Apelles

Apelles - the greatest painter of antiquityby John J. Popovic, from Pliny the Elder and other fonts

"Ne supra crepidam sutor judicaret"There comelier forms embroidered rose to viewThan e'er Apelles' wondrous pencil drew.Aristo: Orlando Furioso, book XXIV

Abstract

Apelles from Coos (c 352 - 308 BC) was famous Hellenistic Greek painter whose artwork was held insuch elevated admiration by Pliny the Elder and other ancient authors, that he continues to be regarded,even though none of his work survives, as the greatest painter of antiquity. He was appointed as courtpainter of Philip II and his son Alexander III of Macedon. His works have inspired Italian Renaissanceartists to emulate them; and Boticelli believed that he was reincarnation of Apelles, in the same measureas the Renaissance was revival of ancient world values.

He was Ionian Greek, from island Coos. He became a scholar at the celebrated Dorian school of Sicyon insouthern Greece, where he worked under the painter Pamphilus. His works are said to have combinedDorian precision with Ionic elegance.

This mural from Pompeii is based on Anadyomene Venus, a lost painting by Apelles.

There are many murals in the buildings of Pompeii. Recent reviews of the site show the buildings andartwork are deteriorating from natural and man-made causes. It will take more than reviews byarchaeologists and Home Advisor specialists to preserve the site for future generations. Reconstructionefforts by builders from Home Advisor Reviews are slowly replacing the old building materials but it is arace against time to protect the murals of Pompeii.

Apelles: flglio di Pytheas, di Efeso (Suid. Strab. Luk. Herond.); La denominazione Cous (P1. Ovid.)deriv, con ogni probabilit, da questi modi di dire: Apelles quel di Coo'; Apelles, quello che ha fatto ilquadro di Anadyomene a Coo. Ebbe come maestro in patria Ephoros di Efeso; da Sicione giunse inMacedonia, nella patria cio del suo maestro sicionio Pamphilos, non pi tardi del 340; Alessandro locondusse poi seco in Asia, dove si ferm in Efeso; mori, pare, a Coo (PFUHL, p. 736). Non pu dirsifondatore o anche soltanto rappresentante di una scuola pittorica ionica, ma neanche esser considerato

Apelles of Cos surpassed all the painters that preceded and all who wer... http://www.1stmuse.com/alex3/apelles.html

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come puro sicionio. L'essenza storica di A. gi ben clta e condensata in due osservazioni antiche, lequali potranno ben risalire agli scrittori tecnici del III secolo, ma che a ogni modo riassumevano ilsentimento e il giudizio dei Greci su Apelles; quella di Plutarco (Arat. 13), secondo Ia quale egli cerc aSicione piuttosto la fama che la techne (); e quella di Quintiliano (12, 10, 6; cfr. PLUT. Dem. 22):[ingenio et gratia... praestantissimus]. I1 suo ingegno naturale - di individuo e di razza - era assai diversoe, in ogni modo, di gran lunga pi ampio e ampiveggente delle regole della scuola egli, con quello spiritodi adattamento e di assimilazione che contraddistingue spesso il genio, accost e adatt la sua esuberanzae graziosa leggiadria ioniche entro la cornice razionalistica, intellettuale, scientifica dei Sicionii, senzarinunziare a nessuna delle caratteristiche naturali, e senza respinger nessuna delle leggi della Sofisticaapplicata alle arti. Pu dirsi pertanto che A. cerc di rivivere artisticamente ed assommare tutte letendenze e tutti gli elementi dell'arte greca (PFUHL, p. 735). Apelles scrisse al suo scolaro Perseusintorno at. la pittura; probabilmente la pittura sua, i suoi canoni artistici contrapposti a quelli degli altripittori (35, 111); da quest'opera possiamo pensar derivati i giudizi su Protogenes MelanthiosAsklepiodoros di 80. Meno attendibile e l'ipotesi che anche gli aneddoti ne derivino; questi, ripetuti asaziet per Apelles e per tanti altri, in vane epoche e in ambienti varii, o furon raccolti e coordinati daDuride Samio e di li poi passarono nelle opere di Antigonos Caristio, o facevan parte della tradizioneartigiana e si trasmettevano oralmente di bottega in bottega (KALKMANN, Quellen, p. 738, 744). Illam suam Venerem : anche in greco (..) LuK. Scyth. 11; queste frasi possono considerarsi frammentidella sua opera; Plutarco (Demelr. 22) adopera. quasi le stesse parole della fonte di Plinio: (Ov. 1921).

