929 



ZEUXIS. 



ZHUKOVSKY, VASILY AND11EEVICH. 



030 



Zeuxis, but his most celebrated work was his Helen, which he painted 

 for the city of Croton. It was in the painter's own opinion a perfect 

 work, and he inscribed upon the pannel, according to Valerius Maxi- 

 ma?, the three lines of Homer, thus rendered by Popo : 

 " No wonder such celestial charms 



For nine long years have set the world in arms ! 



"What winning graces ! what majestic mien ! 



She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen." 



' Iliad,' iii., 156.158. 



This picture, for which, says Cicero, the citizens of Croton allowed 

 Zeuxis to select five of their most beautiful virgins as his models, was 

 dedicated in the temple of Juno Lacinia at Croton. 



.^Elian says that Zeuxis exhibited this picture at so much a head, 

 and made a great deal of money by the exhibition, and that it 

 acquired the name of The Prostitute in consequence. It was a very 

 famous work in after-times, and painters apparently travelled to 

 Croton to see it. Stobaeus relates that the celebrated Nicomachus of 

 Thebes, hearing some person remark that he perceived nothing extra- 

 ordinary in the picture, observed "Take my eyes, and you will see a 

 goddess." There was in Pliny's time a picture of Helen by Zeuxis, in 

 the Portico of Philip at Rome. Probably a greater work by Zeuxis, 

 though less celebrated than his Helen, was his picture which he pre- 

 sented to the Agrigentines, of the infant Hercules strangling the ser- 

 pent sent by Juno to destroy him, in the presence of his panic-struck 

 mother Alcmena and of Amphitryon. Other famous works by him 

 were Jupiter in the midst of the assembly of the Gods; Penelope 

 bewailing the absence of her husband; Menelaus mourning over the 

 fate of Agamemnon ; a Marsyas bound, in the temple of Concord at 

 Rome in Pliny's time ; an Athlete, under which he wrote the line 

 "It is easier to find fault than to imitate," which, according to Plu- 

 tarch, Apollodorus wrote upon some of his pictures ; and a Cupid 

 crowned with roses, which was in the temple of Venus at Athens. 

 This Cupid is noticed by Aristophanes in the comedy of the ' Achar- 

 ncnses,' but the painter's name is not mentioned ; it is however 

 ascribed by the scholiast to Zeuxis. As this comedy was acted as 

 early as the third year of the 88th Olympiad (B.C. 426), Sillig has con- 

 cluded that it is an error of the scholiast to ascribe the picture in 

 question to Zeuxis, as he cannot have painted it so soon ; but from 

 what has been said above it is pretty evident that Zeuxis was a man of 

 mature years in B.C. 426, and, as we have seen, he had amassed a 

 fqrtune within twenty-seven years of this date, for he presented a 

 picture of Pan to Archelaus, who died in B.C. 399. Zeuxis had pre- 

 viously executed several works for Archelaus in his palace at Pella, for 

 which the king, says ^Eliau, paid him 400 minse, 16251, according to 

 Hussey : this, though a small sum compared with what was paid to 

 some of the painters of the Alexandrine period and later, was pro- 

 bably at the time comparatively a very large one. The time and 

 place of Zeuxis's death are unknown, but, as Sillig has observed, he 

 must have died, and probably some years, before the second year of 

 the 106th Olympiad (B.C. 355), the year in \vhich Isocrates delivered 

 his oration irepl 'Avntiocrews (on the exchange of property), in which he 

 praises Zeuxis, for, according to the Greek custom, he would not have 

 done it had the painter been still living. Festus (sub voc. ' Pictor') 

 relates, from Verrius, that he died through laughing excessively at the 

 picture of an old woman which he had made, but this is probably a 

 mere fiction : there is no other notice of such a disaster. 



