57 8 On the Art of Tainting 



Pliny particularizes feveral inftances of the (kill 

 of Apelles as a portrait painter.* 



Apelles, however, was far fronn being the 

 only jx>rrrait painter of eminence even in his 

 day; for his cotemporary Ariftotle, alluding to 

 portrait painters, fays, that Polygnotus flattered, 

 Dionyfius adhered to truth, and Paufon made his 

 likenefTes inferior to the originals. f Nor was 

 portrait painting lefs in vogue among the Ro- 

 mans than among the Greeks. Marcus Varro 

 appears from a paffage in Pliny (if I underftand 

 it aright) to have publilhed a book with the 

 portraits of feven hundred illuftrious menj J and 



Lai a, 



* Plin. XXXV. 36. Imaginem adeo fimilitudinis in- 

 difcretsE pinxit ut (incredibilc diftu) Apion Grammatlcus 

 fcriptum reliquerit, quemdam ex facie hominem addivi- 

 nantern (quos inetopofcopos vocant) ex iis dixifTe, aut fu- 

 . turas mortis annos aut praeterits. Non fuerat ei gratia in 

 comitatu Alexandri cum Ptolomaso: quo regnante Alexan- 

 driam vi tempeflatis expulfus, fubornato fraude piano regio 

 invltatus ad caenam venit : indignantique Ptolomaso, et 

 vocatores fuos oftendenti, ut diceret a quo eorum invita- 

 tas effet, arreptoque carbone extinfto e foculo, imaginem 

 in pariete delineavit, agnofcente vultum plani rege ex in- 

 choate protinus. Pinxit et Antigoni regis imaginem, 

 &c. &c. 



t Poetics. Hi<p. S. n.o>>uyvul@' ijlsv x^Ejrlaj, Hawrov h x^'P'^i 



t Imaginum amore flagrafle quofdam^ teftes funt et 

 Atticus ille Ciceronis edito de his volumine, et Marcus 



Varro 



