vinely expreffed in the face, fo wonderfully marked throughout the whole body. A. THE ancients are no lefs remarkable for their fpirit in cor.ceiving the primary idea, than for their patience in pursuing it in all its confequences: The [e] expreffion in this statue, is worked up to fuch a just extremity, their reigns through it fuch an air of truth, that, as the least addition would be extravagance, fo every diminution would be a defect: We trace in it the labour of years, we feel from it the impreffion of a minute. The ftatuaries of Greece had no other advantage over its painters, than that they used more durable materials, bleffed with equal genius, formed by the fame education, their arts went hand in hand to perfection. If Praxiteles be celebrated by Di [e] Opus omnibus et picturæ et ftatuariæ artis præferendum. Plin. odorus odorus Siculus, [f] for having transfused into marble all the paffions of the foul; the fame power is attributed by Pliny to the pencil of Ariftides; it is not probable, that men of taste and letters, whilft they were eye-witneffes of the divine character in the Apollo; of the beauty and tenderness of the Venus; and the wonderful expreffion of the Laocoon; fhould celebrate thofe very qualities in the works of their painters, were they not eminently poffeffed of them. Pliny, [g] [f] Ὁ καλαμιξας ακρως τοις λιθίνοις έργοις τα της ψυ χης παθη. [g] Timanthi vel plurimum affuit ingenii: Ejus enim eft Iphigenia oratorum laudibus celebrata ; quâ ftante ad aras periturâ, cum moeftos pinxiffet omnes, præcipue patruum, cum triftitiæ omnem imaginem confumfiffet, Patris ipfius vultum velavit, quem digne Lib. xxxv. c. 10. non ptoerat oftendere. It has been imagined that Timanthes borrowed this Επι σφαγας σειχούσαν εις αλσος κόρην, Δάκρυα προηγεν, ομμάτων πεπλον προθεσ in his description of that famous picture of the Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Timanthes, obferves," that the painter having exhaust"ed every image of grief in the by-ftanders " and above all in the uncle; threw a veil "over the face of the father, whose forrow "he was unable to exprefs." If the ingenious Timanthes has left us to conceive an idea, which he could not execute, Ariftides, on the other hand, has executed that which is almost above conception; by him was painted "[b] a town taken by storm, in "which was feen an infant creeping to the "breast of its mother, who, though ex piring from her wounds, yet expreffes an "apprehenfion and fear leaft the course of "her milk being ftopt, the child should "fuck her blood." What a perfect know [b] Hujus pictura eft, oppido capto, ad matris morientis e vulnere mammam adrepens infans: Intelligiturque fentire mater, et timere, ne emortuo lacte fanguinem infans lambat. Plin. lib. xxxv. c. 10. ledge ledge of the human foul muft this painter have had, to enter thus feelingly into her inmoftworkings! What a power, next to creative, to make fuch tender movements fenfible in the midft of tortures; and the mother's fondness diftinguishable through the agonies of death? This picture, it is probable, gave occafion to the following epigram [i]. Suck, little wretch, whilst yet thy mother lives, The Philoctetes of Parrhafius is a fine image of hopeless wretchednefs, of confuming grief. The picture itself is happily described by the [1] Έλκε, ταλαν, παρα μήρος ὧν οὐκ ἔτι μαζον αμελξεις, Ελκυσον ὑπαλιον ναμα καταφθιμένης. Ηδη γαρ ξιφεεσσι λιποπνοος· αλλα τα μήρις Φίλτρα και ειν αΐδη παιδοκομειν εμαθεν. epigrammatift, and the compliment to the painter, has the elegance and fimplicity pe culiar to the Greeks [k]. Drawn by Parrhafius, as in person view'd, We blame thee, painter, tho' thy art commend ; We cannot well conceive an image more render, or more affecting than this. Let terror be united with pity, the muse of painting has completed her drama. Of this, the Ajax and Medea of Timomachus are [7] Και τον από Τρηχινός ιδων πολυωδυνον ἦρα - Ζωγραφων ο λωσε, συ μεν σοφος, αλλ' αναπαυσαι Anthol. lib. iv. beautiful |