Zeuxis is represented as having been very proud of his reputation 

 and ostentatious of his wealth; he used to wear a mantle with his 

 name woven in letters of gold on the border. To balance this weak- 

 ness there are two or three anecdotes of an opposite character, which 

 show that he had no want of penetration. Plutarch relates a story, 

 that upon an occasion when in his company a painter of the name of 

 Agatharchus boasted of the great facility and rapidity with which he 

 painted, Zeuxis quietly remarked, that he took a long time to paint 

 anything. And ^Elian records how he reproved a certain Megabyzus, 

 a high priest of Diana at Ephesus, who during a visit to the painter 

 conversed so very iguorantly about pictures, that some lads who were 

 grinding colours were forced to laugh, upon which Zeuxis observed to 

 him "As long as you were silent, these boys were admiring you. 

 wondering at your rich attire, and the number of your servants ; but 

 now that you have ventured to discourse about the arts, of which you 

 have no knowledge, they are laughing at you." Plutarch relates this 

 story of Apelles and Megabyzus, and Pliny relates it of Apelles and 

 Alexander-. Zeuxis, probably while at Ephesus, entered into a contest 

 with Parrhasius ; Zeuxis painted some grapes which are said to have 

 deceived birds, but Parrhasius painted a curtain which deceived 

 Zeuxis himself, who accordingly confessed himself beaten. Zeuxis 

 also painted a boy carrying some grapes, which likewise deceived the 

 birds, but in this instance, to the dissatisfaction of the painter, who 

 observed, that if the boy had been as well painted as the grapes the 

 birds would havo feared to approach them. Though these stories in 

 themselves are valueless, the fact that such stories should have been 

 circulated in ancient times is of considerable interest, as it shows that 

 the ancients believed that exact imitation could be accomplished in 

 colours, a result they could only have arrived at by the evidence of 

 their senses; yet they do not appear to have estimated such pro- 

 ductions at more than their due value, whicfc is evident from the fact 

 that there is scarcely a passage in ancient authors in which mere 

 BIOG. D1V. VOL. VI. 



beauty of execution and exact fidelity of imitation aro praised, if we 

 except one or two original expressions of Pliny, who is the least 

 critical of all the ancient writers when speaking of the arts. 



Cicero states that Zeuxis used only four colours, but this is probably 

 an error, or he may mean in his carnations, in which four are all that 

 are necessary. The same writer makes also the following remark : 

 that the works of Zeuxis, of Aglaophon, and of Apelles are in different 

 styles, yet they are all three perfect in their respective styles. Zeuxis 

 painted also pictures in white or mere chiaroscuro, that is, in light and 

 shade, what the Greeks termed monochroms (/wwoxpaywra), that is, in 

 one colour. 



It is remarkable that Pausanias does not mention the name of 

 Zeuxis, and we may infer from this that Zeuxis painted easel pictures 

 only, or upon tabulae, wooden pannels (iriVa;cs), which, from their 

 perishable nature and facility of removal, are very easily lost. The 

 more eminent a painter therefore, the greater is the risk that his 

 works will perish, as they are better worth removal. Few of the 

 great painters of Greece painted upon walls : Apelles never did, and 

 there is reason to believe that the works of Polygnotus at Delphi were 

 painted upon pannels, which were inserted in the walls ; on this subject 

 see Raoul Rochette, ' Sur 1'Emploi de la Peinture,' &c. 



(Pliny, Hist. Nat, xxxv. 9, 36 ; Lucian, Zeuxis or Antiochus; Quin- 

 tilian, xii. 10, 3 ; Cicero, De Invent., ii. 1 ; Brutus, 18 ; De Orat. iii. 7 ; 

 Valerius Maximus, iii. 7, 3; JElian, ii. 2; iv. 12; xiv. 17 and 47; 

 Tzetzes, Chil., viii. 196 ; Stobaeus, Serm., 61 ; Plutarch, Peric., 13; De 

 Glor. Athen., 2; Aristotle, Poet., 6.) 



