250 plint's natxjeal history. [Book XXXV. 



greatest of painters, and of whom we shall hare 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 ApoUodorus 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 ^ by the aid of the pencil.^" Of this artist 

 there is a Priest in Adoration, and an Ajax struck by Light-^ 

 ning, 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 ApoUodorus,- 

 Zeuxis of Heraclea^^ 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 re-' 

 served 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 ApoUodorus, above-mentioned, 

 wrote a verse to the effect, that Zeuxis had stolen the art 

 from others and had taken it all to himself.'^ 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 



9 *' Prirausque gloriara penicillo jure contulit." "Wornura considers 

 tbat " the ricli effect of the combination of light and shade with colour is 

 clearly expressed in these words." — Smith's Diet. Antiq. Art. Fainting. 

 This artist, who was noted for his arrogance, is mentioned by other ancient 

 writers. 



10 "Penicillus." This was the hair-pencil or brush, which was used by 

 one class of painters, in contradistinction to the stylus or oestrum used for 

 spreading the wax-colours. Painters with the brush used what we should 

 term " water-colours ;" oil-colours, in our sense of the word, being un- 

 known to the ancients. 



11 In "Magna Grsecia," near Crotona, it is supposed. Tzetzes styles 

 him as an Ephesian. 



12 This is probably the meaning of the words — " Artem ipsis ablatam 

 Zeuxim ferre secum." It is doubtful whether "ipsis" or "ipsi" is the 

 correct reading. 



