived in two ways from the earth. For sometimes
it is found exuding from the earth like the brine of salt-pits, while
at other times an earth itself of a sulphurous colour is sought for
the purpose. Painters, too, have been known to go so far as to dig up
half-charred bones[1904] from the sepulchres for this purpose.
All these plans, however, are new-fangled and troublesome; for this
substance may be prepared, in numerous ways, from the soot that is
yielded by the combustion of resin or pitch; so much so, indeed,
that manufactories have been built on the principle of not allowing
an escape for the smoke evolved by the process. The most esteemed
black,[1905] however, that is made in this way, is prepared from the
wood of the torch-pine.
It is adulterated by mixing it with the ordinary soot from furnaces and
baths, a substance which is also employed for the purpose of writing.
Others, again, calcine dried wine-lees, and assure us that if the wine
was originally of good quality from which the colour is made, it will
bear comparison with that of indicum.[1906] Polygnotus and Micon, the
most celebrated painters of Athens, made their black from grape-husks,
and called it “tryginon.”[1907] Apelles invented a method of preparing
it from burnt ivory, the name given to it being “elephantinon.”
We have indicum also, a substance imported from India, the composition
of which is at present unknown to me.[1908] Dyers, too, prepare an
atramentum from the black inflorescence which adheres to the brazen
dye-pans. It is made also from logs of torch-pine, burnt to charcoal
and pounded in a mortar. The sæpia, too, has a wonderful property of
secreting a black liquid;[1909] but from this liquid no colour is
prepared. The preparation of every kind of atramentum is completed by
exposure to the sun; the black, for writing, having an admixture of
gum, and that for coating walls, an admixture of glue. Black pigment
that has been dissolved in vinegar is not easily effaced by washing.
CHAP. 26.—PURPURISSUM.
Among the remaining colours which, as already stated,[1910] owing to
their dearness are furnished by the employer, purpurissum holds the
highest rank. For the purpose of preparing it, argentaria or silver
chalk[1911] is dyed along with purple[1912] cloth, it imbibing the
colour more speedily than the wool. The best of all is that which,
being thrown the very first into the boiling cauldron, becomes
saturated with the dye in its primitive state. The next best in quality
is that which has been put into the same liquor, after the first
has been removed. Each time that this is done, the quality becomes
proportionally deteriorated, owing, of course, to the comparative
thinness of the liquid. The reason that the purpurissum of Puteoli is
more highly esteemed than that of Tyre, Gætulia, or Laconia, places
which produce the most precious kinds of purple, is the fact that it
combines more readily with hysginum,[1913] and that it is made to
absorb the colouring liquid of madder. The worst purpurissum is that of
Lanuvium.[1914]
The price of purpurissum is from one to thirty denarii per pound.
Persons who use it in painting, place a coat of sandyx beneath; a layer
on which of purpurissum with glair of egg, produces all the brilliant
tints of minium. If, on the other hand, it is their object to make a
purple, they lay a coat of cæruleum[1915] beneath, and purpurissum,
with egg,[1916] upon it.
CHAP. 27.—INDICUM.
Next in esteem to this is indicum,[1917] a production of India, being
a slime[1918] which adheres to the scum upon the reeds there. When
powdered, it is black in appearance, but when diluted in water it
yields a marvellous combination of purple and cæruleum. There is
another[1919] kind, also, which floats upon the surface of the pans in
the purple dye-houses, being the scum which rises upon the purple dye.
Persons who adulterate it, stain pigeons’ dung with genuine indicum, or
else colour Selinusian[1920] earth, or anularian[1921] chalk with woad.
The proper way of testing indicum is by laying it on hot coals, that
which is genuine producing a fine purple flame, and emitting a smell
like that of sea-water while it smokes: hence it is that some are of
opinion that it is gathered from the rocks on the sea-shore. The price
of indicum is twenty denarii per pound. Used medicinally, it alleviates
cold shiverings and defluxions, and acts as a desiccative upon sores.
CHAP. 28.—ARMENIUM; ONE REMEDY.
Armenia sends us the colouring substance which is known to us by its
name.[1922] This also is a mineral, which admits of being dyed, like
chrysocolla,[1923] and is best when it most closely resembles that
substance, the colour being pretty much that of cæruleum. In former
times it was sold at thirty sesterces per pound; but there has been
found of late in the Spanish provinces a sand which admits of a similar
preparation, and consequently armenium has come to be sold so low as
at six denarii per pound. It differs from cæruleum in a certain degree
of whiteness, which causes the colour it yields to be thinner in
comparison. The only use made of it in medicine is for the purpose of
giving nourishment to the hair, that of the eyelids in particular.
