and composition, as is abundantly testified in the present day by the relative positions of the great painters of Italy: besides, fineness of execution may be quite lost through dirt, or even want of light, while the great essential qualities of design proclaim themselves in spite of either dirt or gloom. Few conversant in such matters prefer the works of the artists of the seventeenth century to those of the fifteenth and sixteenth, though they are generally infinitely superior to the earlier works in execution. In allusion to this subject, Quintilian' says, notwithstanding the simple colouring of Polygnotus, which was little more than the mere foundation of what was afterwards accomplished, many preferred his works to those of the greatest painters who succeeded him, but not, as Quintilian thought, without a certain degree of affectation. It is also at the present day considered an affectation by the many to prefer the works of Raphael to those of Domenichino, Guido, or the Carracci, and a host of others that might be mentioned. PANENUS OF ATHENS was another very distinguished painter of this period, though, as the nephew of Phidias,' he was probably much younger than Polygnotus or Micon. His principal work was the Battle of Marathon in the Pocile, in which, as remarked above, he was assisted by Micon. This picture appears to have been in several divisions 3-the positions of the armies before the battle, the incidents of the battle, and, lastly, the flight and destruction of the Persians. It contained iconic portraits of Miltiades, Callimachus, and Cynægirus, generals of the Athenians; and Datis and Artaphernes, the Persian generals. From a remark in the speech of Eschines against Ctesiphon, it would appear that this picture was painted during the lifetime of Miltiades; but this is only possible if we suppose that it was painted upon a panel, or panels, and afterwards fixed up in the Pocile. Eschines says that Miltiades wished to have his name attached to his portrait, which the Athenian people would not permit; but they suffered him to be painted at the head of the troops, leading on the attack. The picture, therefore, if not painted during the lifetime of Miltiades, was, if Æschines speaks the truth, at least determined upon during his lifetime, and consequently immediately after the battle was fought, for Miltiades died in the following year, 489 B.C. The Poecile was, however, built by Cimon about twenty years after the Battle of Marathon, or about 470 B.C., after his victories over the Persians; and the picture was apparently, from the date of other works by Panænus, not painted until upwards of twenty years later still, and accordingly so long after the death of all the generals represented, that their portraits 2 Strabo, viii. p. 354. 1 44 'Inst. Orator." xii. 10. 3 Pausanias, i. 15; v. 11; Pliny, "Hist. Nat." xxxv. 34. must have been mere iconic figures, the likeness depending more upon their costumes and positions than upon their features, unless we suppose that they were copied from earlier portraits, which is not very probable. The Olympian Jupiter of Phidias, which Pananus was employed to decorate, was not executed until after the eighty-sixth Olympiad, or 436 B.C.' The Battle of Marathon, therefore, if painted by Pananus, as Pliny and Pausanias state, cannot have been painted many years before. The pictures of the Poecile appear to have been painted on panel, for they were all removed in the reign of Arcadius, 395-408 A.D. This is, however, not conclusive, as the Romans found a method of safely removing slabs of plaster from Greek walls.3 The decorations of the Olympian Jupiter by Pananus were on the throne and on the wall around the throne of the statue. The subjects of the pictures were-Atlas supporting Heaven and Earth, with Hercules near him, about to relieve him from his burden; Theseus and Pirithous; figures representing Greece and Salamis, the latter bearing the rostra of a ship in her hands; the Combat of Hercules with the Nemean Lion; the Rape of Cassandra by Ajax; Hippodamia, the daughter of Enomaus, with her mother; Prometheus chained, and Hercules apparently about to destroy the vulture which preyed upon him; Penthesilea dying, supported by Achilles; and the Hesperides with the Golden Apples.