210 
PAINTING. 
ther dep in advance was made in the art of painting, by 
Apollodorus of Athens; whofe name is particularly 
mentioned by Pliny, as having difcovered the principle of 
beauty, or rather having firft adopted it in painting ; for 
it had long been known and praftifed in fculpture. From 
this period, the art affumes its moll eflential c ha rafter, 
and its moll pleafing one; making man its objeft, not 
individual men; the genus, not the fpecies; except in 
the more humble work of portraiture. By this fentiment 
Pliny mull himfelf have been aftuated, when he fays 
that, “ before Apollodorus, none were worthy of record as 
artifts; and that no pifture had till then been produced 
which a man might take pleafure in obferving for any 
length of time.” 
The fydem of Apollodorus, to whatever height he bore 
it, was eagerly embraced by his pupil and fuccelfor, 
Zeuxis of Heraclea; of whom his mailer did not deem 
it derogatory to himfelf to fay, (in fome verfes which he 
wrote,) that “ the art of painting had been ftolen from 
its profeffors, and praftifed by Zeuxis alone.” Uniting 
the limple but energetic llyle of Polygnotus with the 
peculiar feleftion and tafte of his mailer, he certainly ap¬ 
pears lo have furpafled both. It is the remark of Quin¬ 
tilian, that he confidered the poetic unity of charafter 
adopted by Homer, in the defcriptions of his heroes, as 
his model ; and gave to each individual he painted the 
peculiar dillinftion of a clafs. This mull have been his 
objeft, at lead, in the pifture of Juno, which he painted 
for her temple at Agrigentum, according to a vow which 
the inhabitants of that place had made. For, before he 
began the pifture, he defired to fee all the moll beautiful 
maidens of the city; and from them he chofe five whofe 
form he moll admired ; intending to exhibit the moll 
perfeft combination of female forms, by felefting and 
adopting the mod beautiful parts of each. 
Among the principal productions of Zeuxis are enu¬ 
merated, a figure of Penelope, wherein he is faid not only 
to have given her a becoming perfon, but alfo to have ex- 
preffed the qualities and ad'eftions of her mind; another, 
of Jupiter on his throne, accompanied by the gods; Her¬ 
cules drangling the ferpents in his cradle, in the prefence 
of Alcmena and Amphiftyon ; and of a vvredler, or cham¬ 
pion, with which he himfelf was greatly delighted, and 
-wrote underneath it, “ that it would be more eafily en¬ 
vied than imitated.” Having acquired great riches, he 
refufed to paint any longer for money, and gave away his 
pictures ; declaring they were above all price. Of him 
and his rival Parrhalius, it is difficult to fay which car¬ 
ried the art to the greated extent, or was mod vain-glo¬ 
rious. The dory which Pliny relates of their conted, by 
no means fettles the former; as both their pictures were 
mere matters of imitation, and could have little to do 
with their real excellencies, except in colouring. But, if 
the faCt be true, it is a wonderful indance of their per¬ 
fection in that point, and totally excludes the poflibility 
of belief in what he fays concerning the colouring ma¬ 
terials with which they were acquainted, viz. only four; 
and thofe impure and imperfeft in themfelves. A curtain 
might, indeed, be of a dull colour; and podibly fuch an 
one Parrliafius might have imitated with fuch materials,- 
and fo perfectly as to have deceived Zeuxis; but it is to 
be prefumed, the lufcious tranfparency, colour, and bril¬ 
liancy, of the grape, in thofe days, were not very widely 
diderent from what it now exhibits ; and thofe pure qua¬ 
lities can only be imitated by the pured and mod perfeft 
of colours. Zeuxis, indeed, having himfelf midaken the 
painted curtain of Parrliafius for a real one, was obliged 
to acknowledge himfelf furpalfed ; or mud have fubmitted 
to the inference, that his penetration was not fuperior to 
that of the birds whom he had deceived. It was re¬ 
marked, in favour of Parrliafius, that he had a purer eye 
to proportion and fymmetry, which he is faid to have re¬ 
duced to rule ; that he rounded the boundaries of his 
figures into their grounds better than thofe who bad pre¬ 
ceded him ; and that he fuperadded the charms of grace 