CHAP. 29.—APPIANUM.
There are also two colours of very inferior quality, which have
been recently discovered. One of these is the green known as
“appianum,”[1924] a fair imitation of chrysocolla; just as though, we
had not had to mention sufficient of these counterfeits already. This
colour, too, is prepared from a green chalk, the usual price of it
being one sesterce per pound.
CHAP. 30.—ANULARIAN WHITE.
The other colour is that known as “anularian[1925] white;” being used
for giving a brilliant whiteness to the figures of females.[1926] This,
too, is prepared from a kind of chalk, combined with the glassy paste
which the lower classes wear in their rings:[1927] hence it is, that it
has the name “anulare.”
CHAP. 31. (7.)—WHICH COLOURS DO NOT ADMIT OF BEING LAID ON A WET
COATING.
Those among the colours which require a dry, cretaceous, coating,[1928]
and refuse to adhere to a wet surface, are purpurissum, indicum,
cæruleum,[1929] melinum, orpiment, appianum, and ceruse. Wax,
too, is stained with all these colouring substances for encaustic
painting;[1930] a process which does not admit of being applied to
walls, but is in common use[1931] by way of ornament for ships of
war, and, indeed, merchant-ships at the present day. As we go so far
as to paint these vehicles of danger, no one can be surprised if we
paint our funeral piles as well, or if we have our gladiators conveyed
in handsome carriages to the scene of death, or, at all events, of
carnage. When we only contemplate this extensive variety of colours, we
cannot but admire the ingenuity displayed by the men of former days.
CHAP. 32.—WHAT COLOURS WERE USED BY THE ANCIENTS IN PAINTING.
It was with four colours only,[1932] that Apelles,[1933] Echion,
Melanthius, and Nicomachus, those most illustrous painters, executed
their immortal works; melinum[1934] for the white, Attic sil[1935]
for the yellow, Pontic sinopis for the red, and atramentum for the
black;[1936] and yet a single picture of theirs has sold before now
for the treasures of whole cities. But at the present day, when purple
is employed for colouring walls even, and when India sends to us the
slime[1937] of her rivers, and the corrupt blood of her dragons[1938]
and her elephants, there is no such thing as a picture of high quality
produced. Everything, in fact, was superior at a time when the
resources of art were so much fewer than they now are. Yes, so it is;
and the reason is, as we have already stated,[1939] that it is the
material, and not the efforts of genius, that is now the object of
research.
CHAP. 33.—AT WHAT TIME COMBATS OF GLADIATORS WERE FIRST PAINTED AND
PUBLICLY EXHIBITED.
One folly, too, of this age of ours, in reference to painting, I must
not omit. The Emperor Nero ordered a painting of himself to be executed
upon canvass, of colossal proportions, one hundred and twenty feet
in height; a thing till then unknown.[1940] This picture was just
completed when it was burnt by lightning, with the greater part of the
gardens of Maius, in which it was exhibited.
A freedman of the same prince, on the occasion of his exhibiting a show
of gladiators at Antium, had the public porticos hung, as everybody
knows, with paintings, in which were represented genuine portraits of
the gladiators and all the other assistants. Indeed, at this place,
there has been a very prevailing taste for paintings for many ages
past. C. Terentius Lucanus was the first who had combats of gladiators
painted for public exhibition: in honour of his grandfather, who had
adopted him, he provided thirty pairs of gladiators in the Forum, for
three consecutive days, and exhibited a painting of their combats in
the Grove of Diana.[1941]
CHAP. 34. (8.)—THE AGE OF PAINTING; WITH THE NAMES OF THE MORE
CELEBRATED WORKS AND ARTISTS, FOUR HUNDRED AND FIVE IN NUMBER.
