a canon, as Phidias had done in sculpture for
gods, and Polycletus for the human figure, whence Quintilian calls him
the legislator of his art. His vanity seems to have been as remarkable
as that of Zeuxis. Among the most celebrated of his works was a
portrait of the personified Athenian _Demos_, which is said to have
miraculously expressed even the most contradictory qualities of that
many-headed personage.

[Illustration: PAINTING. (_2600 years old._)

Parrhasius excelled in giving a roundness and a beautiful contour to
his figures, and was remarkable for the richness and variety of his
creations. His numerous pictures of gods and heroes attained the
highest consideration in art. He was overcome, however, in a pictorial
contest, in which the subject was the contest of Ulysses and Ajax for
the arms of Achilles, by the ingenious Timanthes, in whose sacrifice
of Iphigenia the ancients admired the expression of grief carried to
that pitch of intensity at which art had only dared to hint. The most
striking feature in the picture was the concealment of the face of
Agamemnon in his mantle. (The concealment of the face of Agamemnon in
this picture has been generally considered as a "trick" or ingenious
invention of Timanthes, when it was the result of a fundamental law in
Greek art--to represent alone what was beautiful, and never to present
to the eye anything repulsive or disagreeable; the features of a
father convulsed with grief would not have been a pleasing object to
gaze on; hence the painter, fully conscious of the laws of his art,
concealed the countenance of Agamemnon.) Timanthes was distinguished
for his invention and expression. Before all, however, ranks the great
Apelles, who united the advantages of his native Ionia--grace, sensual
charms, and rich coloring--with the scientific accuracy of the
Sicyonian school. The most prominent characteristic of his style was
grace (charis), a quality which he himself avowed as peculiarly his,
and which serves to unite all the other gifts and faculties which the
painter requires; perhaps in none of his pictures was it exhibited in
such perfection as in his famous Anadyomene, in which Aphrodite is
represented rising out of the sea, and wringing the wet out of her
hair. But heroic subjects were likewise adapted to his genius,
especially grandly-conceived portraits, such as the numerous
likenesses of Alexander, by whom he was warmly patronized. He not
only represented Alex