Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 126.djvu/263

 Belton. It seems to me impossible. Give me some instances if you can.

Mallett. Wait a moment. I have a little list of some of them, which, from time to time, I have noted down in my reading, and I will find it, and read it to you. It was a noble thing to be an artist in those days. One did not dine in the servants' hall. The celebrated artists were not only tremendous swells, but millionaires — or might be, if they chose. All the world coveted them, and flattered them, and their works were counted the glory of the state. There was Zeuxis, for instance, who used to parade about Olympia with his name embroidered in gold on his robes, and who amassed such a gigantic fortune from the sale of his pictures, that finally he would not sell any more, but gave them away, saying there was no price high enough to pay for them. He was fooled to the top of his bent everywhere. He was the admired of all admirers — courted by all his countrymen, high or low, and famous abroad. He did not ask favours, but conferred them, and in a princely way presented his works to cities, and states, and friends. For instance, to Archilaus he gave his Pan; and to the inhabitants of Agrigentum his Alcmena, as a great favour.

Belton. According to your account he must have been both vain and ostentatious; but one can scarcely wonder, when such court was paid him, and such fortune waited on him.

Mallett. Nicias in the same way refused to sell his picture of the Νεκυια, or region of the shades, to King Attalus, who offered him sixty talents, and rather chose to present it to his country as a gift.

Belton. How much would sixty talents be exactly?

Mallett. That depends on whether they are Attic or Æginetan talents. An Attic or Euboic talent was about £293, 15s., and an Æginetan talent about £393, 15s. Taking the lesser Attic talent at round numbers at £250 — 60 talents would be £15,000.

Belton. Fitteen thousand pounds is a "good round sum," as Shylock has it. I suppose there is not a living artist that would refuse the half for any picture of his. Nicias must have been a rich man to be able to refuse it.

Mallett. He was an artist of distinction, and that meant a rich man in Greece.

Belton. So it would seem.

Mallett. King Attalus seems to have had a decided taste for art, and to have paid handsomely for what he bought. For a single figure by Aristides he gave 100 talents — or about £25,000. Mnason the tyrant of Elatea was not so good or generous a patron apparently, for he had the meanness to offer to pay the same artist for a small picture representing a battle of the Persians on which there were one hundred figures, only at the rate of 10 minæ, or a little over £40, for each figure — which would only make about £4,000 for the picture.

Belton. I suppose the picture was small, and the figures overlapping and hiding each other, as in any representation of such a subject they must. So that really the price does not strike me as being small.

Mallett. It was very small for the period, but Mnason was a sharp dealer. He only gave Asclepiodorus 300 minæ or about £1,250 apiece for twelve figures by him, representing the twelve gods; and Theomnestus he seems to have treated still worse, for he only, offered him 100 minæ, or about £4oo, for any picture he would paint of a hero.

Belton. When wholesale orders are given like these one cannot expect such high prices. Besides, it is plain that these were mere decorative pictures of effect, each of a single figure. We should think the prices very high for such works.

 

 From The Pall Mall Gazette.

speech delivered by M. Louis Blanc, and the manner in which it was received by his party, are both striking testimonies to the rigid discipline which M. Gambetta exercises over the Left. It is plain that the silence so long maintained by M. Louis Blanc has indeed been pain and grief to him. The thoroughness of the dislike which he feels towards the recent policy of the Republicans was visible in every word he said, and yet it is only now, at the eleventh hour, when the Wallon Constitution has long been voted, and all that remains for the Assembly to do is to work it out in detail, that he throws off the yoke and determines at all hazards to tell the Left what he really thinks of the compromise which their leader has persuaded them to accept. If we imagine Mr. Gladstone heartily disapproving Lord Harlington's policy on the most momentous constitutional 