I shall now proceed to enumerate, as briefly as possible, the
more eminent among the painters; it not being consistent with the
plan of this work to go into any great lengths of detail. It must
suffice therefore, in some cases, to name the artist in a cursory
manner only, and with reference to the account given of others; with
the exception, of course, of the more famous productions of the
pictorial art, whether still in existence or now lost, all of which
it will be only right to take some notice of. In this department,
the ordinary exactness of the Greeks has been somewhat inconsistent,
in placing the painters so many Olympiads after the statuaries and
toreutic[1942] artists, and the very first of them so late as the
ninetieth Olympiad; seeing that Phidias himself is said to have been
originally a painter, and that there was a shield at Athens which had
been painted by him; in addition to which, it is universally agreed
that in the eighty-third Olympiad, his brother Panænus[1943] painted,
at Elis,[1944] the interior of the shield of Minerva, which had been
executed by Colotes,[1945] a disciple of Phidias and his assistant in
the statue of the Olympian Jupiter.[1946] And then besides, is it not
equally admitted that Candaules, the last Lydian king of the race of
the Heraclidæ, very generally known also by the name of Myrsilus, paid
its weight in gold for a picture by the painter Bularchus,[1947] which
represented the battle fought by him with the Magnetes? so great was
the estimation in which the art was already held. This circumstance
must of necessity have happened about the period of our Romulus; for
it was in the eighteenth Olympiad that Candaules perished, or, as some
writers say, in the same year as the death of Romulus: a thing which
clearly demonstrates that even at that early period the art had already
become famous, and had arrived at a state of great perfection.
If, then, we are bound to admit this conclusion, it must be equally
evident that the commencement of the art is of much earlier date, and
that those artists who painted in monochrome,[1948] and whose dates
have not been handed down to us, must have flourished at even an
anterior period; Hygiænon, namely, Dinias, Charmadas,[1949] Eumarus, of
Athens, the first who distinguished the sexes[1950] in painting, and
attempted to imitate every kind of figure; and Cimon[1951] of Cleonæ,
who improved upon the inventions of Eumarus.
It was this Cimon, too, who first invented foreshortenings,[1952] or in
other words, oblique views of the figure, and who first learned to vary
the features by representing them in the various attitudes of looking
backwards, upwards, or downwards. It was he, too, who first marked the
articulations of the limbs, indicated the veins, and gave the natural
folds and sinuosities to drapery. Panænus, too, the brother of Phidias,
even executed a painting[1953] of the battle fought by the Athenians
with the Persians at Marathon: so common, indeed, had the employment of
colours become, and to such a state of perfection had the art arrived,
that he was able to represent, it is said, the portraits of the
various generals who commanded at that battle, Miltiades, Callimachus,
and Cynægirus, on the side of the Athenians, and, on that of the
barbarians, Datis and Artaphernes.
CHAP. 35. (9.)—THE FIRST CONTEST FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE PICTORIAL ART.
And not only this, but, during the time that Panænus flourished,
there were contests in the pictorial art instituted at Corinth and
Delphi. On the first occasion, Panænus himself entered the lists,
at the Pythian Games, with Timagoras of Chalcis, by whom he was
defeated; a circumstance which is recorded in some ancient lines by
Timagoras himself, and an undoubted proof that the chroniclers are in
error as to the date of the origin of painting. After these, and yet
before the ninetieth Olympiad, there were other celebrated painters,
Polygnotus of Thasos,[1954] for instance, who was the first to paint
females in transparent drapery, and to represent the head covered with
a parti-coloured head-dress. He, too, was the first to contribute
many other improvements to the art of painting, opening the mouth,
for example, showing the teeth, and throwing expression into the
countenance, in place of the ancient rigidity of the features.
There is a picture by this artist in the Portico[1955] of Pompeius,
before the Curia that was built by him; with reference to which, there
is some doubt whether the man represented with a shield is in the act
of ascending or descending. He also embellished the Temple[1956] at
Delphi, and at Athens the Portico known as the Pœcile;[1957] at which
last he worked gratuitously, in conjunction with Micon,[1958] who
received pay for his labours. Indeed Polygnotus was held in the higher
esteem of the two; for the Amphictyons,[1959] who form the general
Council of Greece, decreed that he should have his lodging furnished
him at the public expense.
There was also another Micon, distinguished from the first Micon by
the surname of “the younger,” and whose daughter Timarete[1960] also
practised the art of painting.
CHAP. 36.—ARTISTS WHO PAINTED WITH THE PENCIL.
In the ninetieth Olympiad lived Aglaophon,[1961] Cephisodorus, Erillus,
and Evenor, the father of Parrhasius, one of the greatest of painters,
and of whom we shall have to speak when we come to the period at which
he flourished. All these were artists of note, but not sufficiently
so to detain us by any further details, in our haste to arrive at the
luminaries of the art; first among whom shone Apollodorus of Athens,
in the ninety-third Olympiad. He was the first to paint objects as
they really appeared; the first too, we may justly say, to confer
glory[1962] by the aid of the pencil.[1963] Of this artist there is a
Priest in Adoration, and an Ajax struck by Lightning, a work to be seen
at Pergamus at the present day: before him, there is no painting of any
artist now to be seen which has the power of rivetting the eye.
