Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 1 of 3)Spooner, Shearjashub
History
Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 1 of 3)
Spooner, Shearjashub
Art -- Anecdotes; Artists -- Anecdotes
The effects of the pencil are sometimes wonderful. It is said that
Alexander trembled and grew pale on seeing a picture of Palamedes
betrayed to death by his friends. It doubtless brought to his mind a
stinging remembrance of his treatment of Aristonicus.
Portia could bear with an unshaken constancy her last separation from
Brutus; but when she saw, a few hours after, a picture of the Parting of
Hector and Andromache, she burst into a flood of tears. Full as seemed
her cup of sorrow, the painter suggested new ideas of grief, or
impressed more strongly her own.
An Athenian courtezan, in the midst of a riotous banquet with her
lovers, accidentally cast her eye on the portrait of a philosopher that
hung opposite to her seat; the happy character of temperance and virtue
struck her with so lively an image of her own unworthiness, that she
instantly quitted the room, and retiring home, became ever after an
example of temperance, as she had before been of debauchery.
PAUSIAS.
Pausias, an eminent Greek painter, was a native of Sicyon, and
flourished about B. C. 450. His most famous picture was one representing
the Sacrifice of an Ox, which, according to Pliny, decorated the Hall of
Pompey in his time. Pausanias mentions two of his paintings at
Epidaurus--the one a Cupid with a lyre in his hand; and the other a
figure of Methe, or Drunkenness, drinking out of a glass vessel, through
which his face is seen. These pictures were held in the highest
estimation by the Sicyonians, but they were compelled to give them up to
M. Scaurus, who took them to Rome.
THE GARLAND TWINER.
Pausias fell in love with a beautiful damsel, a native of his own city,
called Glycera, who gained a livelihood by making garlands of flowers,
and wreaths of roses. Her skill in this art induced Pausias, in a loving
rivalry, to attempt to compete with her, and he ultimately became an
inimitable flower painter. A portrait of Glycera with a garland of
flowers, called Stephanopolis, or the Garland Twiner, was reckoned his
masterpiece. So great was the fame of it, that Lucius Lucullus gave for
a copy, at Athens, two talents, or about two thousand dollars.
PROTOGENES, THE GREAT RHODIAN PAINTER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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