in the aCli-on of the body and features, and in thedifpofai) 
of hair and draperies. As the vanity of Zeuxis led him 
to have his name embroidered in gold upon the border of 
liis robe, when he attended at the Olympian games; that 
of Parrliafius induced him to wear a purple robe and a 
golden garland ; to bear a ftaff wound round with tendrils 
of gold; and to have fandals tied to his feet and ankles 
with golden draps. He flyled himfelf Abrocliatics, the 
dainty or delicate, and declared lie was defcended of 
Apollo; and that he had nightly vifi-ts by Hercules, while 
he was painting a pifture of that divinity. The emperor 
Tiberius was fo delighted with a pifture of his, of an Ar- 
cliigallus, or chief-pried of Cybele, that he kept it con- 
dantly in his own room, and valued it at 60,000 fefterces, 
484I. 10s. Pliny mentions many of his works; and alfo 
that, though he was thus fkilful, he was excelled, accord¬ 
ing to the opinion of the Samians, by Timant.hes, in a 
piCture of Ajax at the award of the armour of Achilles to 
Ulylfes; whereon he limply remarked, that his regret was 
only, that fuch a hero as Ajax Ihould have been over¬ 
come a fecond time by a man unworthy of the honour f 
The quality for which Timanthes is renowned, is vi¬ 
gour of imagination. This aided him to fill the decided 
corporeal forms, now fixed as charafteridic, with padion ; 
and it is fufliciently illudrated by that well-known cir- 
cumdance of the peculiar aftion given by him to his 
figure of Agamemnon, in the pifture reprefenting the 
facrifice of Iphigenia ; and by the mode in which he em¬ 
bodied the idea of grandeur in dature, in a frnall pifture 
of a Cyclops ; viz. by introducing fome fatyrs, fuppofed 
to be of the ufual fize of man, meafuring the length of 
the giant’s thumb with a thyrfus. One of his piftures, 
remained at the time Pliny wrote, about 400 years after¬ 
wards, in the Temple of Peace, at Rome. He calls it 
the portrait of a prince; and fays “ it is fo perfeft, and 
fo full of majedy, that it appears to comprife every thing 
definable in the art of painting.” 
The art continued advancing by rapid degrees at this 
period. Nature, in form, in colour, and expreffion, was 
the guide; and to develop her beauties the foie objeft of 
the artids. Eupompus fufficiently difplayed this bafis, in 
his advice to Lyfippus the fculptor, who enquired of him, 
whom among his predecedors he Ihould make the objefts 
of his imitation. “ Behold,” faid the painter, blowing 
his friend a multitude of charafters pafling by, “ behold 
my models! From nature, not from art, by vvhomfoever 
wrought, mud the artid labour, who hopes to attain ho¬ 
nour and extend the boundary of his art.” (Pliny, lib. 
xxxiv. c. 8.) 
To fuch a pitch of excellence was painting at this time 
advanced among the Greeks, that it jvas thought worthy 
of being ranked at the head of the liberal arts; and was 
ordered to be taught to the fons of the higher clafles, in 
preference to all other things, according to Pliny, but 
forbidden to be praftifed byllaves. Such was the honour 
done to it, by the induence which the painter Pamphilus 
of Amphipolis had acquired. Of him it is remarked, 
that he was the fird who proved the value which the art 
acquired, by an union with fcienceand literature; and to 
him Apelles, the unrivalled hero of Grecian painting, 
was indebted for his initiation to its myderies. 
This extraordinary man (Apelles) appears, if we give 
full credit to the traditions concerning him, to have been 
endowed with a more perfect combination of rare talent 
and excellent qualities, than has, either before or fince, 
fallen to the Jot of any other. He had, befides, the pecu¬ 
liar felicity of being born at that period when his country 
was at its highed pinnacle of cultivation; fo that man¬ 
kind faw in him the happy union of a perfeft: mind, 
drengthened and guided by the bed abidance education 
could'pofiibly adord. Not only as an artid is he extolled 
above all others, but equally fo as a man ; for his gentle- 
nefs, his amiability, generofity, and magnanimity. Pliny 
places the time when he flourilhed in the 112th olympiad, 
(328 years B.C.) and adds, that he became fo confum- 
mare 
