We shall conclude this chapter with a celebrated Painter of Antiquity, named Zeuxis.

This celebrated painter flourished about 400 years B. C. He was born at Heraclea; but as there have been many cities of that name, it cannot be certainly determined which of them had the honour of his birth. Some conjecture, that it was Heraclea, near Crotona, in Italy. He carried painting to a much higher degree of perfection than Apollodorus had left it; discovered the art of properly disposing of lights and shades, and particularly excelled in colouring. He amassed immense riches ; and then resolved to sell no more of his pictures, but gave them away ; saying, "That he could not set a price on them equal to their value." Pliny observes, that this admirable painter, disputing for the prize of painting with Parrhasius, painted some grapes so naturally, that the birds flew down to peck them: Parrhasius, on the other hand, painted a curtain so very artfully, that Zeuxis, mistaking it for a real one, that hid his rival's work, ordered the curtain to be drawn aside, to show what Parrhasius had done ; but having found his mistake, he ingenuously confessed himself vanquished, since he had only imposed upon birds, while Parr-hasius had deceived even a master of the art. Another time he painted a boy loaded with grapes; when the birds also flew to this picture, - at which he was vexed, and confessed that his work was not sufficiently finished, since, had he painted the boy as perfectly as the grapes, the birds would nave been afraid of him. Archelaus, king of Macedon, made use of Zeuxis's pencil for the embellishment of his palace. One of this painter's finest pieces was a Hercules strangling two Serpents in his Cradle, in the presence of his affrighted Mother; but he himself chiefly esteemed his Athleta, or Champion, under which he placed a Greek verse, that afterwards became very famous, and in which he says, "That it was easier to criticize than to imitate the picture." He made a present of his Alomena to the Agrigentines. Zeuxis did not value himself on speedily finishing his pictures; but knowing that Agatharcus gloried in his being able to paint with ease and in a little time, he said, '* That for his part, he, on the contrary, gloried in his slowness ; and if he was long in painting it was because he painted for eternity."

Zeuxis.