* Prize contests in painting were established in Greece, already in the time of Panænus, at Corinth, and at Delphi, in one of which, at the Pythian games, Pananus was defeated by a painter of Chalcis, of the name of Timagoras, otherwise unknown, but he must have been an artist of some consequence from this single incident. He celebrated his own victory in verse." PLISTENETUS is mentioned by Plutarch as the brother of Phidias, and as a famous battle painter, but he is otherwise unknown. He may have painted the battle of the Athenians and Spartans at Ence, which was one of the pictures of the Poecile noticed by Pausanias. 1 Pliny, "Hist. Nat." xxxv. 34; xxxiv. 19; compare Heyne, Ueber die Künstlerepochen beym Plinius, “Antiquarische Aufsätze,” i. p. 165, and Sillig, “Catalogus Artificum," v. Phidias. Whether the Greeks painted on panels set in the walls or on the walls themselves, see Raoul Rochette, "Sur l'emploi de la Peinture," &c., and Letronne, "Lettres d'un Antiquaire," &c. 4 Strabo, viii. p. 354; Pausanias, v. 11; Pliny, "Hist. Nat." xxxv. 35. 3 Pliny, l. c. 6 "De Glor. Athen." 2. D CHAPTER V. PERIOD OF ESTABLISHMENT: ABOUT 400 B.C.-DRAMATIC STYLE. INDIVIDUALITY. ABOUT a generation or more subsequent to the arrival of Polygnotus at Athens, and shortly after the death of Phidias, dramatic effect was added to the essential style of Polygnotus and his contemporaries. This epoch was brought about chiefly by the efforts of Apollodorus of Athens and Zeuxis of Heraclea (probably of Macedonia), and henceforth we find a unity of sentiment and action, and an imitation of the local and accidental appearances of objects, combined with the historic and generic representation of Polygnotus, which was chiefly characterised by individual representation without any reference to the accidental combination of accessories; and neither the picturesque, nor an indiscriminate picture of nature, appeared to have at all belonged to the art of that period. The most distinguished contemporaries of Apollodorus and Zeuxis, and those who carried out their principles, were Parrhasius of Ephesus, Eupompus of Sicyon, and Timanthes of Cythnos. Athens and Sicyon were the great seats of the arts at this time. Apollodorus, who, according to Plutarch,' was the inventor of tone, or the first great master of light and shade, was born at Athens, probably about 460; he was apparently a few years older than Zeuxis, for he complained that Zeuxis had robbed him of his art. APOLLODORUS OF ATHENS was the first great master of light and shade. Earlier painters, however, and especially Dionysius of Colophon, had distinguished themselves in this respect, but doubtless in a different and in a less degree than Apollodorus, who was the first to attain a perfect, or rather, an approximate imitation of the various effects of light and shade invariably seen in nature, arising from light reflected reciprocally from one contiguous object to another, which always partakes in a slight degree of the colour of the object from which it is reflected. If we may depend upon the criticisms of ancient writers, the works of Apollodorus were not inferior in this respect to the works of the most distinguished masters of modern times. The distinction between this quality of the works of Apollodorus, and the force and tone of Dionysius, which Plutarch himself speaks of,3 is, that what in the works of Dionysius 1 "De Glor. Athen." 2. 2 Pliny mentions 400 B.c. as the period of Zeuxis, but this, as will be presently shown, was the close of the career of Zeuxis. 3 Timol." 36. was a mere gradation of light and shade, or a gradual diminution of light, was in those of Apollodorus a gradation also of tints, the colour gradually diminishing and changing with the diminution of light, The former was termed róvos, or tone, among the Greeks, and the latter apμoy, or harmony. The English term tone, however, when applied to a coloured picture, comprehends both: it is equivalent to the "splendour" of Pliny. Apollodorus was the first painter whose pictures, says Pliny,' riveted the eye; he first proclaimed the pencil's honours, and he was the first who painted men and things as they really appear. From the force and effective character of his light and shade, he received the surname of the Shadower (ó okιaypapos). He may be termed the Greek Rembrandt. Pliny commences his compendious sketch of the history of Greek painting with Apollodorus, whom he terms the first luminary in art; but he mentions only two of his pictures-a priest in the act of devotion; and Ajax wrecked, which, in Pliny's time, was at Pergamum. A picture of the Heracleida, Alcmena, and the daughter of Hercules, supplicating the Athenians when under fear of Eurystheus, which is commonly attributed to