Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/112

 Le Brun, and the like. That if we may judge of the Worth of the Painters of the First Classe by the Commendations which have been given them, we have Reason to say, either that their Admirers did not understand Painting well, or that themselves were not so valuable, or both. That whereas Zeuxis is said to have painted a Bunch of Grapes so naturally, that the Birds pecked at them; Cooks have, of late Years, reached at Partridges and Capons, painted in Kitchins; which has made By-standers smile, without raising the Painter's Reputation to any great heighth. That the Contention between Protogenes and Apelles shewed the Infancy of their Art: Apelles was wonderfully applauded for drawing a very fine Stroke upon a Table: Protogenes drew a Second over that, in a different Colour; which Apelles split into two, by a Third. Yet this was not so much as what Giotto did, who lived in the Beginning of the Restoration of Painting in Italy; who drew, without Compasses, with a single Stroke of a Pencil, upon a Board, an O, so exquisitely round, that it is still proverbial among the Italians, when they would describe a Man that is egregiously stupid, to say, That he is as round as