THE DIRECTOR. No. 18. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1807. Gracia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes Intulit agresti Latio. HOR. As in referring to the Temple of Elis, I have mentioned a painter among the artists employed, it may be proper to take a short view of the rise of this art. The painters of note first mentioned in history, ZEUXIS and PARRHASIUS, are about the time of the Peloponnesian war, which began 430 years A. C. and lasted 27 years. Socrates is introduced by Xenophon, conversing with Parrhasius. In the course of perhaps fifty years antecedent, there flourished VOL. II. · Y POLYG NOTUS, AGLAPHON *, and PANEUS. The Art of Painting seems to have advanced with surprising rapidity to perfection; for we find few or no memorials of it in Homer, or in the Greek tragedians. It is true that the use of colours is very antient they are still to be seen on the walls of the temple of the Thebais in unfaded lustre ; and three thousand ;; years have not dimmed them on the sides of the stones which inclose Egyptian mummies. But this is a very different thing from the lively representations of pictures: nor can the gigantic figures which some travellers say are coloured on the. walls of the Egyptian temples, be allowed much praise as works of art. MOSES mentions pictures two or three times; but the word probably means. painted idols, as in Jeremiah 22d, "he painteth it with vermilion." Jezebel painted her face; and in the Iliad both He *See Pliny, lib. 15. ch. 8, 9, &c. and Cicero in Brut, len and Andromache are described as working flowers of various hue. "The apples of gold in pictures of silver," mentioned in the Book of Proverbs, were probably woven, or done in similar embroidery. To the same infancy of skill in this art may be referred the Mexican paintings, the monstrous designs of the Chinese artificers, and the sumptuous carpets of Persia. No proportion was observed; and the only effect produced, or intended, was a display of forms and gaudy colours, without an attempt at exactness. But Zeuxis painted a boy with grapes, so naturally executed, that the birds pecked them; and the artist was therefore angry with himself, for having failed in the figure of the boy, whose presence ought to have frightened them. This shews a considerable proficiency in the art. But, as Zeuxis deceived the birds, Parrhasius with his curtain, deceived even his rival. In the next age, that of Alexander the Great, about 330 years A. C. flourished APELLES; who, according to Pliny*, excelled all painters, both before and after him. The delicacy of his colours may be gathered from Cicero's description of the COAN VENUS. "It is not flesh, but like flesh; and that redness diffused and blended with a fair skin, is not blood, but the resemblance of blood," He was in great favor with Alexander. The most celebrated performance of this artist was "the Venus Anadyomene," or rising from the sea; and, on account of this picture, a tribute of 100 talents, £.19,635, was remitted by the Athenians to his native Isle of Cos. APELLES made a voyage to Rhodes to see the Painter PROTOGENES. Calling at his house, he found only an old woman, who took care of the paintings, and seizing a brush, he drew a simple outline over a half finished picture. Protogenes, upon his return, exclaimed that * Lib. 35. Omnes prius genitos futurosque excellit, Strabo, Lib. 14, Apelles had been there; and forming a still more delicate line by that of Apelles, bade his servant shew it the stranger, if he came again. The Coan, impatient of a superior, drew a third line, which exceeded the former, and baffled the farther powers of art. Pliny says these three outlines (lineæ) almost eluding the sight, were long preserved in the Capitol at Rome, and more valued than the paintings of the best masters. Before Apelles left Rhodes he inquired the price set on the paintings of Protogenes; and some trifling sum being mentioned, he offered for them fifty talents, about ten thousand pounds of our money, sold them for his own, and thus enhanced the fame of his rival. A long cata *The reader will recollect a similar circumstance, in our own times: I mean that of Sir Joshua Reynolds purchasing a picture by Gainsborough, and thereby instructing the public in the value to be set on the paintings of that excellent artist. I add another anecdote from La Peinture, poeme, par le Mierre. C'est un usage établi à Rome, de faire mettre en mosaïque dans l'eglise de Saint Pierre, tous les ta |