I have already mentioned the contest of Zeuxis with Parrhasius, for the nicest power of imitation in painting. The picture of the Muses, which was carried to Rome, demanded qualities of a different kind; so did the Marsyas, which Pliny likewise saw in Italy. His drawings in a single colour, relieved with white, appear to have been numerous and greatly valued[116]. Like Raffaelle, Zeuxis is said to have painted sometimes on earthen ware, and that vases and cups adorned by him were much prized. Possibly he only furnished the designs for these. Zeuxis was not quite free from the same love of show which distinguished his great rival, Parrhasius. He is reported to have shown himself, magnificently attired, at the Olympic games, and to have caused his name to be embroidered in gold upon his upper garments, of which he displayed an unusual number of changes during the games. Another of the great men who flourished in this second period, was Timanthes. His celebrated picture of Iphigenia, in Aulis, has been the subject of much criticism. The ancient writers, with one accord, praise the feeling which led the painter to conceal the father’s face; and though it is probable that most of them either mistook, or were ignorant of, the principle on which Timanthes, as an artist, proceeded, they were still right as to human nature. Reynolds and some other modern critics, especially Falconet, have reprobated the idea of Timanthes; but Fuseli has, in my opinion, set the matter at rest in a very beautiful piece of criticism[117], which I shall give below. The picture itself was painted in competition with Colotes of Teos, whom I have already mentioned as the sculptor of the table of the Coronets at Delphi. The work of Timanthes gained the prize, as his Ajax had done, when exhibited in competition with that of Parrhasius. There was a celebrated portrait of a prince by him, of which Pliny says, “It was thought to be most absolute: the majesty is such that all the art of painting a man seemeth comprised in that one portrait.” Timanthes did not always confine himself, however, to the grand and the pathetic. There is an account of a little picture where he represented a Cyclops asleep, and a number of little satyrs peeping out of the woods; some of whom, astonished at his size, are measuring the thumb of the unconscious giant with wands. At the same time with the four great painters, Apollodorus, Parrhasius, Zeuxis, and Timanthes, lived Euxenidas, Eupompus, Echion, Therimachus, and some others not unworthy of their fellowship. They were remarkable also as having formed the men who flourished in the third and most brilliant epoch of painting in Greece.