Zeuxis made use of very few colours, never exceeding four, and at times painted in the monochromatic style, with two only. His last work was that of a ridiculous old wo man, as he is reported to have died of a fit of laughter at the whimsical production of his own fancy.
The contemporaries of Zeuxis were Androcydes and Parhasius of Ephesus. The works of this last are much praised for expression. He painted a celebrated picture of the people of Athens, besides many others that are enu merated by Pliny. He defeated Zeuxis in a trial of skill, and seems, by all accounts, to have vied with him equally as a coxcomb in the finery of his dress, and conceit of his own talent, as he had the extravagance to paint his own portrait in the character of Mercury, alleging that he was descended of Apollo himself, and expected, accordingly, the ready adoration of his countrymen. He competed with Timanthes in painting the contest of Ajax and Ulys ses for the arms of Achilles, in which he was defeated. He was, notwithstanding, a painter of great merit, as well 17 as his adversary. Timanthes is principally known by his picture of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, so much praised on account of the judicious and beautiful idea, so often re peated since, of representing Menelaus, the unfortunate father of the victim, hiding his face in that overwhelming agony of grief, the intensity of which is thus implied as exceeding the power of art to imitate. There followed Eupompus of Sicyone, who had the merit of founding a new school, where a greater variety of colours were used than had formerly been the practice. lie instructed Pam philius of Macedonia, whose chief merit is in having been the master of Apelles, the greatest painter of antiquity.
It is a remarkable coincidence, and perhaps more than coincidence, that Pietro Perugino, who had the glory of instructing the greatest luminary of modern art, Raphael, should have resembled Pamphilius to a remarkable de gree in the peculiar bent of his talent ; which was that of extreme truth and accuracy, and which generated a simi larly stiff, cold, and dry manner. Pliny describes him as very learned in every thing connected with his art, chiefly as relating to arithmetic and geometry, without a profound knowledge of which he maintained that a painter could not succeed. This fact is remarkable, in so tar as it seems satisfactorily to refute the supposition of the Greeks be ing unacquainted with perspective ; for in no other way can we understand the dependence of painting on geome try. About the same period, Theon of Samos gained a high reputation, particularly for his picture of a youthful warrior hastening to battle. Aristides of Thebes painted the picture of a town taken by assault, and plundered ; and another battle piece, for which Pliny says he received one hundred drachms for every figure in the picture : but we hasten to Apelles, the Raphael of Greece.
The whole of antiquity seems to unite in the praises of this great artist, and that not merely for his transcendent talents, which raised the art of painting to the acme of perfection, which it never surpassed in the ancient world, and never equalled in modern times, until Raphael again led to that point of perfection which it seems never des tined to pass ;—but likewise, as was the case with Raphael, for his many amiable qualities. For Apelles, though
aware of his own excellence, and sufficiently tenacious of the dignity of his art, seems to have been so without va nity or self-conceit ; he was just and liberal to others, and anxious to encourage genius wherever he could discover it, without a thought of that paltry jealousy which so of ten tarnishes the splendour of the brightest genius. Apelles united all the great qualities of a painter, though he had the modesty to acknowledge that, in some, he was excelled by a rival ; but his great excellence was the same as Raphael's, a captivating grace and simplicity, joined to a playfulness of execution, which, more than any thing, conveys the idea of a perfect master. Apelles was hon oured with the friendship of Alexander the Great, as much as Titian was by that of Charles V.; although the con queror testified his esteem for the painter in a way which might not have been so acceptable to the manners of the emperor's time, by presenting him with his beautiful con cubine, Pancaste, property, who had sat for his cele brated picture of Vsnus, afterwards brought to Rome. Apelles was very learned in his profession, a quality which, in Greece, was wisely esteemed essential to the success ful prosecution of the art ; and which was not confined to the more immediate branches of information connected with the study of painting, but embraced the general field of science. It was to this, fully as much as to their ex cellence as painters, that, in Greece, the professors of the liberal arts were held in such high estimation, And we shall find, when we look to the history of later times, that there were few of the great masters of the art who were not at the same time learned men. Leonardo da Vinci, in whom the art may be said to have revived, was a man of general and profound learning, as well as were most of the others whose names stand high. The diffusion of the art has now unfortunately reduced it to a state of prosti tution, where a learned painter is a prodigy rarely to be found. But, learned as Apelles was, he had the modesty to court, and profit by, the criticism of the public, for which purpose he was in the practice of exposing his pic tures for public inspection close to where he prosecuted his labours, in order to have the advantage of overhearing, without being seen, any remarks that were made upon them. This practice is said to have given rise to the well known apostrophe of ‘, Ne sutor ultra crepidam." As a shoemaker, examining one of his pictures, is said to have remarked a slight inaccuracy in the construction of the sandals worn by one of the figures in his picture, Apelles took advantage of the hint, and corrected the error. The cooler, when he saw the correction, was so elated with his own acuteness, that he bethought himself of hazarding a few criticisms on the leg, as he had succeeded so well with the foot, which drew from the judicious painter the advice that has so often been u3ed since ; and it were well for the peace of society were it not so often lost sight of.