NOTE V. VERSE 194. 'Twas then Panaus drew, with freedom's train.] Panæus was the brother of Phidias, the celebrated Sculptor, whom he is faid to have affifted in his nobleft works. Paufanias, in his Fifth Book, gives an account of feveral pictures by this early Artist, and particularly of the picture here alluded to. It was painted in the celebrated portico called Ioxin, Pœcile. Befides a general reprefentation of the conflict, the flight of the barbarians, and a distant view of their fhips, Thefeus, Minerva, and Hercules were, according to this author, exhibited in the piece. The moft confpicuous figures among the perfons engaged were Callimachus, and Miltiades, and a hero called Echetius: he mentions also another hero, who is introduced into the picture, called Marathon, from whom, he fays, the field had its Paufanias, fol. Lip. 1696. p. 37. name. From Pliny's account of the fame picture we learn that the heads of the generals were portraits -adeo jam colorum ufus percrebuerat, adeoque ars perfecta erat ut in co Prælio ICONICOS duces pinxiffe tradatur.- Plin. lib. xxxv. c. 8. Miltiades had the honour of being placed foremost in this illuftrious group, as a reward for his having faved Athens, and all Greece. Cor. Nep. in Vitâ Miltiadis. Panæus Panææus flourished, according to Pliny, in the 83d Olympiad, little more than forty years after the battle he painted. NOTE VI. VERSE 198. There Polygnotus, fcorning fervile hire.] Of the talents of Polygnotus much honourable mention is made by many of the best authors of antiquity, as Ariftotle and Plutarch, Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, &c. Paufanias fpeaks of the pictures here alluded to, and in his Tenth Book introduces a very long description of other pictures by the fame artist, painted alfo from Homer, in the Temple at Delphos. The paffage however gives but a confufed and imperfect idea of the painter's performance. How much the art is indebted to this ancient mafter, what grace and foftness he gave to the human countenance, what embellishments he added to the female figure and drefs, are much more happily described by Pliny:-Primus Mulieres lucidâ vefte pinxit, capita earum mitris verficoloribus operuit, plurimumque picturæ primus contulit: fiquidem inftituit os adaperire, dentes oftendere, vultum ab antiquo rigore variare.—The fame author likewife bears honourable teftimony to the liberal spirit of this great artist, who refused any reward for his ingenious labours in the portico-Porticum gratuito, cum partem ejus Mycon mercede pingeret. Flin. Lib. xxxv. cap. 8. He flourished about the 90th Olympiad. NOTE VII. VERSE 202. Thy tragic pencil, Ariftides, caught.] The city of Thebes had the honour of giving birth to this celebrated Artist. He was the firft, according to Pliny, who expreffed Character and Paffion, the Human Mind, and its feveral emotions; but he was not remarkable for foftnefs of colouring. "His most celebrated picture was of an infant (on the taking of a town) at the mother's breast, who is wounded and expiring. The fenfations of the mother were clearly marked, and her fear leaft the child, upon failure of the milk, fhould fuck her blood." "Alexander the Great," continues the fame author, "took this picture with him to Pella." It his highly probable, according to the conjecture of Junius, (in his learned Treatife de Picturâ Veterum) that the following beautiful epigram of Æmilianus was written on this exquifite pic ture: Ελκε, ταλαν, παρα μητρος ὃν εκ ετι μαζον αμελξεις Η δη γαρ ξιφέεσσι λιποπνοος" αλλα τα μητρος It is not ill tranflated into Latin by Grotius: Suge, mifer, nunquam quæ pofthac pocula fuges ; Ultima ab exanimno corpore poc'la trahe! But But this is far inferior, and fo perhaps is the original itself, to the very elegant English verfion of it, which Mr. Webb has given us in his ingenious and animated" Inquiry into the Beauties of Painting." Suck, little wretch, while yet thy mother lives, Suck the last drop her fainting bofom gives! She dies: her tenderness furvives her breath, And her fond love is provident in death. Webb, Dialogue vii. p. 161. NOTE VIII. VERSE 206. Correct Parrhafius firft to rich defign.] The name of Parrhafius is immortalized by many of the moft celebrated ancient authors; and his peculiar talents are thus recorded in Pliny: Primus fymmetriam picturæ dedit, primus argutias vultus, elegantiam capilli, venuftatem oris: confeffione artificum in lineis extremis palmam adeptus.-He is one of the four ancient painters, whofe lives are written by Carlo Dati.-This ingenious Italian very justly questions the truth of the fingular story concerning Parrhafius, preserved in Seneca, where he is accused of purchafing an old Olynthian captive, and expofing him to a moft wretched death, that he might paint from his agony the tortures of Prometheus. The fame author contradicts on this occafion a fimilar falfehood concerning the great Michael Angelo, which was firft circulated from from the pulpit by an ignorant priest, as we learn from Gori's Hiftorical Annotations to the Life of M. Angelo, by his fcholar Condivi. NOTE IX. VERSE 210. The gay, the warm, licentious Zeuxis drew.] The Helen of Zeuxis is become almoft proverbial: the story of the Artist's having executed the picture from an affemblage of the most beautiful females is mentioned (though with fome variation as to the place) by authors of great credit, Pliny, Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, and Cicero. The last gives a very long and circumftantial account of it. De Inventione, Lib. 2. If the story is true, it is perhaps one of the strongeft examples we can find of that enthufiaftic paffion for the fine arts which animated the ancients. Notwithstanding her præeminence in beauty, it seems somewhat fingular that the painter fhould have chosen such a character as Helen, as a proper decoration for the Temple of Juno. A moft celebrated Spanish Poet, though not in other respects famous for his judgment, has, I think, not injudiciously metamorphofed this Helen of Zeuxis into Juno herself: Zeufis, Pintor famofo, retratando Rimas de Lope de Vega. Lisboa, 1605. p. 51-2. Junius |