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

valuable guide to the ancient interest in and understanding of this concept in Classical
Greek art.
Additional evidence regarding ancient interest, in this case of an ordinary viewer,
in the lifelike quality of works of art is seen in an anecdote recorded by Pliny. It refers to
the criticism leveled by a shoemaker at the inaccurate depiction of the sandals of a figure
in a painting by Apelles, an artist of the fourth century B.C.:
Another habit of his (Apelles) was when he had finished his works to place them
in a gallery in the view of passers by, and he himself stood out of sight behind the
picture and listened to hear what faults were noticed, rating the public as a more
observant critic than himself. And it is said that he was found fault with by a
shoemaker because in drawing a subject’s sandals he has represented the loops in
one of them as one too few, and the next day the same critic was so proud of the
artist’s correcting the fault indicated by his previous objection that he found fault
with the leg, but Apelles indignantly looked out from behind the picture and
rebuked him, saying that a shoemaker in his criticism must not go beyond the
sandal—a remark that has also passed into a proverb (Pliny, NH 35.85) [157].
The passage shows clearly that a detail such as “one too few” lace-holes in the rendering
of a figure’s sandal was enough of an inaccuracy to diminish the lifelike quality of
Apelles’ painting and thus cause negative criticism on the side of a viewer. 115 The
mention of such a response suggests that lifelikeness was a valued quality expected to be
seen in works of art. Also the acute attention to detail suggests that lifelikeness was
associated with accurate representation of objects from real life.
Turning to the viewer himself, the fact that he is a shoemaker establishes his
status as a layman. Lifelikeness thus emerges as a quality of works of art valued by
ordinary viewers, therefore, disconnected from the idea that only cultivated members of
society were interested in it. Additional support for this point derives from Pliny’s
assertion that Apelles—a famous painter—“rat[ed] the public as a more observant critic
115 For further discussion of this passage in connection with the concept of representational accountability,
see Donohue, The Problem of Description 199.
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