The gates of art being now thrown open by Apollodorus, Zeuxis of
Heraclea[1964] entered upon the scene, in the fourth year of the
ninety-fifth Olympiad, destined to lead the pencil—for it is of the
pencil that we are still speaking—a pencil for which there was nothing
too arduous, to a very high pitch of glory. By some writers he is
erroneously placed in the eighty-ninth Olympiad, a date that must of
necessity be reserved for Demophilus of Himera and Neseus of Thasos,
of one of whom, it is uncertain which, Zeuxis was the pupil. It was in
reference to him that Apollodorus, above-mentioned, wrote a verse to
the effect, that Zeuxis had stolen the art from others and had taken
it all to himself.[1965] Zeuxis also acquired such a vast amount of
wealth, that, in a spirit of ostentation, he went so far as to parade
himself at Olympia with his name embroidered on the checked pattern of
his garments in letters of gold. At a later period, he came to the
determination to give away his works, there being no price high enough
to pay for them, he said. Thus, for instance, he gave an Alcmena to the
people of Agrigentum, and a Pan to Archelaüs.[1966] He also painted a
Penelope, in which the peculiar character of that matron appears to be
delineated to the very life; and a figure of an athlete, with which
he was so highly pleased, that he wrote beneath it the line which has
since become so famous, to the effect that it would be easier to find
fault with him than to imitate him.[1967] His Jupiter seated on the
throne, with the other Deities standing around him, is a magnificent
production: the same, too, with his Infant Hercules strangling the
Dragons, in presence of Amphitryon and his mother Alcmena, who is
struck with horror. Still, however, Zeuxis is generally censured for
making the heads and articulations of his figures out of proportion.
And yet, so scrupulously careful was he, that on one occasion, when he
was about to execute a painting for the people of Agrigentum,[1968] to
be consecrated in the Temple of the Lacinian Juno there, he had the
young maidens of the place stripped for examination, and selected five
of them, in order to adopt in his picture the most commendable points
in the form of each. He also painted some monochromes in white.[1969]
The contemporaries and rivals of Zeuxis were Timanthes, Androcydes,
Eupompus, and Parrhasius. (10.) This last, it is said, entered into a
pictorial contest with Zeuxis, who represented some grapes, painted so
naturally that the birds flew towards the spot where the picture was
exhibited. Parrhasius, on the other hand, exhibited a curtain, drawn
with such singular truthfulness, that Zeuxis, elated with the judgment
which had been passed upon his work by the birds, haughtily demanded
that the curtain should be drawn aside to let the picture be seen.
Upon finding his mistake, with a great degree of ingenuous candour he
admitted that he had been surpassed, for that whereas he himself had
only deceived the birds, Parrhasius had deceived him, an artist.
There is a story, too, that at a later period, Zeuxis having painted
a child carrying grapes, the birds came to peck at them; upon which,
with a similar degree of candour, he expressed himself vexed with his
work, and exclaimed—“I have surely painted the grapes better than the
child, for if I had fully succeeded in the last, the birds would have
been in fear of it.” Zeuxis executed some figures also in clay,[1970]
the only works of art that were left behind at Ambracia, when Fulvius
Nobilior[1971] transported the Muses from that city to Rome. There is
at Rome a Helena by Zeuxis, in the Porticos of Philippus,[1972] and a
Marsyas Bound, in the Temple of Concord[1973] there.
Parrhasius of Ephesus also contributed greatly to the progress of
painting, being the first to give symmetry to his figures, the first
to give play and expression to the features, elegance to the hair,
and gracefulness to the mouth: indeed, for contour, it is universally
admitted by artists that he bore away the palm. This, in painting, is
the very highest point of skill. To paint substantial bodies and the
interior of objects is a great thing, no doubt, but at the same time
it is a point in which many have excelled: but to make the extreme
outline of the figure, to give the finishing touches to the painting
in rounding off the contour, this is a point of success in the art
which is but rarely attained. For the extreme outline, to be properly
executed, requires to be nicely rounded, and so to terminate as to
prove the existence of something more behind it, and thereby disclose
that which it also serves to hide.
