howed great liberality of mind towards Protogenes. With ideas enlarged by education and literature, he was incapable of harbouring little jealousies of noble competitors; on the contrary, he was the first who made the works of Protogenes to be valued as they deserved among the Rhodians. He acknowledged that Protogenes was in some respects superior to himself; but that in one particular himself excelled, viz. in knowing when to take his hand from the picture; an art which Protogenes had not yet learned, and therefore over-worked his pieces. Apelles equally disapproved of too elaborate diligence, or too hasty negligence in execution. A studied work of Protogenes he esteemed less on the one account; and on the other, when a silly painter once brought him a picture, and said, "This I painted in a hurry,"—he replied, "Though you had not told me so, I perceived it was painted in haste: but I wonder you could not execute more such pieces in the same time."

There are two stories related of Apelles, which show him to be at once an artist of modesty, in amending even trifling improprieties, when pointed out to him by competent judges; and yet of self-confidence sufficient to make him know the perfection and value of his own paintings. It was customary with Apelles to expose to public view the works which he had finished, and to hide himself behind the picture, in order to hear the remarks passed on it by persons who chanced to view it. He once overheard himself blamed by a shoemaker for a fault in the slippers of some picture: he corrected the fault which the man had noticed: but on the day following the shoemaker began to advert to the leg; upon which Apelles with some anger looked out from behind the canvas, and bade him keep keep to his own province, "Ne futura ultra crepidam." It is well known that Alexander forbade any one besides Apelles to paint his portrait. We are not, however, to conclude from this, that Alexander was a more skilful judge of painting than he was of poetry. Like Augustus, he cherished the fine arts more from vanity than taste. A remarkable proof is given of this prince's inability to discern merit, and of the painter's freedom in expressing the mortification he felt, when a work of his was not sufficiently commended, "Alexander (says Aelian, Lib. ii. c. 3. Var. Hist.) having viewed the picture of himself which was at Ephesus, did not praise it as it deserved. But when a horse was brought in, and neighed at seeing the figure of a horse in the picture, as though it had been a real horse; O king! said Apelles) this horse seems to be by far a better judge of painting than you." It happened more than once that the horses drawn by him were mistaken for real ones, by living horses which saw and neighed at the pictures. In his finishing a drawing of this animal, a remarkable circumstance is related of him. He had painted a horse returning from battle, and had succeeded to his wishes in describing every other mark that could indicate a mettlesome steed, impatient of restraint; there was wanting nothing but a foam of a bloody hue issuing from the mouth. He again and again endeavoured to express this, but his attempts were unsuccessful. At last, with vexation, he threw against the reins of the horse a sponge which had in it many colours; a mixture of which coming out of the sponge, and tingling the reins, produced the very effect desired by the painter.

The works of Apelles were all admired; but the most celebrated were the picture of Alexander in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and that of Venus emerging from the sea. Alexander was drawn with thunder in his hand; and such relief was produced by the chiaro scuro in his piece, that the fingers seemed to shoot forward, and the thunderbolt to be out of the picture. His Venus Anadyomene was esteemed the most exquisite figure which the pencil could create: it is therefore extolled by the Roman poets Propertius and Ovid; and the poet of Sidon, Antipater, has left us the following Greek epigram on it:

\[ \text{Την ἀνάδυομενόν πρὸς μαλέων ὁδῆς Σαλαμῖνας} \] \[ \text{Κορυκία, Ἀπέλλει τέχνης ἐν τῷ γυμνῷ;} \] \[ \text{Ὡς χίτων συμμετρίαν διαβάζει ὑπὸ παλαιῶν} \] \[ \text{Εὐδοκεῖ ἰδὼν ἀφ' ἀρχῆς πνεῦματος;} \] \[ \text{Αὐτὰ ῥα τρίτη Ἀθηνᾶς ἐν παῖ Δημοσίῳ.} \]

"Ow' ill ooi neppas ei eirn terepseia."

Antib. iv. 12.

Graceful as from her natal sea the springs, Venus, the labour of Apelles, view: With pressing hand her humid locks the wrings, While from her tresses drips the frothy dew; Ev'n Juno and Minerva now declare, "No longer we contend whose form's most rare."