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

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Another habit <strong>of</strong> his was when he had f<strong>in</strong>ished his works to place them <strong>in</strong> a gallery <strong>in</strong> the<br />

view <strong>of</strong> passers by, <strong>and</strong> he himself stood out <strong>of</strong> sight beh<strong>in</strong>d the picture <strong>and</strong> listened to<br />

hear what faults were noticed, rat<strong>in</strong>g the public as a more observant critic than himself.<br />

And it is said that he was found fault with by a shoemaker because <strong>in</strong> draw<strong>in</strong>g a subject’s<br />

s<strong>and</strong>als he has represented the loops <strong>in</strong> one <strong>of</strong> them as one too few, <strong>and</strong> the next day the<br />

same critic was so proud <strong>of</strong> the artist’s correct<strong>in</strong>g the fault <strong>in</strong>dicated by his previous<br />

objection that he found fault with the leg, but Apelles <strong>in</strong>dignantly looked out from beh<strong>in</strong>d<br />

the picture <strong>and</strong> rebuked him, say<strong>in</strong>g that a shoemaker <strong>in</strong> his criticism must not go beyond<br />

the s<strong>and</strong>al—a remark that has also passed <strong>in</strong>to a proverb.<br />

158<br />

Pl<strong>in</strong>y 35.95 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 />

Est et equus eius, sive fuit, pictus <strong>in</strong> certam<strong>in</strong>e, quo iudicium ad mutas quadripedes<br />

provocavit ab hom<strong>in</strong>ibus. Namque ambitu praevalere aemulos sentiens s<strong>in</strong>gulorum<br />

pictures <strong>in</strong>ductis equis ostendit: Apellis tantum equo adh<strong>in</strong>nivere, idque et postea simper<br />

evenit, ut experimentum artis illud stentaretur.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re is, or was, a picture <strong>of</strong> a Horse by him pa<strong>in</strong>ted <strong>in</strong> a competition, by which he<br />

carried his appeal for judgment from mank<strong>in</strong>d to the dumb quadrupeds; for perceiv<strong>in</strong>g<br />

that his rivals were gett<strong>in</strong>g the better <strong>of</strong> him by <strong>in</strong>trigue, he had some horses brought <strong>and</strong><br />

showed them their pictures one by one; <strong>and</strong> the horses only began to neigh when they<br />

saw the horse pa<strong>in</strong>ted by Apelles; <strong>and</strong> this always happened subsequently, show<strong>in</strong>g it to<br />

be a sound test <strong>in</strong> artistic skill.<br />

159<br />

Pl<strong>in</strong>y 35.131-35.133 A.D. I<br />

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

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

Translation: J. J. Pollitt, <strong>The</strong> Art <strong>of</strong> Ancient <strong>Greece</strong>: Sources <strong>and</strong> Documents (1965;<br />

second ed., Cambridge, 1990; repr. 1998).<br />

Ephesi vero est megabyzi, sacerdotis Ephesiae Dianae, sepulchrum, Athenis necyomantea<br />

Homeri. Hanc vendere Attalo regi noluit talentis LX potiusque patriae suae donavit<br />

abundans opibus. Fecit et gr<strong>and</strong>es picturas, <strong>in</strong> quibus sunt Calypso et Io et Andromeda;<br />

Alex<strong>and</strong>er quoque <strong>in</strong> Pompei porticibus praecellens et Calypso sedens huic eidem<br />

adscribuntur. Quadripedum prosperrime canes expressit.<br />

At Ephesos there is a Sepulchre <strong>of</strong> a Megabyzus, the priest <strong>of</strong> Artemis at Ephesos, <strong>and</strong> at<br />

Athens the Nekyomanteia [“Invocation <strong>of</strong> the Dead”] after Homer. This picture he<br />

[Nikias] refused to sell to K<strong>in</strong>g Attalos for 60 talents <strong>and</strong> gave it rather to his home town,<br />

405

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