Chapter 393

1977“Navarchum.”

1978The “Chief of the Galli,” or high priest of Cybele.

1979See end of B. x.

1980Possibly the person mentioned in B. xi. c. 9, or perhaps the Tragic writer of this name, mentioned in the presentChapter.

1981Bacchus.

1982“Hoplites.” A runner in panoply, or complete armour, at the Olympic Games.

1983The “Liver in luxury.” Athenæus, B. xii., confirms this statement, and gives some lines which Parrhasius wrote under certain of his works.

1984Of Achilles, which were awarded to Ulysses in preference to Ajax.

1985We learn from Suetonius that Tiberius possessed a Meleager and Atalanta by Parrhasius, of this nature.

1986Said by Eustathius to have been a native of Sicyon, but by Quintilian, of Cythnos.

1987Cicero, for instance, De Oratore, c. 22, s. 74.

1988Menelaüs.

1989Agamemnon.

1990Built near the Forum, by Vespasian, according to Suetonius.

1991A native of Thebes. A full account of him will be given in the course of this Chapter.

1992Or “Grecian.”

1993He was a native of Amphipolis in Macedonia.

1994Phlius was the chief town of Phliasia, in the north-east of Peloponnesus. It seems to be quite unknown to what events Pliny here alludes.

1995Possibly the naval victory gained by the Athenians under Chabrias near Naxos, in the first year of the 101st Olympiad.

1996Which would make the course of study, as M. Ian says, extend over a period of twelve years.

1997“Graphice;” equivalent, perhaps, to our word “drawing.” “The elementary process consisted in drawing lines or outlines with the graphis, (or stylus) upon tablets of box; the first exercise was probably to draw a simple line.”—Wornum, in Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art.Painting.

1998See end of B.xxxiii.

1999Both of whom are mentioned as statuaries, in the early part of B. xxxiv. c.19.

2000Bacchus.

2001The generality of Greek writers represent him as a native either of Ephesus, or of Colophon.

2002“Venustas.” This word, it has been remarked, will hardly bear a definition. It has been rendered “grace,” “elegance,” “beauty.”

2003“Venerem.” The name of the Goddess of Beauty.

2004“Gracefulness.”

2005“Secuit.” Possibly meaning that he drew another outline in each of these outlines. The meaning, however, is doubtful, and has occasioned much trouble to the commentators. Judging from the words used by Apelles and Protogenes, each in his message, it is not unlikely that the “linea” or outline drawn by each was a profile of himself, and that the profile of Protogenes was drawn within that of Apelles; who, on the second occasion, drew a third profile between the other two, but with a still finer line than either of them. In Dr. Smith’s Dictionary of Biography,art.Apelles, it is thus explained: “The most natural explanation of this difficult passage seems to be, that down the middle of the first line of Apelles, Protogenes drew another, so as to divide it into two parallel halves, and that Apelles again divided the line of Protogenes in the same manner.”

2006The Latin form of which, as given by Erasmus, is “Nulla dies abeat, quin linea ducta supersit.” “Let no day pass by, without an outline being drawn, and left in remembrance.”

2007“In pergulâ.”

2008“Ne sutor ultra crepidam.” Equivalent to our saying, “Let not the shoemaker go beyond his last.”

2009In B. vii. c. 38.

2010Also known as “Campaspe,” and “Pacate.” She was the favourite concubine of Alexander, and is said to have been his first love.

2011“Venus rising out of the waters.” Athenæus says, B. xiii., that the courtesan Phryne was his model, whom, at the festival of Neptune, he had seen enter the sea naked at Eleusis.

2012See Matthew xiii. 57; Mark vi. 4. “A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country.”

2013“Physiognomists.”

2014“Vocatores”—more literally, his “inviting officers.”

2015Strabo mentions a portrait of Antigonus in the possession of the inhabitants of Cos.

2016See Note2011above. Propertius mentions this as his greatest work. B. III. El. 9, l. 11. “In Veneris tabulâ summam sibi ponit Apelles.” “In his picture of Venus, Apelles produces his masterpiece.” It is mentioned also by Ovid, Tristia, B. II. l. 527, and Art. Amor. B. III. l. 401. The line in B. III. l. 224 is also well known—“Nuda Venus madidas exprimit imbre comas.”“And naked Venus wrings her dripping locks.”

“Nuda Venus madidas exprimit imbre comas.”

“And naked Venus wrings her dripping locks.”

2017In the Forum, in the Eighth Region of the City.

2018His father by adoption.

2019There are several Epigrams descriptive of it in the Greek Anthology.

