APELIES, the most celebrated painter in ancient times, was the son of Pythias, and was probably, in accordance with the statement of Suidas, born at Colophon, on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor; though Pliny and Ovid call him a Coati, and Strabo and Lucian an Ephesian. This, however, may simply refer to the fact that he was made a burgess of that town. He flourished in the latter part of the 4th c. n.c.; received his first instruction in art in the Ionian school of Ephesus, then studied under Pamphilus of Amphipolis, and latterly at Sicyon, under Melanthius, and thus he united the fine coloring of the Ionian with the accurate drawing of the Sicyonic school. During the time of Philip, A. visited Macedon, where be became the intimate friend of Alexander the great. It was probably at the Macedonian court that the best days of A. were spent. Pliny relates that on one occasion when Alexander visited A. in his studio, the king exhibited such ignorance of art that A. recommended him to be silent, as the boys who were grinding the colors were laughing at him. But the same story is told of Zeuxis and Megabyzus. He afterwards visited Rhodes (where he was familiar with Protogenes), Cos, Alexandria, and Ephesus. The period of his death is not known; but as he prac ticed his art before the death of Philip, and as his visit to Alexandria was after the assumption of the regal title by Ptolemy, he probably flourished between 352 and 308 B.C. The most celebrated paintings of A. were his Anadyomene, or Venus Rising from the Sea, with a shower of silver drops falling round her like a veil of gauze, the Graces, and similar subjects; but he cultivated the heroic as well as the graceful style. his ideal portrait of
Alexander wielding a thunderbolt was highly esteemed, and preserved in the temple of Diana at Ephesus. With reference to this painting, Alexander said: "There are only two Alexanders—the invincible son of Philip, and the inimitable Alexander of A." A. is said to have left an incomplete painting of Venus, to which no other painter would presume to give the finishing touches. The disposition of A. was, remarkably free from envy, and he willingly acknowledged the merits of his contemporaries. Amphion, lie said, excelled him in grouping, and Asclepiodorus in perspective, but grace was his alone. On coming to Rhodes, and finding that the works of Protogenes were not appre ciated by his countrymen, lie at once offered him 60 talents for a picture, and spread the report that he intended to sell it again as his own. The industry with which he prac ticed drawing was so great as to give rise to the proverb, _Yalta dies sine lined. Many other anecdotes are related of A. When his pictures were exposed to public view, lie used to place himself behind a picture, to listen to the criticisms of the common people. A cobbler having detected a fault in the shoe of one of his figiires, it is stated that A. instantly rectified it; but when the cobbler, ou the following day, extended his criticism to the legs, the painter rushed from his hiding-place, and told the cobbler to stick to the shoes, or, in the Latin version, which has become proverbial, "11re sutor supra eropidam."