258 PLINy's NATUHA.L HIStOET. [Book XXXV. 



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 Csesar'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. ^^ It wa« 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 ;^^ while 

 he himself, concealed behind the picture, Avould 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 circum- 

 stances, 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.^^ In fact, Apelles was a person of great 

 amenity of manners, a circumstance which rendered him par- 

 ticularly agreeable to Alexander the Great, who would often 

 come to his studio. He had forbidden himself, by public edict, 

 as already stated," 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 sub- 



^* The Latin form of which, as given by Erasmus, is "Nulla dies abeat, 

 quia ]inea ducta supersit." " Let no day pass by, without an outline 

 being drawn, and left in remembrance." 55 «< j^ pergula." 



^^ "Ne sutor ultra crepidam." Equivalent to our saying, "Let not 

 the shoemaker go beyond his last." s^ In B. vii. c. 38. 