It was Apelles of Cos who surpassed all the painters that preceded and all who were to come after him; hedates in the 112th Olympiad. He singly contributed almost more to painting than allthe other artists puttogether, also publishing volumes containing the principles of painting. His art was unrivalled for gracefulcharm, although other very great painters were his contemporaries. Although he admired their works andgave high praise to all of them, he used to say that they lacked the glamour that his work possessed, thequality denoted by the Greek word charis, and that although they had every other merit, in that alone noone was his rival. He also asserted another claim to distinctiontion when he expressed his admiration forthe immensely laborious and infinitely meticulous work of Protogenes; for he said that in all respects hiachievements and those of Protogenes were on level, or those of Protogenes were superior, but tha in onerespect he stood higher, that he knew when to take his hand away from a picture a noteworthy warning ofthe frequently evil effects of excessive diligence. The candour of Apelles was however equal to his artisticskill he used to acknowledge his inferiority to Melanthius in grouping, and to Asclepiodorus in nicety ofmeasurement, that is in the proper space to be left between one object and another.

Protogenes and Apelles

A clever incident took place between Protogenes and Apelles. Protogenes lived at Rhodes and Apellesmade the voyage there from a desire to make himself acquainted with Protogeness works as that artistwas hitherto only known to him by reputation. He went at once to his studio. The artist was not there butthere was a panel of considerable size on the easel prepared for painting, which was in the charge of asingle old woman. In answer to his enquiry, she told him that Protogenes was no at home, and asked whoit was she should report a having wished to see him. Say it was this person, said Apelles, and taking upa brush he painted incolour across the panel an extremely fine line and when Protogenes returned the oldwoman showed him what had taken place. The story goes that the artist, after looking closely at the finishof this, said that the new arrival was Apelles, as s perfect a piece of work tallied with nobody else and hehimself, using another colour, drew a still finer line exactly on the top of the first one, am leaving theroom told the attendant to show it to the visitor if he returned and add that this was the person he was insearch of; and so it happened; for Apelles came back, and, ashamed to be beaten, cut, i.e. drew a yet finerline on the top of the other two lines with another in a third color, leaving no room for any further displayof minute work. Hereupon Protogenes admitted he was defeated, and flew down to the harbor to look for


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the visitor; and he decided that the panel should be handed on to posterity as it was, to be admired as amarvel by everybody, but particularly by artists. I am informed that it was burnt in the first fire whichoccurred in Caesars palace on the Palatine; it had A.D. 4. been previously much admired by us, on itsvast surface containing nothing else than the almost invisible lines, so that among the outstanding worksof many artists it looked like a blank space, and by that very fact attracted attention and was moreesteemed than any masterpiece.For 20 years he enjoyed a reputation second only to that of Apelles. The picture painted during the siegeof Rhodes consisted of a satyr leaning idly against a pillar on which was a figure of a partridge, solife-like that ordinary spectators saw nothing but it. Enraged on this account, the painter wiped out thepartridge. The Satyr must have been one of his last works. He would then be about seventy years of age,and had enjoyed for about twenty years a reputatio-n next only to that of Apelles, his friend andbenefactor. His best-known work was the Ialysus, which was removed by Vespasian to Rome, where itperished in the burning of the Temple of Peace.

Nulla dies sine linea.Moreover it was a regular custom with Apelles never to let a day of business to be so fully occupied thatlie did not practise his art by drawing a line, (i.e. probably an outline of some object) which has passedfrom him into a proverb: Nulla dies sine linea.

The shoemaker

Another habit of his was when he had finished his works to place them in a gallery in the view of passersby, and he himself stood out of sight behind the picture and listened to hear what faults were noticed,rating the public as a more observant critic than himself. And it is said that he was found fault with by ashoemaker because in drawing a subjects sandals he had represented the loops in them as one too few,and the next day the same critic was so proud of the artists correcting the fault indicated by his previousobjection that he found fault with the leg, but Apelles indignantly looked out from behind the picture andrebuked him, saying that a shoemaker in his criticism must not go beyond the sandal - a remark that hasalso passed into a proverb: Ne sutor ultra carpidam!

