CHAP. 44.—WHO WAS THE FIRST TO MOULD FIGURES IN IMITATION OF THE FEATURES OF LIVING PERSONS, OR OF STATUES. The first person who expressed the human features by fitting a mould of plaster upon the face, and then improving it by pouring melted wax into the cast, was Lysistratus[2197] of Sicyon, brother of Lysippus, already mentioned. It was he, in fact, who first made it his study to give a faithful likeness; for before his time, artists only thought how to make their portraits as handsome as possible. The same artist, too, was the first who thought of making models for his statues; a method which afterwards became so universally adopted, that there could be neither figure nor statue made without its model in clay. Hence it would appear, that the art of modelling in clay is more ancient than that of moulding in bronze.[2198] CHAP. 45.—THE MOST FAMOUS MODELLERS. The most celebrated modellers were Damophilus and Gorgasus, who were painters as well. These artists adorned with their works, in both kinds, the Temple of Ceres,[2199] in the Circus Maximus at Rome; with an inscription in Greek, which stated that the decorations on the right-hand were the workmanship of Damophilus, and those on the left, of Gorgasus. Varro says that, before the construction of this temple, everything was Tuscan[2200] in the temples; and that, when the temple was afterwards repaired, the painted coatings of the walls were cut away in tablets and enclosed in frames, but that the figures on the pediments were dispersed. Chalcosthenes,[2201] too,[2202] executed at Athens some works in unbaked earth, on the spot which, from his manufactory, has since obtained the name of “Ceramicus.”[2203] M. Varro states that he knew an artist at Rome, Possis by name, who executed fruit, grapes, and fish, with such exactness, that it was quite impossible, by only looking at them, to distinguish them from the reality. He speaks very highly also of Arcesilaüs,[2204] who was on terms of intimacy with Lucius Lucullus,[2205] and whose models in plaster used to sell at a higher rate, among artists themselves, than the works of others. He informs us, also, that it was by this modeller that the Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Cæsar was executed, it having been erected before completion, in the great haste that there was to consecrate it; that the same artist had made an agreement with Lucullus to execute a figure of Felicity, at the price of sixty thousand sesterces, the completion of which was prevented by their death; and that Octavius, a Roman of equestrian rank, being desirous of a model for a mixing-bowl,[2206] Arcesilaüs made him one in plaster, at the price of one talent.