ad veiled from sight (Fig. 4).

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. _From a Pompeian
wall-painting._]

Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and Timanthes belonged to the Ionian school of
painting, which flourished during the Peloponnesian war. This school was
excelled by that of Sikyon, which reached its highest prosperity between
the end of the Peloponnesian war and the death of Alexander the Great.
The chief reason why this Dorian school at Sikyon was so fine was that
here, for the first time, the pupils followed a regular course of study,
and were trained in drawing and mathematics, and taught to observe nature
with the strictest attention. The most famous master of this school was
Pausias; some of his works were carried to Rome, where they were much
admired. His picture of the garland-weaver, Glykera, gained him a great
name, and by it he earned the earliest reputation as a flower-painter that
is known in the history of art.

Nikomachos, who lived at Thebes about 360 B.C., was famous for
the rapidity with which he painted pictures that were excellent in their
completeness and beauty. Aristides, the son or brother of Nikomachos, was
so good an artist that Attalus, king of Pergamos, offered more than twenty
thousand pounds, or about one hundred thousand dollars, for his picture of
Dionysus, or Bacchus. This wonderful picture was carried to Rome, and
preserved in the temple of Ceres; but it no longer exists. Euphranor was
another great painter, and was distinguished for his power to give great
expression to the faces and a manly force to the figures which he painted.

Nikias, the Athenian, is said to have been so devoted to his art that he
could think of nothing else: he would ask his servants if he had bathed or
eaten, not being able to remember for himself. He was very rich, and when
King Ptolemy of Egypt offered him more than sixty thousand dollars for his
picture of Ulysses in the under-world, he refused this great sum, and gave
the painting to his native city. Nikias seems to have greatly exalted and
respected his art, for he contended that painters should not fritter away
time and talent on insignificant subjects, but ought rather to choose some
grand event, such as a battle or a sea-fight. His figures of women and his
pictures of animals, especially those of dogs, were much praised. Some of
his paintings were encaustic, that is to say, the colors were burned in;
thus they must have been made on plaster or pottery o