in the ninety-third olympiad, brought the pencil into a glorious name and especial credit. Of his making there is a priest at his devotion, praying and worshipping; another of Ajax all on a flaming fire, with a flash of lightning, which at this day is to be seen at Pergamus, as an excellent piece of work and, to speak truth, before his days there can hardly be shown a table which any man would take pleasure to look long upon.

:

7. Zeuxis, of Heraclea, lived about the ninety-fifth Olympiad. Of him the forementioned Apollodorus said, "That he had stolen the cunning from all the rest." In process of time he grew to vast wealth, by means only of his excellent hand. At last he resolved to work no longer for money, but to give away all his pictures. His Alcmena, Penelope, Pan, and Helena, are famous pieces. Much speech there is of a wrestler or champion of his, wherein he pleased himself so well, that he subscribed to it, Invisurus aliquis facilius quam imitaturus, "Sooner envied than equalled." Another stately piece there is of his workmanship; Jupiter sitting upon the throne of his majesty, with all the other gods standing by, and making court unto him.

8. Parrhasius was born at Ephesus: he was the first that gave true symetry to his pictures, that best couched the hair of the head, and expressed the lovely grace and beauty about the mouth and lips: he was bold openly to challenge Zeuxis for the victory in this art. Zeuxis brought upon the stage a tablet wherein clusters of grapes were so lively represented, that the birds of the air came flocking to them. Parrhasius, to shew his workmanship. brought a tablet, wherein he had only depainted a curtain, but so lively, that Zeuxis in a glorious glorious bravery, because the birds had approved his handy-work, said to him in scorn, "Come, sir, away with your curtain, that we may see your goodly picture." But perceiving his error, he was might.ty abashed, yielded him the victory, and said, "Zeuxis hath beguiled poor birds, but Parrhasius hath deceived Zeuxis, a professed artist."

9. Timanthes had an excellent wit, and was full of rare invention: he it was that made the famous picture of Iphigenia, wherein was represented that innocent lady standing by the altar ready to be slain for sacrifice: he had painted by her Chalchas the priest, looking sad, Ulysses sadder, but her uncle Menelaus above the rest full of an extreme sorrow and having in these spent all the signs whereby the pencil was able to express a real grief; being yet to ex hibit her own father Agamemnon, he drew his visage covered with a veil, leav ing it to the imagination of the spectators, to conceive the inexpressible, grief and extraordinary sorrow that was in him, to behold his daughter bathed in her innocent blood. He painted a Cyclops lying asleep, and little elvish satyrs by him, with long perches, taking measure of one of his thumbs. But his picture of a prince was thought to be most absolute; the majesty whereof is such, that all the art of painting a man scemeth to be comprised in that one picture this piece remaineth at this day within the temple of Peace at Rome.

10. Pamphylus, a Macedonian, was the first of all painters that was skilled in arithmetic and geometry, without which he judged it impossible to be a perfect painter: he was renowned for drawing a confraternity of kindred, the battle fought before Philus, and the victory of the Athenians. He taught none his skill under a talent of silver for ten years toge ther: and thus much paid Apelles and Melanthus to learn his art.

11. Apelles surmounted all who ever came before or followed him; giving his pictures a certain levely and inimitable grace. Having heard of the fame of Protogenes, he sailed to Rhodes on purpose to see him; but finding him absent from his shop, he took a table, and drew therein a fine and small line athwart it. Protogenes at the sight of it, said, "Apelles hath been there;" and he him self drew a second with another colour, in the midst of it, and so left it. Apelles upon his return drew a third, with a dis tinct colour, so small, as left no possibi

lity

lity for a fourth; which when Protogenes saw, he confessed he had met both with his match and master. This table was kept for a long time, and better esteemed than any other rich or curious work, till it was destroyed by fire in the palace of Cesar in the Palatine hill. Being abused by one of the court of king Ptolomy, whose name he knew not, nor could see in the presence, he took a coal from the hearth, and drew his face so exactly, that he was immediately known. His picture of Venus arising out of the sea, in the nether part of it catched some hurt by mischance; but there never could be found that painter who would take in hand to repair the same, to make it suitable with the rest. He flourished about the hun

dred and twelfth Olympiad.

