[234]Which would make the course of study extend over a period of twelve years. [235]Dr. Smith says: “The most natural explanation of this difficult passage seems to be, that down the middle of the first line of Apelles, Protogenes drew another, so as to divide it into two parallel halves, and that Apelles again divided the line of Protogenes in the same manner.” [236]The Latin form of which, as given by Erasmus, is “Nulla dies abeat quin linea ducta supersit.” “Let no day pass by, without an outline being drawn, and left in remembrance.” [237]“Ne sutor ultra crepidam.” “Let not the shoemaker go beyond his last.” [238]See Matthew xiii. 57; Mark vi. 4. “A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country.” [239]Odyss. B. vi. 1. 102. [240]Sir Joshua Reynolds discovers in the account here given “an artist-like description of the effect of glazing, or scumbling, such as was practised by Titian and the rest of the Venetian painters.” [241]A service of three dishes. [242]The ancient writers abound in praises of this wonderful statue. Lucian, however, has given the most complete and artistic description of it. It was supposed by the ancients, to represent Venus as standing before Paris, when he awarded to her the prize of beauty; but it has been well remarked, that the drapery in the right hand, and the vase by the side of the figure, indicate that she has either just left or is about to enter the bath. It was ultimately carried to Constantinople, where it perished by fire in the reign of Justinian. It is doubtful whether there are any copies of it in existence. There is, however, a so-called copy in the gardens of the Vatican, and another in the Glyptothek, at Munich. It is supposed that Cleomenes, in making the Venus de Medici, imitated the Cnidian Venus in some degree. [243]This group is generally supposed to have been identical with the Laocoön still to be seen in the Court of the Belvedere, in the Vatican at Rome; having been found, in 1506, in a vault beneath the spot known as the Place _de Sette Sale_, by Felix de Eredi, who surrendered it, in consideration of a pension, to Pope Julius II. The group, however, is not made of a _single_ block, which has caused some to doubt its identity: but it is not improbable, that when originally made, its joints were not perceptible to a common observer. The spot, too, where it was found was actually part of the palace of Titus. It is most probable that the artists had the beautiful episode of Laocoön in view, as penned by Virgil, Æn. B. II. [244]So called from ὀβελισκὸς, a “small spit,” in consequence of their tapering form. [245]Meaning, probably, that in the Egyptian language, the same word is used as signifying a “spit” and a “ray” of light; for it is generally agreed that the word “obeliscus” is of Greek origin.