Apelles

Apelles, the most celebrated painter in ancient times, was the son of Pytheas, and was probably born at Colophon, on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor. He flourished in the latter part of the 4th century B.C., received his first instruction in art under Ephorus in the Ionian school of Ephesus, and afterwards at Sicyon, and thus he united the fine colouring of the Ionian with the accurate drawing of the Sicyonian school. During the time of Philip, he visited Macedon, where he became the intimate friend of Alexander the Great. Pliny relates that on one occasion when Alexander visited Apelles in his studio, the king exhibited such ignorance of art, that the artist recommended him to be silent, as the boys who were grinding the colours were laughing at him. He is said to have accompanied Alexander on his expedition to Asia, and to have settled at Ephesus. The most celebrated paintings of Apelles were his Anadyomene, or Aphrodite rising from the Sea, the Graces, and others on similar subjects. His portrait of Alexander wielding a thunderbolt was very famous. Apelles willingly acknowledged the merits of his contemporaries. When his pictures were exposed to public view, he used to place himself behind a picture, to listen to the criticisms of the common people. A cobbler having detected a fault in the shoe of one of his figures, it is said that Apelles instantly rectified it; but when the cobbler, on the following day, extended his criticism to the legs, the painter rushed from his hiding-place, and told the cobbler to stick to his last; or, in the Latin version, which has become proverbial, 'Ne sutor supra crepidam (judicaret).' All that we know of his art is derived from late Greek and Roman authors; but he seems to have combined many of the excellences of his predecessors. He did not belong to the noblest period of art, and seems to have been more remarkable for skilful effects and elaborate finish than for originality.