Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (IA cyclopediaofpain03cham).pdf/419

 that he had assigned to art precise limits which could never be transgressed. Quintilian says (xii. 10. 5) that Parrhasius was so exact in his drawing that he was called the legislator of painting, and that other painters followed, as a matter of obligation, his models of gods and heroes. Pliny adds (xxxv. 36) that he was the first to give expression to the features, elegance to the hair, and gracefulness to the mouth; and that it was universally admitted that he bore off the palm for contour, or the rounding off of his outlines. Parrhasius was a prolific artist and left many works. Among those mentioned by Pliny (l. c.), one of the most celebrated was an allegorical picture of the Athenian People. Another famous one was a Theseus, preserved in the Capitol at Rome. His Archigallus (high priest of Cybele), valued at 600,000 sesterces, was kept by the Emperor Tiberius in his own chamber. Other scarcely less celebrated pictures by him were an Armed Runner contending for the Prize, and the same taking off his armour; a Meleager, Hercules, and Perseus; an Achilles, Agamemnon, and Ulysses; and an Æneas, Castor, and Pollux. Plutarch (De And. Poet., 3) says that he painted also Ulysses feigning Madness. On being defeated at Samos by Timanthes in a painting competition, the subject being the Contest for the Arms of Achilles by Ajax and Ulysses, Parrhasius remarked that he felt quite disgraced at seeing Ajax defeated a second time by an unworthy opponent (Pliny, l. c.; Ath., xii. 543; Æl. V. H., ix. 11). He was more sucessful in a contest with Zeuxis. The story told by Seneca (Controv., v. 10) about Parrhasius's torturing a slave, purchased from among the captives taken at Olynthia (346 ), that he might serve as a model for a picture of Prometheus, is chronologically impossible, as the painter was then dead.—Brunn, ii. 97.

PARROCEL, BARTHÉLEMY, born at Montbrison (Loire), about 1600, died at Brignolles (Var), in 1660. French school; painter of sacred history. Having abandoned the priesthood he went to Italy to study art. Before reaching Rome, where he lived several years, he is said to have visited Spain with a nobleman who took a fancy to him, and to have been taken prisoner by an Algerian corsair during the voyage to Italy. On his return to France he settled at Brignolles, where he died at an early age. His two sons, Joseph and Louis, were painters, as were their sons, Charles, Ignace, and Pierre, and Pierre's son, Joseph Ignace François. Barthélemy's only known work is a Descent from the Cross, in the Church of the Saviour at Brignolles. Louis also is known by a single picture, an Agony in the Garden, in the Church of St. Martin at Marseilles.—Bellier, ii. 206; Mémoires inédits, ii. 40.

PARROCEL, CHARLES, born in Paris, May 6, 1688, died there, May 24, 1752. French school; battle painter, son of Joseph Parrocel, and pupil of Charles de Lafosse and Bon Boullogne. After serving two campaigns in a cavalry regiment, he went to Italy to study painting. In 1721 he painted two pictures for Louis XIV., and in 1744-45 accompanied Louis XV. in his campaigns, to paint his victories. Died of apoplexy at the Gobelins, where he resided. Member of the Academy, 1721; councillor, 1735; professor, 1746. Works: Cavalry Fighting (1709); Cavalry Charging (1711); Battle of Cavalry and Infantry (1721); Entry of the Turkish Ambassador for an Audience, His Departure after the Audience, Entry of Louis XV. into Mons, 1747, Portraits (2) of Louis XV., Versailles Museum; King's Guards Halting (1737), Louvre; Attack of