Alexander the GreatIn fact he also possessed great courtesy of manners, which made him more agreeable to Alexander theGreat, who frequently visited his studio - for, as we have said, Alexander had published an edictforbidding any other artist to paint his portrait; but in the studio Alexander used to talk a great deal aboutpainting without any real knowledge of it, and Apelles would politely advise him to drop the subject,saying that the boys engaged in grinding the colors were laughing at him : so much power did hisauthority exercise over a King who was otherwise of an irascible temper.

Pancaspe - Aphrodite AnadyomeneAnd yet Alexander conferred honor onhim in a most conspicuous instance; he hadsuch an admiration for the beauty of hisfavorite mistress, named Pancaspe, that hegave orders that she should be painted in


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the nude by Apelles, and then discoveringthat the artist while executing thecommission had fallen in love with thewoman, he presented her to him, great-minded as he was and still greater owing tohis control of himself, and of a greatnessproved by this action as much as by anyother victory: because he conqueredhimself, and presented not only his

bedmate but his affection also to the artist, and was not even influenced by regard for the feelings of hisfavorite in having been recently the mistress of a monarch and now belonged to a painter. Some personsbelieve that she was the model from which the Aphrodite Anadyomene (Rising from the Sea) waspainted. It was Apelles also who, kindly among his rivals, first established the reputation of Protogenes atRhodes. Protogenes was held in low esteem by his fellow-countrymen, as is usual with home products,and, when Apelles asked him what price he set on some works he had finished, he had mentioned somesmall sum, but Apellcs made him an offer of fifty talents for them, and spread it about that he was buyingthem with the intention of selling them as works of his own. This device aroused the people of Rhodes toappreciate the artist, and Apelles only parted with the pictures to them at an enhanced price.He also painted portraits so absolutely lifelike that, incredible as it sounds, the grammarian Apio has leftit on record that one of those persons called physiognomists, (metoposkopoz) who prophesy peoplesfuture by their countenance, pronounced from their portraits either the year of the subjects deathshereafter or the number of years they had already lived.

Ptolemy and Antigonus

Apelles had been on bad terms with Ptolemy in Alexanders retinue. When this Ptolemy was King ofEgypt, Apelles on a voyage had been driven by a violent storm into Alexandria. His rivals maliciouslysuborned the Kings jester to convey to him an invitation to dinner, to which he came. Ptolemy was veryindignant, and paraded his hospitality-stewards for Apelles to say which of them had given him theinvitation. Apelles picked up a piece of extinguished charcoal from the hearth and drew a likeness on thewall, the King recognizing the features of the jester as soon as he began the sketch. He also painted aportrait of King Antigonus (382 301BC) who was blind in one eye, and devised an original method ofconcealing the defect, for he did the likeness in threequarter, so that the feature that was lacking in thesubject might be thought instead to be absent in the picture, and he only showed the part of the face whichlie was able to display as unmutilated.

Famous paintingsAmong his works there are also pictures of persons at the point of death. But it is not easy to say which ofhis productions are of the highest rank. His Aphrodite emerging from the Sea was dedicated by his latelamented Majesty Augustus in the Shrine of his father Caesar; it is known as the Anadyomene; this likeother works is eclipsed a yet made famous by the Greek verses which sing its praises; the lower part ofthe picture having become damaged nobody could be found to restore it, but the actual injury contributedto the glory of the artist. This picture however suffered from age and rot, and Nero when emperorsubstituted another for it, a work by Dorotheus. Apelles had also begun on another Aphrodite at Cos,which was to surpass even his famous earlier one; but death grudged him the work when only partlyfinished, nor could anybody be found to carry on the task, in conformity with the outlines of the sketchesprepared. He also painted Alexander the Great holding a Thunderbolt, in the temple of Artemis atEphesus, for a fee of twenty talents in gold. The fingers have the appearance of projecting from thesurface and the thunderbolt seems to stand out from the picture - readers must remember - that all theseeffects were produced by four colours; the artist received the price of this picture in gold coin measured


