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The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

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Menaechmi vitulus genu premitur replicata cervice. Ipse Menaechmus scripsit de sua<br />

arte.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re is a Bull-calf by Menaechmus, on which a man is press<strong>in</strong>g his knee as he bends its<br />

neck back; Menaechmus has written a treatise about his own work.<br />

156<br />

Pl<strong>in</strong>y 35.65-35.66 A.D. I<br />

Text <strong>and</strong> translation: H. Rackham, ed., tr., Pl<strong>in</strong>y. Natural History IX. Books XXXIII-<br />

XXXV (Cambridge, Mass. <strong>and</strong> London, 1952; repr. 1995).<br />

Aequales eius et aemuli fuere Timanthes, Androcydes, Eupompus, Parrhasius.<br />

Descendisse hic <strong>in</strong> certamen cum Zeuxide traditur et, cum ille detulisset uvas pictas tanto<br />

successu, ut <strong>in</strong> scaenam aves advolarent, ipse detulisse l<strong>in</strong>teum pictum ita veritate<br />

repraesentata, ut Zeuxis alitum iudicio tumens flagitaret t<strong>and</strong>em remoto l<strong>in</strong>teo ostendi<br />

picturam atque <strong>in</strong>tellecto errore concederet palmam <strong>in</strong>genuo pudore, quoniam ipse<br />

volucres fefellisset, Parrhasius autem se artificem. Fertur et postea Zeuxis p<strong>in</strong>xisse<br />

puerum uvas ferentem, ad quas cum advolassent aves, eaden <strong>in</strong>genuitate processit iratus<br />

operi et dixit: ‘uvas melius p<strong>in</strong>xi quam puerum, nam si et hoc consummassem, aves<br />

timere debuerant.’<br />

His contemporaries <strong>and</strong> rivals were Timanthes, Androcydes, Eupompus <strong>and</strong> Parrhasius.<br />

This last, it is recorded, entered <strong>in</strong>to a competition with Zeuxis, who produced a picture<br />

<strong>of</strong> grapes so successfully represented that birds flew up to the stage-build<strong>in</strong>gs; whereupon<br />

Parrhasius himself produced such a realistic picture <strong>of</strong> a curta<strong>in</strong> that Zeuxis, proud <strong>of</strong> the<br />

verdict <strong>of</strong> the birds, requested that the curta<strong>in</strong> should now be drawn <strong>and</strong> the picture<br />

displayed; <strong>and</strong> when he realized his mistake, with a modesty that did him honor he<br />

yielded up the prize, say<strong>in</strong>g that whereas he had deceived birds Parrhasius had deceived<br />

him, an artist. It is said that Zeuxis also subsequently pa<strong>in</strong>ted a Child Carry<strong>in</strong>g Grapes,<br />

<strong>and</strong> when birds flew to the fruit with the same frankness as before he strode up to the<br />

picture <strong>in</strong> anger with it <strong>and</strong> said, “I have pa<strong>in</strong>ted the grapes better than the child, as if I<br />

had made a success <strong>of</strong> that as well, the birds would <strong>in</strong>evitably have been afraid <strong>of</strong> it”<br />

157<br />

Pl<strong>in</strong>y 35.85 A.D. I<br />

Text <strong>and</strong> translation: H. Rackham, ed., tr., Pl<strong>in</strong>y. Natural History IX. Books XXXIII-<br />

XXXV (Cambridge, Mass. <strong>and</strong> London, 1952; repr. 1995).<br />

Idem perfecta opera proponebat <strong>in</strong> pergola transeuntibus atque, ipse post tabulam latens,<br />

vitia quae notarentur auscultabat, vulgum diligentiorem iudicem quam se praeferens;<br />

feruntque reprehensum a sutore, quod <strong>in</strong> crepidis una pauciores <strong>in</strong>tus fecisset ansas,<br />

eodem postero die superbo emendatione prist<strong>in</strong>ae admonitionis cavillante circa crus,<br />

<strong>in</strong>dignatum prospexisse denuntiantem, ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret, quod et ipsum<br />

<strong>in</strong> proverbium abiit.<br />

404

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