with lightning. Such incidents though fabulous, are valuable, inasmuch as they serve to prove the exalted notions the people entertained of the objects to which they relate.
PAINTING FROM NATURE.
Eupompus, the painter, was asked by Lysippus,
the sculptor, whom, among his predecessors, he
should make the objects of his imitation? "Behold,"
said the painter, showing his friend a multitude
of people passing by, "behold my models.
From nature, not from art, by whomsoever wrought,
must the artist labor, who hopes to attain honor, and
extend the boundaries of his art."
APELLES.
Apelles, according to the general testimony of
ancient writers, was the most renowned painter of
antiquity; hence painting is termed, by some of the
Romans, the Apellean art. He flourished in the
last half of the fourth century before Christ. Pliny
affirms that he contributed more towards perfecting
the art than all other painters. He seems to have
claimed the palm in elegance and grace, or beauty,
the charis of the Greeks, and the venustas of the
Romans; a quality for which, among the moderns,
perhaps Correggio is the most distinguished; but in
the works of Apelles, it was unquestionably connected
with a proportionably perfect design; a combination
not found among the moderns. Pliny re-