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by weight of the panel not counted. He also painted a Procession of the Magabyzus, the priest ofArtemis of Ephesus, a Clitus with Horse hastening into battle; and an armour-bearer handing someonea helmet at his command. How many times he painted Alexander and Philip it would be superfluous torecount. His Habron at Samos is much admired, as is his Menander, King of Caria, at Rhodes,likewise his Antaeus, and at Alexandria his Gorgosthenes the Tragic Actor, and at Rome his Castor andPollux with Victory and Alexander the Great, and also his figure of War with the Hands Tiedbehind, with Alexander riding in Triumph in his Chariot. 130th of these pictures his late lamentedMajesty Augustus with restrained good taste had dedicated in the most frequented parts of his forum; theemperor Claudius however thought it more advisable to cut out the face of Alexander from both worksand substitute portraits of Augustus. The Heracles with Face Averted in the temple of Diana is alsobelieved to be by his handso drawn that the picture more truly displays Heracles face than merelysuggests it to the imagination - a very difficult achievement. He also painted a Nude Hero, a picture withwhich he challenged Nature herself. There is, or was, a picture of a Horse by him, painted in acompetition, by which he carried his appeal for judgement from mankind to the dumb quadrupeds; forperceiving that his rivals were getting the better of him by intrigue, he had some horses brought andshowed them their pictures one by one; and the horses only began to neigh when they saw the horsepainted by Apelles; and this always happened subsequently, showing it to be a sound test of artistic skill.He also did a Neoptolemus on Horseback fighting against the Persians, an Archelaus with his Wife andDaughter, and an Antigonus with a Breastplate marching with his horse at his side. Connoisseurs put atthe head of all his works the portrait of the same king seated on horseback, and his Artemis in the midstof a band of Maidens offering a Sacrifice, a work by which he may be thought to have surpassedHomers verses (Odyssey, VI, 102) describing the same subject. He even painted things that cannot berepresented in pictures - thunder, lightning and thunderbolts, the pictures known respectively under theGreek titles of Bronte, Astrape and Ceraunobolia.

Inventions in the art

His inventions in the art of painting have been useful to all other painters as well, but there was one whichnobody was able to imitate: when his works were finished he used to cover them over with a blackvarnish of such thinness that its very presence, while its reflexion threw up the brilliance of all the coloursand preserved them from dust and dirt, was only visible to anyone who looked at it close up, but alsoemploying great calculation of lights, so that the brilliance of the colours should not offend the sight whenpeople looked at them as if through museovy-glass and so that the same device from a distance mightinvisibly give sombreness to colours that were too brilliant.


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Aphrodite Anadyomene emerging from the Sea was dedicatd by his late lamented MajestyAugustus in the Shrine of his father Caesar

Pliny, Naturalis Historia (XXXV.91)

The "Ludovisi Throne" is comprised of three panels sculpted in relief. It is thought to be an altar, withAphrodite rising from the sea, the diaphanous folds of her wet garment clinging to her body.

The left panel depicts a hetarai playing a double flute and is one of the very firstrepresentations of the monumental female nude. She represents the profane aspectof the goddess. Greek hetarai were the courtesans, doctae puellae. Habitually thesemistresses would live with their mothers and sisters, under a lena, or in anapartment provided by their lovers. Unlike prostitutes, courtesans were usually of

respectable origin, although some were freedwomen. They did not live with their lovers, but, unlikeprostitutes, usually had only one lover at a time.

While the right-hand panel portrays a matron putting incense on aburner, personifying the sacred ritual.

Reference:

Apelles : The Alexander Mosaic by Paolo Moreno1. The Heritage of Apelles by E.H. Gombrich2. STORIA DELLE ARTI ANTICHE, Plinio il Vecchio --traduzione e testi critici di Maurizio Hararie Silvio Ferri

3.

Natural History (1938-) translated by H. Rackham (Loeb Classical Library);4.


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The Geography of Strabo (1929) translated by Horace L. Jones (Loeb Classical Library);5. Quintilian: Training of an Orator (1920) translated by H. E. Butler (Loeb Classical Library);6.

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