12. Aristides, the Theban, was a famous painter, the first that would seem to paint the conception of the mind, and to express the inward disposition and actions thereof, yea, the very perturbations and passions of the soul; but his colours were. unpleasant, and somewhat too harsh: he painted the taking of a town by assault, wherein was an infant, making means to creep to the mother's breast, who lay dying upon a mortal wound received therein: but it shewed how naturally the poor woman's affections was expressed in this picture; how a certain sympathy and tender affection might be perceived to her babe in the midst of her deadly pangs. This table Alexander the Great translated from Thebes to Pella, a city where himself was born. He painted a fight of an hundred Grecks and Persians, and sold it to Mnason, the tyrant of Elate, for ten pounds for every head therein painted. King Attalus also gave him for one table, and the picture in it, one hundred talents of silver.

13. Protogenes was born at Caunos, a city in Cilicia, subject to the Rhodians: his picture of Jalysus, and a dog in that table, is accounted his master-picce, which is now dedicated at Rome within the temple of peace. It was so highly esteemed, that king Demetrius, when he might have forced the city of Rhodes on that side where Protogenes dwelt, forbare

to set it on fire, because he would not burn it amongst other pictures; and thus for a picture he lost the opportunity of winning a town.

14. Asclepiodorus was admired by Apelles himself for his singular skill in observing symmetry and just proportion: he pourtrayed for the king of the Elateans the twelve principal gods, and received for every one of them three hundred pounds of silver.

15. Nicomachus painted the ravishment of Proserpine by Pluto, which standeth in the chapel of Minerva in the capitol, and the mermaid Sylla, which at this day is to be seen at Rome in the temple of peace. A ready workman he was, and no painter had a quicker hand than he.

16. Philoxenus painted a table for king Cassander, containing the battle betwixt Alexander the Great and king Darius; which, for exquisite art, cometh not behind any other whatsoever.

17. Cydias was he who in a table represented the Argonauts, or knights that attended prince Jason in his expedition to Colchis: Hortensius the orator was content to pay for this piece one hundred and forty-four thousand sesterces, and shrined this picture in an oratory or chapel, built on purpose for it, in a house of pleasure that he had at Tusculum.

18. Timomachus, the Byzantine, flourished in the days of Julius Cæsar, for whom he painted Ajax and Medea; which pictures, when he bought of him for eighty talents, he caused to be hung up in the temple of Venus; by talent, I mean the attic talent, which is six thou

sand Roman deniers. His pieces of Orestes and Iphigenia are also much praised; but especially he is renowned for his Medusa's head, which he painted in Minerva's shield.

19. Francisco Francia, of Bologna, struck with the fame of Raphael, con ceived a violent desire of seeing some of the works of that celebrated artist. His great age prevented him from under

VOL. II.

taking

taking a journey to Rome; he resolved therefore to write to Raphael, and to inform him how great an esteem he

enterta ned for his talents after the character which had been given of him. Reciprocal marks of friendship passed between these two artists, and they carried on a regular correspondence by letter; Raphael having about that time finished his famous painting of St. Cecilia for the church of Bologna, sent it to his friend, begging him to put it in its proper place, and to correct whatever faults he might find in it. The artist of Bologna, transported with joy at seeing the work of Raphael, began to consider it with attention; when, perceiving the great inferiority of his own talents to those of Raphael, melancholy took possession of his heart; he fell into a deep despondency, and died of grief, because he found that he had attained only to mediocrity in his art after all his labour.

20. Cæsare Arethusi was invited by the duke of Ferrara to visit his court, and was received there with extraordinary respect. The prince sat to him for his portrait, admired the performance highly, gave him evident proofs, not only of his favour but of his friendship and esteem; and having at last concluded that his generous treatment must inevitably have secured his gratitude, if not his affection, he freely acquainted him with his real inducement for inviting him to Ferrara. Confiding in the integrity of the painter, he told him that there was a lady in that city whose portrait he wished to possess; but it must be procured in so secret a manner, as neither to be suspected by the lady herself, nor by any of her friends. He promised an immense reward to Arethusi if he should be successful and secret; but threatened him with the utmost severity of his resentment if he ever suffered the secret to transpire.

The artist watched a proper opportunity to sketch the likeness of the lady unnoticed by any one, and having shewn it to the duke, he seemed exceedingly struck with the resemblance, as well as the graceful air of the figure, and ordered Arethusi to paint a portrait from that sketch as delicately as he possibly

(19.) Adams's Anecdotes, vol. 1.p.

could; but above all things recommended to him to preserve it from every eye except his own. When the picture was finished, the painter himself beheld it with admiration, and thought it would be injurious to his fame to conceal from the world a performance which he accounted perfect. Through an excess of pride and vanity, he privately showed it to several of his friends, who could not avoid commending the work while they detested the fully and ingratitude of the artist.

