Page:Anecdotes of painters, engravers, sculptors and architects, and curiosities of art (IA anecdotesofpaint01spoo).pdf/174

 old Olynthian captive, to serve as a model, that he might be able to portray correctly the agonies of Prometheus while the Vulture preyed upon his vitals. This story is doubtless a fiction, as it is found nowhere but in the Controversies. Olynthus was taken by Philip of Macedon, B. C. 347, about forty years subsequent to the latest accounts of Parrhasius.

THE VANITY OF PARRHASIUS.

This great artist was well aware of his powers, but the applause which he received, added to a naturally vain and conceited disposition, so completely carried him away, that Pliny terms him "the most insolent and the most arrogant of artists." He assumed the title of The Elegant, styled himself the Prince of Painters, wrote an epigram upon himself, in which he proclaimed his birth, and declared that he had carried the art to perfection. He clothed himself in purple, and wore a wreath of gold on his head; and when he appeared on public occasions, particularly at the Olympic games, he changed his robes several times a day. He went so far as to pretend that he was descended from Apollo, one of whose surnames was Parrhasius, and even to dedicate his own portrait as Mercury in a temple, and thus received the adoration of the multitude.

THE INVENTION OF THE CORINTHIAN CAPITAL.

About B. C. 550, there died at Corinth a marriageable virgin; and her nurse, according to the