\V1 



RISE AND PROGRESS 



woman, and a boy are sealed. The old woman 

 14 pouring water into an urn. It appears to me 

 that UMM are persona who despised the Eleusi- 

 nian myrterie*. Tantalus, too, is there, suffering 

 those punishments mentioned by Homer, and 

 terrified lest a stone which hangs over his head 

 should fall on him. It is evident that Polygnotus 

 followed Arohilochus in this. So numerous are 

 the figures, and such the elegance of the picture, 

 which the Thasian artist painted." 



Finer unity of parts, more artful grouping, 

 and a happier distribution of light and shade, 

 may be claimed for succeeding painters, but 

 Polygnotus seems to have been one of the first 

 who brought high imagination to the service of 

 the muse of art. Pliny indeed says, that before 

 Apollodorus no picture had been produced which 

 a man might take pleasure in looking at for any 

 length of time. Pausanias seems to have thought 

 differently ; and we owe to him the almost sole 

 description of those great masterpieces of Gre- 

 cian genius. Zeuxis succeeded Apollodorus. 

 He endeavoured to unite the simple and vigorous 

 style of Polygnotus with graces all his own. He 

 took Homer for his model in heroes, and is 

 supposed to have stumped them with that god- 

 like dignity of expression which sculpture had 

 already bestowed. The simplicity of manners 

 in his day was favourable to his profession. 

 When he painted the picture of Juno for her 

 temple at Agrigentum, he caused all the most 

 beautiful maidens of the city to stand before him 

 naked, and selecting five of the most lovely, he 

 combined their charms in the picture of the god- 

 dess. It was not in outward loveliness alone 

 that he sought to excel in the figure of Penelope ; 

 he expressed the high qualities of her heart and 

 mind. His Jupiter throned among the gods, 

 and his Hercules strangling the serpents, a sub- 

 ject revived by Reynolds, are mentioned among 

 his noblest works : but his youthful wrestler 

 was his own favourite ; he wrote underneath it, 

 that it would be easier envied than equalled. 

 His vanity was equal to his genius. He caused 

 his name to be wrought in gold on the border of 

 the garment, and refused to work for money, 

 saying his pictures were above all price. 



In talent and in vanity, Zeuxis found a rival 

 and follower in Parrhasius the Ephesian. He 

 had a fine eye for proportion. He made his 

 outlines more visible than his compeers, and 

 sought to charm by graceful action and softness 

 of colouring. Euphranor, a brother artist, said 

 the Theseus of Parrhasius appeared to have lived 

 on roses. This has induced one of our critics 

 to insinuate that the picture wanted substance 

 and colour. When Fuseli talked of Rubens's 



hillocks of rosy flesh, he brought no charge of 

 weakness. Perhaps the hue of the hero was too 

 womanly, and wanted vigour; yet the painter 

 might have desired to intimate the elevation of 

 Theseus among the gods. He styled himself 

 Parrhasius the delicate, claimed descent from 

 Apollo, wore a robe of purple, a garland of gold 

 on his head, carried a staff with golden tendrils, 

 and bound on his sandals with golden straps. 

 To enable him to maintain this state, he charged 

 high prices for his works. Nor did the charms 

 of his pictures diminish by time. For his Chief 

 Priest of Cybele the emperor Tiberius gave sixty 

 thousand sesterces. He was excelled by Timan- 

 thes, in a picture representing Ajax in the award 

 to Ulysses of the armour of Achilles. " It is 

 true history," still exclaimed the exasperated 

 artist ; " Ajax is overcome a second time by one 

 unworthy of such honour !" 



Of Timanthes little is said. He excelled in 

 vigour of imagination, and loved subjects of a 

 kind vast and sublime. He painted gods, and 

 heroes, and giants. In a picture of the Cyclops 

 he expressed magnitude by making a satyr 

 measure his colossal thumb with a thyrsus. One 

 of his portrait pictures existed in the temple of 

 Peace during the days of Pliny, who observed, 

 " It is said to be so perfect and so full of majesty, 

 that it appears to comprise everything desirable 

 in the art of painting." The pictures of the Greeks 

 were, as all true pictures are, an union of imagi- 

 nation and nature. The latter corrected the 

 former, and communicated to its conceptions the 

 hue, and the aspect, and the language of life. 

 " Behold," said Eupompus the painter to the 

 sculptor Lysippus, showing him a multitude of 

 people passing by, " behold my models ! From 

 nature, not from art, must the artist hope to 

 attain honour and extend the limits of his art." 

 But then a painter was required in those days to 

 be an accomplished person. The history of his 

 country was his study ; he sought images of 

 grandeur or of beauty in tradition and in poetry. 

 The sons of the princes of the earth handled the 

 chisel and the pencil, and sought instruction in 

 arts which brought fame and honour. Pamphilus 

 the Amphipolitan united literature with science, 

 and his example was followed by all who felt the 

 inspiring effect which they mutually exercise. 



Apelles studied under Pamphilus ; he is called 

 the prince of ancient painters. The station 

 which antiquity assigned him seems not to have 

 satisfied Fuseli, who ingeniously labours to 

 lower him a little. " The name," he remarks, 

 " of Apelles in Pliny is the synonym of unri- 

 valled or unattainable excellence ; but the enu- 

 meration of his works points out the modification 



