among the Ancients. 577 



fentation of objeds, and thefe frequently fo nu- 

 merous in one pidlure, without acquiring, almoft 

 imperceptibly, a confiderable degree of Ikill in 

 the perfpedive difpofition of them. It is cer- 

 tain however that the inferior artifts among the 

 moderns are much fuperior, in this refped, to 

 thofe of the fame'clafs annong the ancients. 



We have very few means of deciding accu- 

 rately concerning the merit of the ancients in 

 PORTRAIT PAINTING j which appears however to 

 have been much praftifed by the moft eminent 

 among the ancient artifts. Nor indeed is it likely 

 that that branch of the art Ihould be negleded 

 at any period of the progrefs of painting, to 

 which the origin of the art itfelf * is with great 

 probability afcribed. 



Portrait painting feems to have been a princi- 

 pal employment of the firft artift whom the an- 

 cients have to boaft of. Alexander is faid to 

 have permitted no painter but Apelles, and no 

 fculptor but Phidias to take his likenefs ;-j- and 



* And indeed of modelling. Dibutades Sicyonius figu- 

 lus primus invenit Corinthi filiz opera. Quae capta anaore 

 Juvenis illo aheunte peregre, umbtam ex facie ejus ad 

 lucernam in pariete lineis circumfcripfit : quibus pater 

 ejus impreffa argilla typum fecit et cum ceteris fiftilibus 

 induratum igni propofuit. Plin. XXXV. 43. 



t Quint. Cure. lib. II. cap. 6. Plut. vit. Alex. Plin. 

 XXXV. 36. Alexandrum et Philippum quoiies pinx^ric 

 enumerare fupervacuum eft. 



Vol. III. P p Pliny 



