PARRHASIUS.

This great painter was a native of Ephesus, but became a citizen of Athens, where he flourished about B. C. 390. He raised the art to a much higher degree of perfection than it had before attained. Comparing his three great predecessors with each other, he rejected their errors, and adopted their excellencies. The classic invention of Polygnotus, the magic tones of Apollodorus, and the exquisite design of Zeuxis, are said to have been united in the works of Parrhasius. He reduced to theory the practice of former artists, and all cotemporary and subsequent painters adopted his standard of heroic and divine proportions; hence he was called the Legislator of Painting.

THE DEMOS AND OTHER WORKS OF PARRHASIUS.

One of the most celebrated works of Parrhasius was his Demos, or an allegorical picture of the Athenians. Pliny says that "it represented and expressed equally all the good as well as the bad qualities of the Athenians at the same time; one might trace the changeable, the irritable, the kind, the unjust, the forgiving, the vain-glorious, the proud, the humble, the fierce, the timid." There has been con

siderable dispute among critics whether this picture was a composition of one or several figures. Supposing it to have been a single figure, Pliny's description is absurd and ridiculous, for it is impossible to represent all the passions in a single figure.

It does not seem, however, that Parrhasius usually introduced many figures into his compositions. Pliny mentions as among his principal works, a Theseus; a Telephus; an Achilles; an Agamemnon; an Æneas; two famous pictures of Hoplites, or heavily armed warriors, one in action, the other in repose; a Naval Commander in his armor; Ulysses feigning insanity; Castor and Pollux; Bacchus and Virtue; a Cretan nurse with an Infant in her arms; and many others, apparently composed of one, two, or at most three figures.

Parrhasius was equally celebrated for his small, or cabinet pictures of libidinous subjects; hence he was called the Pornograph. His famous picture of Archigallus, the priest of Cybele, mentioned by Pliny, is supposed to have been of this description. Also the Meleager and Atalanta mentioned by Suetonius. This picture was bequeathed to Tiberius, on the condition that if he were offended with the subject, he should receive in its stead one million sesterces (about forty thousand dollars). The Emperor not only preferred the picture, but had it hung up in his own chamber, where the Archigallus, valued at six hundred thousand sesterces, was also preserved.

PARRHASIUS AND THE OLYNTHIAN CAPTIVE.

Seneca relates that Parrhasius, when about to paint a picture of Prometheus Chained, crucified an

old Olynthian captive, to serve as a model, that he might be able to portray correctly the agonies of Prometheus while the Vulture preyed upon his vi tals. This story is doubtless a fiction, as it is found nowhere but in the Controversies. Olynthus was taken by Philip of Macedon, B. C. 347, about forty years subsequent to the latest accounts of Parrhasius.

THE VANITY OF PARRHASIUS.

This great artist was well aware of his powers, but the applause which he received, added to a naturally vain and conceited disposition, so completely carried him away, that Pliny terms him "the most insolent and the most arrogant of artists." He assumed the title of The Elegant, styled himself the Prince of Painters, wrote an epigram upon himself, in which he proclaimed his birth, and declared that he had carried the art to perfection. He clothed himself in purple, and wore a wreath of gold on his head; and when he appeared on public occasions, particularly at the Olympic games, he changed his robes several times a day. He went so far as to pretend that he was descended from Apollo, one of whose surnames was Parrhasius, and even to dedicate his own portrait as Mercury in a temple, and thus received the adoration of the multitude.

THE INVENTION OF THE CORINTHIAN CAPITAL.

About B. C. 550, there died at Corinth a marriageable virgin; and her nurse, according to the

custom of the times, placed on her tomb a basket containing those viands most agreeable to her when alive, covering them with a tile, for better preservation. This basket was unintentionally placed over the root of an acanthus, the spring leaves and stems of which growing up, covered it in so elegant a manner as to attract the notice of Callimachus, who, struck with the idea and novelty of the figure, modelled from it the Corinthian capital, thus giving a remarkable proof of the intimate connection between Art, and Nature-the source of all true art-and producing that exquisitely graceful design which for twenty-four centuries has charmed the civilized world.

THE INVENTION OF SCULPTURE.

Pliny relates a pleasing and highly poetic anecdote of the invention of sculpture. Dibutades, the fair daughter of a celebrated potter of Sicyon, contrived a private meeting with her lover, on the eve of a long separation. After a repetition of vows of constancy, and a stay prolonged to a very late hour, the youth fell fast asleep. The fair nymph, whose imagination was on the alert, observing that her admirer's profile was strongly reflected on the wall by the light of a lamp, eagerly snatched up a piece of charcoal, and, inspired by love, traced the outline, that she might have the image of her lover before her during his absence. Her father, when he chanced to see the sketch,

struck with its correctness, determined to preserve it, if possible, as a memento of such a remarkable circumstance. With this view, he formed a kind of clay model from it, and baked it; which, being the first essay of the kind, was preserved in the public repository of Corinth, even to the fatal day of its destruction by that enemy to the arts, Mummius Achaicus.

PRAXITELES.

Praxiteles, one of the most eminent Grecian sculptors, was cotemporary with Euphranor, and flourished, according to Pliny, in the one hundred and fourth Olympiad, or B. C. 360. The place of his birth is not mentioned. He lived in the period immediately subsequent to the age of Phidias, but his genius took a different course from that style of elevation and sublimity which distinguishes the Eschylus of Sculpture. Praxiteles was the founder of a new school. His style was eminently dis tinguished for softness, delicacy, and high finish; and he was fond of representing whatsoever in nature appeared gentle, tender, and lovely. Consequently his favorite subjects were the soft and delicate forms of females and children, rather than the masculine forms of athletes, warriors, and heroes.

PRAXITELES AND PHIDIAS COMPARED.

The peculiar abilities of Praxiteles were admirably displayed in the Venus of Cnidus, which, with