2020This, probably, is the meaning of “Tali opere dum laudatur victo sed illustrato,” words which have given much trouble to the commentators.

2021Nothing further seems to be known of him.

2022“Cois.” The first one was also painted for the people of Cos, by whom it was ultimately sold to Augustus.

2023See Chapter32of this Book. That this is an erroneous assertion, has been shown in Note1932above.

2024Probably the weight of the panel, frame, and ornamental appendages.

2025This word was probably a title, meaning “Keeper of the temple.” Strabo tells us that the “megabyzi,” or as he calls them, the “megalobyzi,” were eunuch priests in the Temple of Artemis, or Diana, at Ephesus.

2026The favourite of Alexander, by whom he was afterwards slain.

2027Probably the name of a rich sensualist who lived at Argos. A son of the Attic orator Lycurgus, one of the sophists, also bore this name.

2028This name is supposed by Sillig to have been inserted erroneously, either by Pliny, or by his transcribers.

2029Either the Argonaut of that name, who was killed by the Caledonian Boar, or else, which is the most probable, a King of the Leleges in Samos, with whom, according to the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, originated the saying, “There is many a slip between the cup and the lip;” in reference to his death, by a wild boar, when he was about to put a cup of wine to his mouth.

2030Shown in his forbearing to appropriate them to his own use.

2031Anna Perenna, probably, a Roman divinity of obscure origin, the legends about whom are related in the Fasti of Ovid, B. iii. l. 523.et seq.See also Macrobius, Sat. I. 12. Her sacred grove was near the Tiber, but of her temple nothing whatever is known. “Antoniæ” is another reading, but no such divinity is mentioned by any other author.

2032Sillig (Dict. Anc. Art.) is of opinion that the reading is corrupt here, and that the meaning is, that Apelles “painted a Hero and Leander.”

2033Or Demigod.

2034One of the followers of Alexander, ultimately slain by Eumenes in Armenia.

2035King of Macedonia.

2036Odyss. B. vi. l. 102,et seq.

2037Sir Joshua Reynolds discovers in the account here given “an artist-like description of the effect of glazing, or scumbling, such as was practised by Titian and the rest of the Venetian painters.”—Notes to Du Fresnoy.

2038“Lapis specularis.” See B. xxxvi. c.45.

2039He was son of Aristodemus, and brother and pupil of Nicomachus, in addition to Euxenidas, already mentioned in this Chapter. He, Pausanias, and Nicophanes, excelled, as we learn from Athenæus, B. xiii., in the portraits of courtesans; hence their name,πορνόγραφοι.

2040It has been well remarked by Wornum, in the article so often quoted, that “expression of the feelings and passions cannot be denied to Polygnotus, Apollodorus, Parrhasius, Timanthes, and many others.”

2041See B. iv. c. 12.

2042Meaning, “Her who has ceased” to live. The reference is to Byblis, who died of love for her brother Caunus. See Ovid’s Metam. B. ix. l. 455,et seq.

2043Or Bacchus. Already mentioned in Chapter8of this Book, in reference to the Roman general Mummius.

2044In the Eleventh Region of the City.

2045In the Tenth Region of the City.

2046Celebrated on the 3rd of July.

2047In reference to the age of Apelles, whom he is supposed to have survived.

2048In Caria, near to Lycia. Suidas says that he was born at Xanthus in Lycia.

2049Or Vestibule.

2050Supposed by Sillig to have been an allegorical painting representing two of the sacred ships of the Athenians; but to have been mistaken in later times for a picture of Ulysses and Nausicaa, a subject taken from the Odyssey, B. vi. l. 16,et seq.As to Paralus, said to have been the first builder of long ships, or ships of war, see B. vii. c. 57.

2051Or “long ships.”

2052Son of Cercaphus and Cydippe or Lysippe, and grandson of Apollo. He is said to have been the founder of the town of Ialysus, mentioned in B. v. c. 36.

2053“These four times most probably were, the dead colouring, a first and a second painting, and lastly, scumbling with glazing.”—Wornum, Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art.Painting.

2054See Chapter40in this Book.

2055“Poppyzonta.” “Smacking with his lips.” Somewhat similar to the s—s—s—s of our grooms and ostlers.

2056Poliorcetes.

2057“In repose.”

2058Phæstis, or Phæstias by name.

2059In B. xxxiv. c.19.

2060A native of Athens, ranked by Plutarch with Euphranor and Nicias.

2061Tyrant of Elaten, mentioned already in this Chapter. See Note2041.

