The Boys' and Girls' Pliny: Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an IntroductionPliny, the Elder
History
The Boys' and Girls' Pliny: Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an Introduction
Pliny, the Elder
Animals -- Juvenile literature; Natural history -- Juvenile literature; Physical sciences -- Juvenile literature
He also made a portrait of King Antigonus; and as that monarch was blind
of one eye, he painted him in profile, in order that what in reality was
wanting to the person might rather have the semblance of being wanting
to the picture. Among his works, too, there are some figures
representing persons at the point of death; but it is not easy to say
which of his productions are of the highest order of excellence. His
Venus Rising from the Sea, known as the Venus Anadyomene, was
consecrated by the late Emperor Augustus in the Temple of his father
Cæsar; a work which has been celebrated in certain Greek lines, which,
though they have outlived it, have perpetuated its fame. The lower part
of the picture having become damaged, no one could be found to repair
it; and thus did the very injury which the picture had sustained,
redound to the glory of the artist. Time, however, and damp at last
effaced the painting, and Nero, in his reign, had it replaced by a copy,
painted by the hand of Dorotheus. Apelles also commenced another Venus
for the people of Cos, which would have outshone even the former one;
but death invidiously prevented its completion, nor could any one be
found to complete the work in conformity with the sketches of the
outline. He painted also, in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, Alexander
the Great wielding the Thunderbolts, a picture for which he received
twenty talents of gold. The fingers have all the appearance of
projecting from the surface, and the lightning seems to be darting from
the picture. The price paid in golden coin for this picture was
ascertained by weight, there being no specific sum agreed upon.
He also painted a Procession of the Megabyzus, the priest of Diana at
Ephesus; and a Clitus on Horseback, hastening to the combat, his
Armor-bearer handing him his helmet at his command. How many times he
painted Alexander and Philip, it would be quite superfluous to attempt
to enumerate. At Samos, there is a Habron by him, that is greatly
admired; at Alexandria, a Gorgosthenes, the Tragedian; and at Rome, a
Castor and Pollux, with figures of Victory and Alexander the Great, and
an emblematical figure of War with her hands tied behind her, and
Alexander seated in a triumphal car; both of which pictures the late
Emperor Augustus, with a great degree of moderation and good taste,
consecrated in the most frequented parts of his Forum: the Emperor
Claudius, however, thought it advisable to efface the head of Alexander
in both pictures, and substitute likenesses of his predecessor Augustus.
It is by his hand too, it is generally supposed, that the Hercules, with
the face averted, now in the Temple of Anna, was painted; a picture in
which, one of the greatest difficulties in the art, the face, though
hidden, may be said to be seen rather than left to the imagination. He
also painted a figure of a naked Hero, a picture in which he has
challenged Nature herself.
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