Philostratus the Elder

Excerpts taken from the Loeb Classical Library translation by Arthur Fairbanks,

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979

1.1. Whoever scorns painting is unjust to truth; and he is also unjust to all the wisdom that has been bestowed upon poets¡Xfor poets and painters make equal contribution of our knowledge of the deeds and the looks of heroes¡Xand he withholds his praise from symmetry of proportion, whereby art partakes of reason (logos). For one who wishes a clever theory, the invention of painting belongs to the gods¡Xwitness on earth all the designs with which the Seasons paint the meadows, and the manifestations we see in the heavens¡Xbut for one who is merely seeking the origin of the art, imitation is an invention most ancient and most akin to nature; and wise men invented it, calling it now painting, now plastic art.

1.2. There are many forms of plastic art¡Xplastic art proper, or modeling, and imitation in bronze, and the work of those who carve Lygdian or Parian marble, and ivory carving, and, by Zeus, the art of gem-cutting is also plastic art¡Xwhile painting is imitation by the use of colors; and not only does it employ color, but this second form of art cleverly accomplishes more with this one means than the other form with its many means. For it both reproduces light and shade and also permits the observer to recognize the look, now of the man who is mad, now of the man who is sorrowing or rejoicing. The varying nature of bright eyes the plastic artist does not bring out at all in his work; but the ¡§gray eye,¡¨ the ¡§blue eye,¡¨ the ¡§black eye,¡¨ are known to painting; and it knows chestnut and red and yellow hair, and the color of garments and armor, chambers too and houses and groves and mountains and springs and the air that envelops them all.

1.23 NARCISSUS: The pool paints Narcissus, and the painting represents both the pool and the whole story of Narcissus. A youth just returned from the hunt stands over a pool, drawing from within himself a kind of yearning and falling in love with his own beauty; and you see, he sheds a radiance into the water. The cave is sacred to Acheloüs and the Nymphs, and the scene is painted realistically (gegraptai de ta eikota). For the statues are of a crude art and made from a local stone; some of them are worn away by time, others have been mutilated by children of cowherds or shepherds while still young and unaware of the presence of the god. Nor is the pool without some connection with the Bacchic rites of Dionysus, since he has made it known to the Nymphs of the wine-press; at any rate it is roofed over with vine and ivy and beautiful creeping plants, and it abounds in clusters of grapes and trees that furnish the thyrsi, and tuneful birds disport themselves above it, each with its own note, and white flowers grow about the pool, not yet in blossom but just springing up in honor of the youth. The painting has such regard for realism that it even shows drops of dew dripping from the flowers and a bee settling on the flowers¡Xwhether a real bee has been deceived by the painted flowers or whether we are to be deceived into thinking that a painted bee is real, I do not know. But let that pass. As for you, however, Narcissus, it is no painting that has deceived you, nor are you engrossed in a thing of pigments or wax; but you do not realize that the water represents you exactly as you are when you gaze upon it, nor do you see through the artifice of the pool, though to do so you have only to nod your head or change your expression or slightly move your hand, instead of standing in the same attitude; but acting as though you had met a companion, you wait for some move on his part. Do you then expect the pool to enter conversation with you? Nay, this youth does not hear anything we say, but he is immersed, eyes and ears alike, in the water and we must interpret the painting for ourselves.

The youth, standing erect, is at rest; he has his legs crossed and supports one hand on the spear which is planted on his left, while his right hand is pressed against his hip so as to support his body and to produce the type of figure in which the buttocks are pushed out because of the inward bend of the left side. The arm shows an open space at the point where the elbow bends, a wrinkle where the wrist is twisted, and it cast a shadow as it ends in the palm of the hand, and the lines of the shadow are slanting because the fingers are bent in. Whether the panting of his breast remains from his hunting or is already the panting of love I do not know. The eye, surely, is that of a man deeply in love, for its natural brightness and intensity are softened by a longing that settles upon it, and he perhaps thinks that he is loved in return, since the reflection gazes at him in just the way that he looks at it. There would be much to say about the hair if we found him while hunting. For there are innumerable tossings of the hair in running, especially when it is blown by a wind; but even as it is, the subject should not be passed over in silence. For it is very abundant and of a golden hue; and some of it clings to the neck, some is parted by the ears, some tumbles over the forehead, and some falls in ripples to the beard. Both the Narcissi are exactly alike in form and each repeats the traits of the other, except that one stands out in the open air while the other is immersed in the pool. For the youth stands over the youth who stands in the water, or rather who gazes intently at him and seems to be athirst for his beauty.