256 pltnt's natural HISTOET. [Book XXXV. 



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 in- 

 struction in it. Hence it is, that neither in painting nor in the 

 toreutic"^^ art has there been any celebrated work executed by 

 a slave. 



In the hundred and seventh Olympiad, flourished Action and 

 Therimachus.''^ By the former we have some fine pictures ; a 

 Father Liber, ^'^ 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'*^ 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, ^° and this too, though the greatest of painters 

 were his contemporaries. In admiring their works and be- 

 stowing high eulogiums upon them, he used to say that there 

 was still wanting in them that ideal of beauty^^ so peculiar to 

 himself, and known to the Greeks as ^'Charis ;" ^^ 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 gi^eat 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 Proto- 

 genes 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 over- 

 carefulness may be productive of bad results. His candour 



^■' See end of B. xxxiii. 



*^ Both of whoni are mentioned as statuaries, in the early part of B. 

 xxxiv. 0. 19. ^'^ Bacchus. 



*9 The generality of Greek writers represent him as a native either of 

 Ephesus, or of Colophon. 



oo "Venustas." This word, it has been remarked, will hardly bear a 

 definition. It has been rendered " grace," " elegance," " beauty." 



^^ " Venerem." The name of the Godd.ess of Beauty. 



53 i 



' Gracefulness." 