Such is the merit conceded to Parrhasius by Antigonus[1974] and
Xenocrates,[1975] who have written on the art of painting; and in this
as well as in other points, not only do they admit his excellence,
but enlarge upon it in terms of the highest commendation. There are
many pen sketches by him still in existence, both upon panel and on
parchment, from the study of which, even artists, it is said, may
greatly profit.
Notwithstanding these points of excellence, however, Parrhasius seems
comparatively inferior to himself in giving the proper expression to
the middle of the body. In his allegorical picture of the People of
Athens, he has displayed singular ingenuity in the treatment of his
subject; for in representing it, he had to depict it as at once fickle,
choleric, unjust, and versatile; while, again, he had equally to show
its attributes of implacability[1976] and clemency, compassionateness
and pride, loftiness and humility, fierceness and timidity—and all
these at once. He painted a Theseus also, which was formerly in the
Capitol at Rome, a Naval Commander[1977] wearing a cuirass, and, in one
picture, now at Rhodes, figures of Meleager, Hercules, and Perseus.
This last painting, though it has been thrice struck by lightning,
has escaped being effaced, a circumstance which tends to augment the
admiration which it naturally excites. He painted an Archigallus[1978]
also, a picture which the Emperor Tiberius greatly admired. According
to Deculo,[1979] that prince had it shut up in his chamber, the price
at which it was valued being six hundred thousand sesterces.
Parrhasius also painted a Thracian Nurse, with an Infant in her arms, a
Philiscus,[1980] a Father Liber[1981] attended by Virtue, Two Children,
in which we see pourtrayed the careless simplicity of childhood, and
a Priest attended by a Boy, with a censer and chaplet. There are also
two most noble pictures by him; one of which represents a Runner[1982]
contending for the prize, completely armed, so naturally depicted that
he has all the appearance of sweating. In the other we see the Runner
taking off his armour, and can fancy that we hear him panting aloud
for breath. His Æneas, Castor, and Pollux, all represented in the same
picture, are highly praised; his Telephus also, and his Achilles,
Agamemnon, and Ulysses.
Parrhasius was a most prolific artist, but at the same time there
was no one who enjoyed the glory conferred upon him by his talent
with greater insolence and arrogance. It was in this spirit, that
he went so far as to assume certain surnames, and to call himself
“Habrodiætus;”[1983] while in some other verses he declared himself
to be the “prince of painters,” and asserted that in him the art had
arrived at perfection. But above all things, it was a boast with him
that he had sprung from the lineage of Apollo, and that he had painted
his Hercules, a picture now at Lindos, just as he had often seen him
in his sleep. It was in this spirit, too, that upon being defeated by
Timanthes, at Samos, by a great majority of votes, the subject of the
picture being Ajax and the Award of the Arms,[1984] he declared, in the
name of his hero, that he felt himself quite disgraced on thus seeing
himself a second time defeated by an unworthy opponent. He painted also
some smaller pictures of an immodest nature, indulging his leisure in
such prurient fancies as these.[1985]
As to Timanthes,[1986] he was an artist highly gifted with genius,
and loud have some of the orators[1987] been in their commendations
of his Iphigenia, represented as she stands at the altar awaiting her
doom. Upon the countenance of all present, that of her uncle[1988] in
particular, grief was depicted; but having already exhausted all the
characteristic features of sorrow, the artist adopted the device of
veiling the features of the victim’s father,[1989] finding himself
unable adequately to give expression to his feelings. There are also
some other proofs of his genius, a Sleeping Cyclops, for instance,
which he has painted upon a small panel; but, being desirous to convey
an idea of his gigantic stature, he has painted some Satyrs near him
measuring his thumb with a thyrsus. Indeed, Timanthes is the only one
among the artists in whose works there is always something more implied
by the pencil than is expressed, and whose execution, though of the
very highest quality, is always surpassed by the inventiveness of his
genius. He has also painted the figure of a Hero, a master-piece of
skill, in which he has carried the art to the very highest pitch of
perfection, in the delineation of the warrior: this last-mentioned
work is now at Rome, in the Temple of Pence.[1990]
It was at this period, too, that Euxinidas had for his pupil
Aristides,[1991] who became a most illustrious artist; and that
Eupompus instructed Pamphilus, who afterwards became the instructor of
Apelles. There is by Eupompus, a Victor in a gymnastic contest, holding
a palm. So high was the reputation of this artist, that he established
a school of painting, and so divided the art into three styles;
whereas till then there had been but two, known respectively as the
Helladic[1992] and the Asiatic. In honour of him, a native of Sicyon by
birth, the Helladic school was divided into two, and from this period
there were three distinct styles recognized, the Ionic, the Sicyonian,
and the Attic.