ZHUKOVSKY, VASILY ANDREEVICH, a Russian poet of the 

 first order of eminence, was born at the village of Mishensky, about 

 two miles from the town of Bielev, in the government of Penza, on 

 the 29th of January (o.s.) 1783. The year of his birth, which has often 

 been differently stated, is given on his own authority as reported by 

 Sneguirev. At a very early age he lost his father, and he was chiefly 

 brought up by his mother, grandmother, and aunt, in a household 

 which contained nine girls and three young women, and in which he 

 was the only boy. At school he had at first the reputation of being 

 lazy and very averse to dry studies, while at home his good looks and 

 good nature made him a general favourite. He formed all the girls 

 into a troop of actors, and at an early age got up a play of his own 

 composition, 'Camillus, or Rome Preserved,' in which he acted the 

 part of the hero with great applause from the neighbours who were 

 invited to the performance. At the age of thirteen, on the subject 

 of ' Hope ' being given him for a theme at school, he produced an 

 exercise of such excellence that it has been inserted as a classical 

 piece in several Russian compilations of the nature of Enfield's 

 ' Speaker.' At the age of fourteen he began to appear in print by 

 contributing to one of the Moscow periodicals under the signature of 

 the ' Hermit of the Mountain ;' and it was remarked, that while gay 

 and lively in society, he was disposed in composition to be mild and 

 meditative. His time appears to have been divided for some years 

 between different towns in winter and his native village in summer ; 

 and while at the schools of Tula and Moscow he gradually won his 

 way into notice and distinction by proficiency in study. At the village 

 of Misheusky, wbich was picturesquely situated on the banks of the 

 Oka, he cultivated his talents for poetry, music, and drawing, for all 

 of which he had a natural gift. 



It was at a house within sight of the church and churchyard of 

 Mishensky that he wrote his translation of Gray's ' Elegy in a Country 

 Churchyard,' the first production of his pen which made an impres- 

 sion on the public. Gray's ' Elegy ' is at this moment the most univer- 

 sally known and universally popular piece of poetry in existence. 

 Bowring, in 1821, mentioned that he had seen a collection of more 

 than one-hundred and fifty different versions, and among them 

 Zhukovsky's is undoubtedly one of the best. This fortunate trans- 

 lation, which was published in 1802, was, like Moore's 'Anacreon,' 

 the foundation of a fame which encircled its author for a succeed- 

 ing half-century. It first appeared in the 'Viestnik Evropui,' or 

 European Intelligencer, then the leading periodical of Russia, of which 

 Karamziu, its most popular author, was at the time the editor, and it 

 introduced him at once to the friendship of Karamzin and Dmitriev, 

 and a position amid the best literary society of Moscow. A few years 

 later, in 1808 and 1809, Zhukovsky became himself the editor of the ' 

 same periodical, but he soon relinquished the employment, though ho 

 had now devoted himself to a literary career. In the war of 1812, 

 both Karamzin and Zhukovsky were anxious to bear arms, but the 

 bodily infirmities of Karamzin would not allow him to sit on horse- 

 back, and Zhukovsky took leave of him at Moscow at the house of 

 Count Rostopchin, where he was residing, to hasten to the ranks of 

 the army. As a lieutenant of the Moscow volunteers, Zhukovsky 

 fought at the great battle of Borodino, and he took an effective part 

 in the subsequent memorable campaign, both as a bard and a soldier. 

 It was in the former capacity however that he most distinguished 

 himself; his 'Minstrel in thB Russian Camp,' a series of songs on 

 the war, created unbounded enthusiasm among the soldiery, were 

 struck off at a military printing-press, and circulated and sung 

 throughout the army. The poet however, unaccustomed to the 

 fatigues of a military life, was attacked by fever, and obliged to quit 

 the army early in 1813. The Empress mother, Maria Theodorovna, 

 who had been delighted with his poems, was anxious to see and 



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