The secret thus divulged, circulated expeditiously, and soon reached the ears of the lady and her family, who were exceedingly irritated; and the duke appeared so highly enraged at the treachery of Arethusi that he was almost provoked to put him to death, but he only banished him for ever from his dominions.

21. A singular adventure happened to David Beck, a portrait painter of Sweden, the disciple of Vandyek. As he travelled through Germany, he was suddenly taken ill at his inn, and was laid out as a corpse, seeming to all ap pearance quite dead. His servants expressed the strongest marks of grief forthe loss of their master, and while they sat beside his bed, they drank very freely by way of consolation.

At last one of them, who grew much intoxicated, said to his companions, our master was fond of his glass while alive, and out of gratitude let us give him a glass as he is now dead; as the rest of the servants assented to the proposal, he raised up the head of his master and endeavoured to pour some of the liquor into his mouth. By the fragrance of the wine, or probably by a small quantity that got imperceptibly down his throat, Beck opened his eyes, and the servant being excessively drunk, and forgetting that his master was considered as dead, compelled him to swallow what wine remained in the glass. The painter gradually revived, and by proper management and care, recovered perfectly, and escaped interment.

22. Brouwer going to Antwerp, was taken up as a spy, and imprisoned in the same place where the duke d'A202,-(20.) Ibid-(21.) Ibid.

remberg

remberg was confined. That nobleman had an intimate acquaintance with the celebrated Rubens, who often went to visit him in his confinement; and the duke having observed the genius of Brouwer, by some slight sketches which he draw,with black lead, without knowing who he was desired Rubens to bring with him, at his next visit, a palette and pencils, for a painter who was in custody along with him.

The materials requisite for painting were given to Brouwer, who took for his subject a groupe of soldiers who were playing at cards in a corner of the prison; and when the picture was finished and shown to Rubens, he exclaimed that it was painted by Brouwer, whose works he ha often seen, and as often admired. The duke, delighted with the discovery, set a proper value on the performance; and although Rubens offered six hundred guilders for it, the duke would by no means part with it, but presented the painter with a much larger sum.

Rubens immediately exerted all his interest to obtain the enlargement of Brouwer, and procured it by becoming his surety; he took him into his own house, clothed and maintained him, an 1 took pains to make the world more acquainted with his merit: but the levity of Brouwer's temper would not suffer him to continue long with his benefactor; nor, would he consider his situation in any other light than that of a state of confinement: he therefore quitted Rubens, and died not long after, destroyed by a dissolute kind of life.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the most eminent Artists for making of Statues and Images in Clay, Marble, Ivory, Brass, Sc.

THAT of painting is a noble art, but this of the framing of statues is perhaps no whit inferior to it, since it makes a nearer approach unto nature than the other. Pictures may be seen indeed, but

(22.) Adams's Anecdotes, vol i.

these are also to be felt; have an entire and solid body, and thereupon are also the more durable. The most excellent artificers in this kind were such as follow. 1. Lisistratus of Sicione was the first that in plaster or alabaster represented the shape of a man's visage in a mould, from the lively face indeed: which in ge he after took in wax: nor stayed he there, but began to make images to the likeness of the person; before him every man studied only to make the fairest faces, and never regarded whether they were like or no.

2. Phidias was the most excellent graver that ever was, as all nations will confess that have ever heard of that statue of Jupiter Olympius which he made at Olympia, or the stately statue of Minerva, which he wrought at Athens, in height six-and-twenty cubits, all made of ivory and gold: upon the swelling round of the shield of this godless, he engraved the battle wherein the Amazons were defeated by Theseus; in the hollower part he enchased the conflicts between the gods and the giants; upon the shors and pantofles she wears, he trained the fight betwixt the Centaurs and Lapithe; in the base, or pedestal of th statue, he cut the genealogy of Pandora, and the nativities of the gods, to the number of thirty, and amongst them the goddess of Victory, of most admirable workmanship, with a serpent and sphinx of brass, under the spear that Minerva holds in her hand, admired by all workinen. He dourished in the eighty-third Olympiad.

3. Praxiteles's Venus, which he wronght for them of Gaidos, surpasses all images that ever were made by others or hiaself; and in truth, so exquisite and singular it was, that many a man Lath salad to Gaidos for no other purpose but only to behold it. King Nicomedes offered to free th in city of all ht (which were great sums) for this pice of work; but they resolved to stand all hazards ather than part with it. It is reported that a wretched fellow was enamoured of this Venus, as one Alchides a Rhodian loved his naked Cupid, that he made for them of Parium, a city within Prepontis.

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4. Scopas