We have, by Pamphilus,[1993] a picture representing the Alliance and
the Battle that was fought at Phlius;[1994] the Victory[1995] also
that was gained by the Athenians, and a representation of Ulysses in
his ship. He was a Macedonian by birth, but was the first painter who
was also skilled in all the other sciences, arithmetic and geometry
more particularly, without the aid of which he maintained that the
pictorial art could not attain perfection. He gave instruction to no
one for a smaller sum than one talent, at the rate of five hundred
denarii per annum,[1996] and this fee both Apelles and Melanthius
paid. It was through his influence that, first at Sicyon, and then
throughout the whole of Greece, all children of free birth were taught
the graphic[1997] art, or in other words, the art of depicting upon
boxwood, before all others; in consequence of which this came to be
looked upon as the first step in the liberal arts. It is the fact,
however, that this art has always been held in high estimation, and
cultivated by persons of free birth, and that, at a more recent period,
men of rank even began to pursue it; it having always been forbidden
that slaves should receive instruction in it. Hence it is, that neither
in painting nor in the toreutic[1998] art has there been any celebrated
work executed by a slave.
In the hundred and seventh Olympiad, flourished Aëtion and
Therimachus.[1999] By the former we have some fine pictures; a Father
Liber,[2000] Tragedy and Comedy, Semiramis from the rank of a slave
elevated to the throne, an Old Woman bearing torches, and a New-made
Bride, remarkable for the air of modesty with which she is pourtrayed.
But it was Apelles[2001] of Cos, in the hundred and twelfth Olympiad,
who surpassed all the other painters who either preceded or succeeded
him. Single-handed, he contributed more to painting than all the others
together, and even went so far as to publish some treatises on the
principles of the art. The great point of artistic merit with him was
his singular charm of gracefulness,[2002] and this too, though the
greatest of painters were his contemporaries. In admiring their works
and bestowing high eulogiums upon them, he used to say that there
was still wanting in them that ideal of beauty[2003] so peculiar to
himself, and known to the Greeks as “Charis;”[2004] others, he said,
had acquired all the other requisites of perfection, but in this one
point he himself had no equal. He also asserted his claim to another
great point of merit: admiring a picture by Protogenes, which bore
evident marks of unbounded laboriousness and the most minute finish,
he remarked that in every respect Protogenes was fully his equal, or
perhaps his superior, except in this, that he himself knew when to
take his hand off a picture—a memorable lesson, which teaches us that
overcarefulness may be productive of bad results. His candour too, was
equal to his talent; he acknowledged the superiority of Melanthius in
his grouping, and of Asclepiodorus in the niceness of his measurements,
or, in other words, the distances that ought to be left between the
objects represented.
A circumstance that happened to him in connection with Protogenes
is worthy of notice. The latter was living at Rhodes, when Apelles
disembarked there, desirous of seeing the works of a man whom he had
hitherto only known by reputation. Accordingly, he repaired at once
to the studio; Protogenes was not at home, but there happened to be a
large panel upon the easel ready for painting, with an old woman who
was left in charge. To his enquiries she made answer, that Protogenes
was not at home, and then asked whom she should name as the visitor.
“Here he is,” was the reply of Apelles, and seizing a brush, he traced
with colour upon the panel an outline of a singularly minute fineness.
Upon his return, the old woman mentioned to Protogenes what had
happened. The artist, it is said, upon remarking the delicacy of the
touch, instantly exclaimed that Apelles must have been the visitor, for
that no other person was capable of executing anything so exquisitely
perfect. So saying, he traced within the same outline a still finer
outline, but with another colour, and then took his departure, with
instructions to the woman to show it to the stranger, if he returned,
and to let him know that this was the person whom he had come to see.
It happened as he anticipated; Apelles returned, and vexed at finding
himself thus surpassed, he took up another colour and split[2005]
both of the outlines, leaving no possibility of anything finer being
executed. Upon seeing this, Protogenes admitted that he was defeated,
and at once flew to the harbour to look for his guest. He thought
proper, too, to transmit the panel to posterity, just as it was, and it
always continued to be held in the highest admiration by all, artists
in particular. I am told that it was burnt in the first fire which
took place at Cæsar’s palace on the Palatine Hill; but in former times
I have often stopped to admire it. Upon its vast surface it contained
nothing whatever except the three outlines, so remarkably fine as to
escape the sight: among the most elaborate works of numerous other
artists it had all the appearance of a blank space; and yet by that
very fact it attracted the notice of every one, and was held in higher
estimation than any other painting there.
