ANCIENT PAINTING AS AMONG THE LOST ARTS. 233 



lie introduces a group of satyrs trying to measure Iris thumb with 

 a common walking staff. 



We come now to Apelles, a painter in the age of Alexander 

 the Great (B. C. 330), and exalted by the united testimony of all 

 antiquity to the highest rank in his profession. One of the most 

 celebrated of his paintings was the Venus Anadyomene Yenus 

 rising from the waves born from the foam of the sea. It was 

 in after ages carried to Rome, and still existed in the time of 

 Nero. Another famous painting represented Alexander grasping 

 a thunderbolt. And Pliny says that the fingers which held the 

 bolt, as well as the bolt itself, seemed to project from the canvas. 

 This picture sold in its time, and in that age of dear money, for 

 what represented over $200,000. In a grand contest for the 

 prize in paintings of horses, Apelles, seeing that favoritism was 

 going to rule against him, demanded that all the paintings should 

 be exhibited before a troop of live horses. And these animals, 

 disregarding the others, neighed as they passed before his own 

 picture of their kind. This impartial judgment could not be 

 got over. 



These things do seem almost incredible, and I would not 

 wonder if there should be some skeptics here. But I think that 

 these and similar stories are related too often and too seriously in 

 the old authors for that there should not be some grains of truth 

 in them. 



Cotemporary with Apelles was Protogenes, also famous in the 

 art. He spent seven years in finishing a great national painting, 

 a hunting scene, which was to commemorate alike the founder 

 arid the founding of his native City of Rhodes. He had oc- 

 casion to represent in the picture a dog panting, and the froth 

 running from his mouth. But he never could paint, with any 

 satisfaction to himself, the foam at the mouth. Finally out of 

 all patience, he threw his sponge at the dog's head, and then 

 found to his surprise, that he had by this act painted exactly 

 what he wanted. Whatever a sponge has to do with painting, is 

 one of those inexplicable things that we are continually meeting 

 in the stories that have come down to us descriptive of ancient 

 art. There is another mystery connected with this same paint- 