2062Supposed by Sillig to have been a native of Thebes.

2063Or “Youth;” in the Eighth Region of the City.

2064See B. xiii. c. 5.

2065A round, closely-fitting skull cap, made of felt. St. Jerome, Epist. 120, speaks of Ulysses as being thus represented in paintings. Statues of him with the “pileus” are still to be seen.

2066See B. ii. c. 6.

2067A contemporary of Philip of Macedon.

2068A dithyrambic poet, born at Selinus. He flourishedB.C.398. Only a few lines of his works remain.

2069“Breviores etiamnum quasdam picturæ compendiarias invenit.” Delafosse is of opinion that paintings in grotesque are probably meant.

2070His country is uncertain, but he probably lived about the time of Apelles.

2071In Chapter40of this Book.

2072He belonged, as Wornum remarks, to the class of genre-painters, orpeintres du genre bas, as the French term them. His age and country are unknown.

2073“Painter of low subjects.” This term is equivalent in meaning, probably, to our expression—“The Dutch style.”

2074“Mæniana.” Balustrades or balconies, said to have been so called from one Mænius, who built them.

2075See Chapter8of this Book. They are mentioned also in the “Curculio” of Plautus, A. iv. s. i. l. 19. Nothing further is known of Serapio.

2076His country is unknown, but he is supposed to have lived in the first centuryB.C.See also Chapter40of this Book.

2077“Painter of men.”

2078Mentioned also by Varro. He probably lived in the time of Alexander the Great.

2079A native of Egypt, compared by many to the most eminent artists. He is spoken of in high terms by Quintilian, B. xii. c. 10. See also Chapter40of this Book.

2080Built by Augustus in the Ninth Region of the City, in honour of his sister Octavia.

2081See Chapter36.

2082Bacchus.

2083And so caused his death by falling from his chariot. See the “Hippolytus” of Euripides.

2084Near the Theatre of Pompey, in the Ninth Region of the City.

2085“Caricatures.” Sillig thinks it not unlikely that Gryllus was painted with a pig’s face, that animal being signified by the Greek wordγρυλλὸς.

2086See Chapter40of this Book.

2087See Chapter6of this Book.

2088In the original, as given by Sillig, “Plautiu, Marcus Cleœtas.” That commentator supposes him to have been a Greek by birth, and adopted into the Plautian family, on being made a citizen of Rome.

2089“Euripi.” See B. ii. c. 100, B. viii. c. 40, and B. ix. cc. 22, 80. The landscape paintings on the interior walls of houses at Herculaneum and Pompeii may be taken as specimens of this artist’s style.

2090“Succollatis sponsione mulieribus.” This passage appears to be a mass of confusion, in spite of Sillig’s attempts to amend and explain it. The meaning can only be guessed at, not given with any degree of certainty: of Ludius himself, no further particulars are known.

2091The “hypæthra” or promenades.

2092Most editions give “Famulus.” Nothing further is known of him.

2093See B. xxxvi. c.24.

2094Both in the First Region of the City, near the Capenian Gate.

2095See Chapter41of this Book, where the difficulties attending this description will be considered.

2096See Chapter36of this Book.

2097See Chapter35of this Book.

2098Possibly the artist of that name mentioned by Athenæus, B. x., as a tutor of Apelles. If so, he must have flourished about the ninety-seventh Olympiad.

2099Elasippus “inburned” this picture,i.e.executed it in encaustic. From the Attic form of this word, it has been concluded that he was an Athenian. The spelling of his name is very doubtful.

2100See Chapter36of this Book.

2101Two paintings of his at Epidaurus are mentioned by Pausanias, B. ii. c. 27.

2102Andnotin encaustic; though, as we shall see in Chapter41, the brush was sometimes used in this branch.

2103The “One day” picture.

2104See B. xxi. c. 3.

2105The “Chaplet-wearer.” See B. xxi. c. 3.

2106The “Chaplet-seller.”

2107A “correct” copy.

2108“In confracto.” Meaning probably the group of the surrounding spectators, on which the shadow of the animal’s body was thrown. It is evident that this artist excelled in his effect of light and shade, enhanced by contrasts, and strong foreshortenings.”—Wornum, Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art.Painting.

2109A.U.C.678. See B. xxxvi. c.24.

2110Mentioned also in B. xxxiv. c.19.

2111Praised by Pausanias, B. i. It was in this combat, he says, that Gryllus, the son of Xenophon, and Epaminondas the Theban, first distinguished themselves.

2112“Carne.” Beef, according to Plutarch, was the flesh mentioned.

Back to Index Next