Pamphilus, is said in the scholiast on the "Plutus" of Aristophanes (v. 385) to have been painted by Apollodorus. This painter was in the habit, says Plutarch, of writing upon his works, "It is easier to find fault than to imitate ”μωμήσεταί τις μᾶλλον ἢ μιμήσεται. According to Pliny, Zeuxis wrote the line upon one of his works; he did it probably in triumph over Apollodorus, whose fame he materially eclipsed.3 ZEUXIS OF HERACLEA, one of the most celebrated painters of antiquity, was born, from his connection with Archelaus, probably at Heraclea in Macedonia, certainly not later than 450 B.C., and very possibly several years earlier. Harduin and others have assumed Heraclea in Lucania to have been the birth-place of Zeuxis, simply apparently from the story of the virgins of Croton, who stood to him as models for his celebrated picture of Helen. But this town of Heraclea was not founded till after the destruction of Siris, 433 B.C long after the birth of Zeuxis, who was at the height of his reputation during the reign of Archelaus, king of Macedon, from 413 until 399 B.C.; and he was already so wealthy during the lifetime of this king, that he ceased to sell his pictures, but made presents of them. Archelaus himself was presented with a picture of Pan by Zeuxis. Archelaus had previously employed Zeuxis to decorate the palace at Pella; for which, says Elian," he was paid 400 minæ, about 1600l. sterling-a small sum for the decoration of a palace, compared with what was afterwards received by the 1 "Hist. Nat." xxxv. 36. 2 Hesychius. * Plutarch, "De Glor. Athen." 2. Pliny, "Hist. Nat." xxxv. 36. 4 Diodorus Siculus, xii. 6. Strabo, p. 264. 5 66 'Var. Hist." xiv. 17. painters of the Alexandrian period, but it was a considerable amount probably at that time. The characteristics of Zeuxis's style are indicated by several ancient writers: his peculiar excellence seems to have been a grand style of form which was happily combined with a high degree of execution. That he must have excelled in general effect is evident from the complaint of Apollodorus, that he had robbed him of his art; and from what Aristotle says of his inferiority in expression to Polygnotus, form and effect obviously predominated in his works, and it is a powerful and rare combination. Quintilian bears excellent testimony to the high character of his forms; he says Zeuxis followed Homer, who loved powerful forms even in women.' Cicero also speaks of the fine forms of Zeuxis. These qualities were well calculated to enable him to excel in painting the naked female form. But Zeuxis added to these qualities a dramatic effect of composition, and he was distinguished also by his original and peculiar choice of subject. Lucian3 has given us a most interesting account of Zeuxis and of one of his works-a family of Centaurs-of which he saw a copy at Athens; the original was lost at sea on its way to Rome, whither it had been sent by Sulla. Lucian, before describing this picture, makes the following prefatory observations :He says that Zeuxis seldom or never exerted his powers upon such vulgar or hackneyed subjects as gods, heroes, or battles: but he always selected something new and unattempted, and when he had chosen his subject, he laboured his utmost to render it a masterpiece. He thus describes the picture-"On a grass-plat of the most glossy verdure lies the Centauress, with the whole equine part of her stretched on the ground, the hind feet extending backwards, while the upper female part is gently raised and reclining on one elbow. But the fore feet are not equally extended, as if she lay on her side; yet one seems to rest on the knee, having the hoof bent backward, whereas the other is lifted up and pawing the ground, as horses are wont to do when they are going to spring up. Of her two young, one she holds in her arms to give it the breast, the other lies under her, sucking like a foal. On an elevation behind her is seen a Centaur, who appears to be her mate, but is only visible to the half of the horse; he looks down upon her with a complacent smile, holding up in one hand the whelp of a lion, as if jocosely to frighten his little ones with it. . . In the male Centaur all is fierce and terrific: his shaggy mane-like hair, his rough body, his broad and brawny shoulders, and the countenance, though smiling, yet wild and savage; in short, everything bears the character of these compound beings. The Centauress, on the other hand, 1 "Inst. Orator." xii. 10. 3. 2 "Brutus," 18. 3 Zeuxis or Antiochus. |