Bularchus.-Second period.-Prizes.

A representation of the defeat of the Magnesians, (790 B. C.,) by Bularchus, is the first considerable picture of which there is any record, yet the accounts which we have of it are, probably, exaggerated. It was purchased by Candaules, king of Lydia, for its weight in gold. Bularchus appears to have been the first who employed various colours in his pictures.

SECOND PERIOD.

There seems to have been a great gap or chasm in the history of painting after the time of Bularchus, and the next allusion to the art seems to have been made by Anacreon, who, to express the abilities of any successful painter, said, "He is sovereign in the art which they cultivate at Rhodes." Hence we learn that the art must have flourished at Rhodes, in that era-about five hundred years before Christ. Phidias, the celebrated sculptor, is also cited by Pliny as eminent in the sister art of painting, and he flourished 445 years before our era. The brother of this illustrious ancient, Panænus, (or, according to others, Pannensis,) acquired great reputation as a painter. He represented, in the temple of Jupiter Olympus, the subject of Atlas supporting the heaven and the earth, and Hercules offering to relieve him of his burden; and another of Greece and Salamis (an island in the neighbourhood of Athens) personified; together with many other pictures, the most famous of which was the Battle of Marathon, wherein, according to Pliny, the portraits of several generals, such as Miltiades, Callimachus, &c., might be recognized. We may observe that, even at this early period, prizes were contended for among the painters, Panænus having disputed, both at Corinth and at Delphos, with Timagorus of Chalsis.

Polygnotus, the Prometheus of painting.

Polygnotus was a native of Thasos, but obtained the right of citizenship at Athens. He flourished about 469 B. C. This distinguished painter seems to have contributed more largely to the advancement of his art than any who had preceded him. Before his time, the countenance was represented as destitute of animation and fire, and a kind of leaden dulness pervaded its features. His triumph was to kindle up expression in the face, and to throw feeling and intellect into the whole frame. He was the Prometheus of painting. He also first represented the mouth open, so that the teeth were displayed, and occasion was given to use that part of the visage in the expression of peculiar emotions. He first clothed his figures in light, airy, and transparent draperies, which he elegantly threw about the forms of his women. He was, in short, the author of both delicacy and expression in the paintings of Greece; but his style is said to have been hard, and his colouring not equal to his designs. One of his pictures was preserved at Rome, representing a man on a scaling-ladder, with a target in his hand, so contrived that it was impossible to tell whether he was going upward or descending. Mycon was his cotemporary, and partner in the works which adorned the Poecile at Athens. After Mycon, we proceed to mention Dyonysius of Colophon, in whose works, according to Ælianus, were to be found many of the excellencies of Polygnotus, such as choice of attitudes, flow of draperies, &c., but less grandeur of imagination. In the nineteenth Olympiad, we find mention made of Aglaophon, Cephissodorus, Phryllus, &c.

But it was not until the ninety-fourth Olympiad, 400 в. C., that the art of painting among the ancients appears to have reached its blaze of perfection. Hitherto objects had been represented on the canvass as flat, being almost without the magical effects of chiaroscuro, which gives relief and an appearance of

Third period.—Apollodorus.-Zeuxis.

projection to some portions of the picture, while others are made apparently to recede from the eye. To Apollodorus we owe this great discovery, and with him painting first rises into the regions of ideality.

THIRD PERIOD.—APOLLODORUS.

Apollodorus was an Athenian, and flourished about 400 B. C. He first discovered the art of softening and degrading, as it is technically called, the colours of a painting, and of imitating the exact effect of lights and shades. Pliny speaks of him with enthusiasm. Two chefs-d'œuvres still existed in his time at Pergamus. One was a priest at the altar, the other, Ajax struck by a thunderbolt.

ZEUXIS.

Zeuxis, a cotemporary of Apollodorus, was born at Heraclea. He seems to have rapidly risen to the highest distinction in Greece, and acquired, by the exercise of his art, not only renown, but riches. He appeared at the Olympic games attired in a mantle, on which his name was embroidered in letters of gold: a piece of unnecessary display in one whose name was deeply impressed on the hearts of the people by whom he was surrounded.

Very little is known respecting the life of this celebrated painter. He was not only successful in securing wealth, and the applause of the multitude, but was honoured with the friendship of Archelaüs, king of Macedon. For the palace of this monarch, he executed numerous pictures. Cicero informs us, that the inhabitants of Cretona prevailed on Zeuxis to come to their city,

Picture of Helen.-Contest with Parrhasius.

and to paint there a number of pieces, which were intended to adorn the temple of Juno, for which he was to receive a large and stipulated sum. On his arrival, he informed them that he intended only to paint the picture of Helen, with which they were satisfied, because he was regarded as peculiarly excellent in the delineation of woman. He accordingly desired to see the most beautiful maidens in the city, and having selected five of the fairest, copied all that was most beautiful and perfect in the form of each, and thus completed his Helen. Pliny, in his relation of the same circumstance, omits to give the particular subject of the painting, or the terms of the original contract, and states that the whole occurred not among the people of Crotona, but those of Agrigentum, for whom he says the piece was executed to fulfil a vow made by them to the goddess. The most celebrated of the pictures of Zeuxis, besides the Helen and the Alcmena, were a Penelope, in which Pliny assures us that not only form, but character was vividly expressed; a representation of Jupiter seated on his throne, with all the gods around, doing him homage; a Marsyas bound to a tree, which was preserved at Rome; and a Wrestler, beneath which was inscribed a verse, to the effect that it was easier to envy than to imitate excellence. Lucian has left us an admirable description of another painting of his, representing the Centaurs, in which he particularly applauds the delicacy of the drawing, the harmony of the colouring, the softness of the blending shades, and the excellence of the proportions. He left many draughts in a single colour on white. The story respecting the contest between Zeuxis and Parrhasius, has been frequently related. It is said the former painted a cluster of grapes with such perfect skill, that the birds came and pecked at them. Elated with such unequivocal testimony of his excellence, he called on his rival to draw back the curtain which

Boy and grapes.-Painting for eternity.-Parrhasius.

he supposed concealed his work, anticipating a certain triumph. Now, however, he found himself entrapped, for what he took for a curtain, was only a painting of one by Parrhasius; upon which he ingenuously confessed himself defeated, since he had only deceived birds, but his antagonist had beguiled the senses of an experienced artist. Another story is related of a similar kind, in which he overcame himself, or, rather, one part of his work was shown to have excelled, at the expense of the other. He painted a boy with a basket of grapes, to which the birds as before resorted; on which he acknowledged that the boy could not be well painted, since, had the similitude been in both cases equal, the birds would have been deterred from approaching. From these stories, if they may be credited, it would appear that Zeuxis excelled more in depicting fruit than in painting the human form. If this were the case, it is strange that all his greater efforts, of which any accounts have reached us, were portraits, or groups of men, or deities.

Zeuxis is said to have taken a long time to finish his chief productions, observing, when reproached for his slowness, that he was painting for eternity. Festus relates, that Zeuxis died of laughter at the picture of an old woman which he himself had painted. So extraordinary a circumstance, however, would surely have been alluded to by some other writer, had it been true.

PARRHASIUS.

Parrhasius, a native of Ephesus, but who eventually became a citizen of Athens, flourished about the ninety-fifth Olympiad ; consequently, he was cotemporaneous with the two foregoing painters, though younger than either. He raised the art of