Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1340

Rh 1328 ZEUXIS. videtur^'' we can only say that, knowing nothing of the picture in question, and knowing too much of Pliny's judgment in such matters, we cannot give the Roman compiler credit for understanding what the Greek philosopher meant by ■^0oy. His marvellous power in expressing the ideal standard of human beauty, and of exactly imitating those natural objects, which are incapable of an ideal representation, are celebrated by several an- cient writers. In the passage, more than once re- ferred to in this work, in which Cicero expresses the general character of several of the chief artists of Greece {Brut. 18), as illustrative of the gradual progress of art, he says of Zeuxis, Polygnotus, and Timanthes, " we praise their forms and outlines {formas et lineamenta) ; but in Echion, Nico- machus, Protogenes, and Apelles every thing is already perfected." Elsewhere {de Invent, ii. 1 ; comp. V^ictorin. Expos, ad loc.) he relates, more fully than any other ancient author, the well-known story of his choice of the five most beautiful virgins of Croton*, as models for his picture of Helen, to be dedicated in the temple of Juno in that city ; which is one of the best illustrations of the sort of ideal character which was expressed in the paint- ings of Zeuxis, and which shows us that his ideal- ism consisted in the formation of a high average of merely human beauty, by the actual imitation, in one figure, of the most beautiful models of each se- parate part which he could find. This picture, Cicero tells us, was esteemed the finest work of the painter, in that application of his art in which he most excelled, namely the delineation of the female form ; and Zeuxis himself is said to have indicated his own opinion, that the picture was not only his masterpiece, but that its excellence could not be surpassed, bv adding to it the following lines of Homer {II. iii. 156— 158) : — Oh v4iJ.€(Tis Tpaias Koi ivKvf]iJ.i5as ^Axaiovs TOi-pS' a/xcpl yvvaiid ttoKvv xpovov i-Xy^a ird(rxeiv alvcas aOavaTTja-i ^erjs els Siira eoiKcu. (Val. Max. iii. 7» ext. 1.) This judgment was confirmed by that of the great painter Nicomachus (see Nicomachus, p. 1196, a.), but, when he saw a goddess in the Helen of Zeuxis, we must re- member that, in his age, even more than in that of Zeuxis himself, the highest idea of a divine form was satisfied by the perfection of merely human beauty. This picture and its history were cele- brated, Cicero further tells us, by many poets, who preserved the names of the five virgins upon whom the choice of Zeuxis fell ; and it has more than once been alluded to by modern poets. (See espe- cially, Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, xi. 71 — 78.) This picture is said to have contributed greatly to the artist's wealth. Cicero tells us that the Crotoniats, who were then at the height of their prosperity, engaged Zeuxis, for a large sum of money, to adorn with paintings the temple of Juno in their city ; and Aelian {V. H. iv. 12) relates a gossipping story, that, before the picture was dedicated, Zeuxis made an exhibition of it, at a fixed price, paid before admission, and so made a great gain of it ; but this proceeding caused his Helen to be known by the epithet of 'Erotpa. The accurate imitation of inanimate objects was a department of the art which Zeuxis and his younger rival Parrhasius appear to have carried • Not Agrigentum, as Pliny says. ZEUXIS. almost to perfection. The well-known story of the trial of skill in that species of painting between these two artists, if not literally true, indicates the opinion which was held in ancient times of their powers of imitation. In this contest the picture of Zeuxis represented a bunch of grapes, so naturally painted that the birds flew at the picture to eat the fruit ; upon which the artist, confident in this proof of his success, called upon his rival no longer to delay to draw aside the curtain and show his picture : but the picture of Parrhasius was the curtain itself, which Zeuxis had mistaken for real drapery. On discovering his error, Zeuxis ho- nourably yielded the palm to Parrhasius, saying that he himself had deceived birds, but Parrhasius an artist. (Plin. I. c. § 3.) Such a tale, perhaps, hardly falls within the province of criticism ; other- wise an exception might be taken to the decision of Zeuxis, on more grounds than one. As a pen- dant to this story, Pliny (/. c. § 4) relates another, less known, but more interesting, if true ; namely, that Zeuxis afterwards painted a boy carrj'ing grapes, at Avhich a bird again flew ; but this time the artist was displeased at his success, and said " I have painted the grapes better than the boy ; for had I made him perfectly like life, the bird would have been frightened away." Besides this accuracy of imitatfon, many of the works of Zeuxis displayed great dramatic power. This appears to have been especially the case with his Infant Hercules strangling tlie Serpent, where the chief force of the composition consisted in the terror of Alcmena and Amphitryon, as they wit- nessed the struggle. (Plin. I. c. § 2. : Hercules In- fans Dracones strangulans, A Icmena coram pavente et Amphitryone.) This picture was one of those which Zeuxis painted after he had reached the summit of his fame, and which he freely gave away as above all price ; for there can be no doubt that it was the same work as the Alcmena^ which, as Pliny states a little before, he presented to the people of Agrigentum. Another picture, in which he showed the same dramatic power, applied to a very different subject, was his Female Hippocentaur^ of which a most charming description is given by Lucian {Zeuxis., 3, foil.), who saw a copy of the work at Athens, the original having been lost in a shipwreck oif Cape Malea, on its way to Rome, whither it has been sent by Sulla. It represented a peaceful, happy, cheerful group of Centaurs, in which the repose of the mother suckling her young was beautifully contrasted with the sportive rough- ness of the father, who was partly visible on an elevation in the background, holding up a lion's whelp to frighten the little ones. The mixed shape of the Centaurs gave the artist a splendid opportimity to show his power of delineating form, and that in several varieties ; the male was fierce and shaggy, and his face, though smiling, was wild and savage ; the Centauress combined the beauties of a perfect female form, in the upper part, with those of a mare of the purest Thessalian breed, so skilfully united that it was impossible to detect the point of transition from the human form to the animal ; and the young ones, though new born, showed the fierce wildness of their nature, mingled with in- fantine timidity and curiosity at the sight of the lion's whelp, and while they looked at it, they clung closer to their mother. The figure of a female Centaur, suckling her young one, copied doubtless from the painting of Zeuxis, is seen in a