JUNE 353 



painting by Apelles. For the benefit of those as ignorant 

 as I was I may as well say that Apelles was a famous 

 painter at the Court of the first Alexander, and then of 

 P.tolemy, about 330 B.C. ; and that Lucian was a Greek 

 writer of the time of Marcus Aurelius, and that his 

 manuscripts were brought from Constantinople to Italy 

 about 1425, and printed for the first time at Florence 

 in 1496, Botticelli's own date being 1437-1515. 



The whole picture is painted with the greatest finish 

 and delicacy, and with an immense wealth of detail. In 

 the background are three highly decorated arches, with 

 a pure blue sky, tenderly graduated, showing through. 

 In the middle of the picture is Calumny, hurrying 

 towards the Judge, and attended by two women repre- 

 senting Hypocrisy and Treachery. Calumny drags a 

 rather feeble young man, without clothes, by the hair of 

 his head along the ground. He holds his hands up in an 

 attitude of supplication, and is supposed to represent 

 Innocence. Envy, a male figure clothed in shabby 

 garments, stands between this group and the Judge's 

 throne. Ignorance and Distrust are whispering into the 

 long donkey's ears of the Judge. On the left of the 

 picture is the black, draped figure of Remorse, who turns 

 and looks at a beautiful naked young woman represent- 

 ing Truth." Calumny has seized and is carrying before 

 the Judge Truth's lighted torch. It is impossible to look 

 at this picture and not have brought to one's mind the 

 wretched fate of the modern prisoner on the Devil's Island. 



Had nothing been preserved to us of Botticelli's but 

 these two pictures, I think we should have known that he 

 was one of the men who were most in advance of their 

 time, and one of the greatest painters the world has 

 ever known. To my mind, the Botticellis in our own 

 National Gallery give no sort of idea of his gifts and 

 powers as seen at Florence. 



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