It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously adhered,
never to let any day pass, however busy he might be, without exercising
himself by tracing some outline or other; a practice which has now
passed into a proverb.[2006] It was also a practice with him, when
he had completed a work, to exhibit it to the view of the passers-by
in some exposed place;[2007] while he himself, concealed behind the
picture, would listen to the criticisms that were passed upon it; it
being his opinion that the judgment of the public was preferable to
his own, as being the more discerning of the two. It was under these
circumstances, they say, that he was censured by a shoemaker for having
represented the shoes with one shoe-string too little. The next day,
the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected, thanks
to his advice, began to criticize the leg; upon which Apelles, full of
indignation, popped his head out, and reminded him that a shoemaker
should give no opinion beyond the shoes, a piece of advice which has
equally passed into a proverbial saying.[2008] In fact, Apelles was
a person of great amenity of manners, a circumstance which rendered
him particularly agreeable to Alexander the Great, who would often
come to his studio. He had forbidden himself, by public edict, as
already stated,[2009] to be represented by any other artist. On one
occasion, however, when the prince was in his studio, talking a great
deal about painting without knowing anything about it, Apelles quietly
begged that he would quit the subject, telling him that he would
get laughed at by the boys who were there grinding the colours: so
great was the influence which he rightfully possessed over a monarch,
who was otherwise of an irascible temperament. And yet, irascible as
he was, Alexander conferred upon him a very signal mark of the high
estimation in which he held him; for having, in his admiration of her
extraordinary beauty, engaged Apelles to paint Pancaste undraped,[2010]
the most beloved of all his concubines, the artist while so engaged,
fell in love with her; upon which, Alexander, perceiving this to be
the case, made him a present of her, thus showing himself, though a
great king in courage, a still greater one in self-command, this action
redounding no less to his honour than any of his victories. For in thus
conquering himself, not only did he sacrifice his passions in favour
of the artist, but even his affections as well; uninfluenced, too, by
the feelings which must have possessed his favourite in thus passing at
once from the arms of a monarch to those of a painter. Some persons are
of opinion that Pancaste was the model of Apelles in his painting of
Venus Anadyomene.[2011]
It was Apelles too, who, courteous even to his rivals, first
established the reputation of Protogenes at Rhodes. Held as he was
in little estimation by his own fellow-countrymen, a thing that
generally[2012] is the case, Apelles enquired of him what price he
set upon certain finished works of his, which he had on hand. Upon
Protogenes mentioning some very trifling sum or other, Apelles made
him an offer of fifty talents, and then circulated a report that he
was buying these works in order to sell them as his own. By this
contrivance, he aroused the Rhodians to a better appreciation of the
merits of their artist, and only consented to leave the pictures with
them upon their offering a still larger price.
He painted portraits, too, so exactly to the life, that a fact with
which we are made acquainted by the writings of Apion the grammarian
seems altogether incredible. One of those persons, he says, who
divine events by the traits of the features, and are known as
“metoposcopi,”[2013] was enabled, by an examination of his portraits,
to tell the year of their death, whether past or future, of each person
represented. Apelles had been on bad terms with Ptolemæus in former
times, when they formed part of the suite of Alexander. After Ptolemæus
had become king of Egypt, it so happened that Apelles was driven by
the violence of a tempest to Alexandria. Upon this, some of his rivals
fraudulently suborned a jester, who was attached to the court, to carry
him an invitation to dine with the king. Accordingly, Apelles attended;
upon which Ptolemæus was highly indignant, and, summoning before him
his stewards[2014] of the household, requested that the artist would
point out the one that had given him the invitation. Thus challenged,
Apelles seized a piece of quenched charcoal that lay in the fire-place,
and traced a likeness upon the wall, with such exactness, that the
king, the moment he began it, recognized the features as those of the
jester. He also painted a portrait of King Antigonus;[2015] and as
that monarch was blind of one eye, he invented a method of concealing
the defect. With this object, he painted him in profile, in order that
what in reality was wanting to the person might have the semblance of
being wanting to the picture rather, he making it his care to show that
side of the face only which he could show without any defect. Among his
works, too, there are some figures representing persons at the point of
death; but it is not easy to say which of his productions are of the
highest order of excellence.
