Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/241

Rh APELLKS. coon, arid probaWy coloured like Titian" (Notes on JJu Fresnoy^ note 37) ; and, though the point has been disputed, such is the general judgment of the best modern authorities. It need scarcely be said, that not one of the pictures of Apelles remains to decide the question by. In order to understand what ~was the excellence which was peculiar to Apelles, we must refer to the state of the art of painting in his time. {LHct. of Ant. s. V. Painting.) After the essential forms of Polygnotus had been elevated to dramatic effect and ideal expression by Apollodorus and Zeuxis, and enlivened with the varied character and feeling which the school of Eupompus drew forth from direct observation of nature, Apelles perceived that something still was wanting, something which the refinements attained by his contemporaries in group- ing, perspective, accuracy, and finish, did not sup- ply — something which he boasted, and succeeding ages confirmed the boast, that he alone achieved — namely, the quality called X^P'^^9 venustas, grace (Plin. XXXV. 36. § 10 ; Quintil. xii. 10 ; Plut. D&- met. 22 ; Aelian, V. H. xii. 41) ; that is, not only beauty, sublimity, and pathos, but beauty, subli- mity, and pathos, each in its proper measure; the expending of power enough to produce the desired effect, and no more ; the absence of all exaggeration, as well as of any sensible deficiency ; the most na- tural and pleasing mode of impressing the subject on the spectator's mind, without displaying the means by which the impression is produced. In fact, the meaning which Fuseli attaches to the word seems to be that in which it was used by Apelles : " By grace I mean that artless balance of motion and repose sprung from character, founded on propriety, which neither falls short of the demands nor over- leaps the modesty of nature. Applied to execution, it means that dexterous power which hides the means by which it was attained, the difficulties it has conquered." {Led. 1.) In the same Lecture Fnseli gives the following estimate of the character of Apelles as an artist : " The name of Apelles in Pliny is the synonyme of unrivalled and unattain- able excellence, but the enumeration of his works points out the modification which we ought to ap- ply to that superiority ; it neither comprises exclu- sive sublimity of invention, the most acute discri- mination of character, the widest sphere of compre- hension, the most judicious and best balanced composition, nor the deepest pathos of expression : his great prerogative consisted more in the unison than in the extent of his powers ; he knew better what he could do, what ought to be done, at what point he could arrive, and what lay beyond his reach, than any other artist. Grace of conception and refinement of taste were his elements, and went hand in hand with grace of execution and taste in finish ; powerful and seldom possessed singly, irresistible when united : that he built both on the firm basis of the former system, not on its subversion, his well-known contest of lines with Protogenes, not a legendary tale, but a well at- tested fact, irrefragably proves : .... the corollaries we may adduce from the contest are obviously these, that the schools of Greece recognized all one elemental principle : that acuteness and fidelity of eye and obedience of hand form precision ; preci- sion, proportion ; proportion, beauty : that it is the which constitutes grace, and establishes the supe- riority of one artist above another : that the know- APELLICON. 223 ledge of the degrees of things, or taste, presuppose* a perfect knowledge of the things themselves : that colour, grace, and taste, are ornaments, not substi- tutes, of form, expression, and character ; and, when they usui-p that title, degenerate into splen- did faults. Such were the principles on which Apelles formed his Venus, or rather the personifi- aition of Female Grace, — the wonder of art, the despair of artists." That this view of the Venus is right, is proved, if proof were needed, by the words of Pliny (xxxv. 36. § 10), "Deesse iis unam Venerem dicebat, quam Graeci Charita vo- cant," except that there is no reason for calling the Venus " the personification of Female Grace ;" it was rather Grace personified in a female form. Apelles wrote on painting, but his works are entirely lost. [P. S.] APELLES ('ATreAATjs), a disciple of Marcion, departed in some points from the teaching of his master. Instead of wholly rejecting the Old Testament, he looked upon its contents as coming partly from the good principle, partly from the evil principle. Instead of denying entirely the reality of Christ's human body, he held that in his descent from heaven he assumed to himself an aerial body, which he gave back to the air as he ascended. He denied the resurrection of the body, and considered differences of religious belief as unimportant, since, said he, "all who put their trust in the Crucified One will be saved, if they only prove their faith by good works." Apelles flourished about A. d. 188, and lived to a very great age. TertuUian (Praescript. Haeret. 30) says, that he was expelled from the school of Marcion for fornication with one Philumene, who fancied herself a prophetess, and whose fantasies were recorded by Apelles in his book entitled ^av^p'Jocreis. But since Rhodon, who was the personal opponent of Apelles, speaks of him as universally honoured for his course of life (Euseb. H. E. V. 13), we may conclude that the former pait of Tertullian's story is one of those inventions which were so commonly made in order to damage the character of heretics. Besides the ^ai>fpw<riiSy Apelles wrote a work entitled "• Syllogisms," the object of which Eusebius states (/. c.) to have been, to prove that the writings of Moses were false. It must have been a very large work, since Am- brose {De Paradis. 5) quotes from the thirty-eighth volume of it. (See also TertuU. adv. Marcion, iv. 17 ; Augustin. de Haer. 23 ; Epiphanius, Haer. 44.) [P. S.] APE'LLICON ('ATreAAi/cwj'), a native of Teos, was a Peripatetic philosopher and a great collector of books. In addition to the number which his immense wealth enabled him to purchase, he stole several out of the archives of different Greek cities. His practices having been discovered at Athens, he was obliged to fly from the city to save his life. He afterwards returned during the tyranny of Aristion, who patronized him, as a member of the same philosophic sect with himself, and gave him the command of the expedition against Delos, which, though at first successful, was ruined by the carelessness of Apellicon, who was surprised by the Romans under Orobius, and with difficulty escaped, having lost his whole army. (Athen. v. pp. 214, 215.) His libnuy was carried to Rome by Sulla, (b. c. 84.) Apellicon had died just be- fore. (Strab. xiii. p. 609.) Apelllcon's libnuy contained the autographs of
 * little more or less,' imperceptible to vulgar eyes,