His Venus Rising from the Sea, known as the Venus Anadyomene,[2016] was
consecrated by the late Emperor Augustus in the Temple[2017] of his
father[2018] Cæsar; a work which has been celebrated in certain Greek
lines,[2019] which, though they have outlived it, have perpetuated its
fame.[2020] The lower part of the picture having become damaged, no
one could be found to repair it; and thus did the very injury which
the picture had sustained, redound to the glory of the artist. Time,
however, and damp at last effaced the painting, and Nero, in his reign,
had it replaced by a copy, painted by the hand of Dorotheus.[2021]
Apelles also commenced another Venus for the people of Cos,[2022]
which would have outshone even the former one; but death invidiously
prevented its completion, nor could any one be found to complete the
work in conformity with the sketches of the outline. He painted also,
in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, Alexander the Great wielding the
Thunderbolts, a picture for which he received twenty talents of gold.
The fingers have all the appearance of projecting from the surface,
and the lightning seems to be darting from the picture. And then, too,
let the reader bear in mind that all these works were executed by the
aid of four[2023] colours only. The price paid in golden coin for this
picture was ascertained by weight,[2024] there being no specific sum
agreed upon.
He also painted a Procession of the Megabyzus,[2025] the priest of
Diana at Ephesus; and a Clitus[2026] on Horseback, hastening to the
combat, his Armour-bearer handing him his helmet at his command.
How many times he painted Alexander and Philip, it would be quite
superfluous to attempt to enumerate. At Samos, there is a Habron[2027]
by him, that is greatly admired; at Rhodes a Menander,[2028] king
of Caria, and an Ancæus;[2029] at Alexandria, a Gorgosthenes, the
Tragedian; and at Rome, a Castor and Pollux, with figures of Victory
and Alexander the Great, and an emblematical figure of War with her
hands tied behind her, and Alexander seated in a triumphal car; both
of which pictures the late Emperor Augustus, with a great degree of
moderation[2030] and good taste, consecrated in the most frequented
parts of his Forum: the Emperor Claudius, however, thought it advisable
to efface the head of Alexander in both pictures, and substitute
likenesses of his predecessor Augustus. It is by his hand too, it is
generally supposed, that the Hercules, with the face averted, now in
the Temple of Anna,[2031] was painted; a picture in which, one of the
greatest difficulties in the art, the face, though hidden, may be
said to be seen rather than left to the imagination. He also painted
a figure of a naked[2032] Hero,[2033] a picture in which he has
challenged Nature herself.
There exists too, or did exist, a Horse that was painted by him for a
pictorial contest; as to the merits of which, Apelles appealed from
the judgment of his fellow-men to that of the dumb quadrupeds. For,
finding that by their intrigues his rivals were likely to get the
better of him, he had some horses brought, and the picture of each
artist successively shown to them. Accordingly, it was only at the
sight of the horse painted by Apelles that they began to neigh; a
thing that has always been the case since, whenever this test of his
artistic skill has been employed. He also painted a Neoptolemus[2034]
on horse-back, fighting with the Persians; an Archeläus,[2035] with his
Wife and Daughter; and an Antigonus on foot, with a cuirass on, and
his horse led by his side. Connoisseurs in the art give the preference,
before all other works of his, to his paintings of King Archeläus on
horseback, and of Diana in the midst of a throng of Virgins performing
a sacrifice; a work in which he would appear to have surpassed the
lines[2036] of Homer descriptive of the same subject. He also portrayed
some things, which in reality do not admit of being portrayed—thunder,
lightning, and thunderbolts, in pictures which are known by the
respective names of Bronte, Astrape, and Ceraunobolia.
His inventions, too, in the art of painting, have been highly
serviceable to others; but one thing there was in which no one could
imitate him. When his works were finished, he used to cover them
with a black varnish, of such remarkable thinness, that while by the
reflection it gave more vivacity to the colours, and preserved them
from the contact of dust and dirt, its existence could only be detected
by a person when close enough to touch it.[2037] In addition to this,
there was also this other great advantage attending it: the brightness
of the colours was softened thereby, and harmonized to the sight,
looking as though they had been viewed from a distance, and through a
medium of specular-stone;[2038] the contrivance, by some indescribable
means, giving a sombreness to colours which would otherwise have been
too florid.