The New Student's Reference Work/Apelles

Apelles (ä-pĕl′ēz), a Greek painter, who lived probably between 352 and 308 B. C. We do not know when or where he was born, nor when or where he died, and not one of his pictures remains, yet his name stands for the highest excellence in painting. He painted portraits of Philip and Alexander, who would sit to no other painter. His most famous picture was Venus Rising from the Sea. One of his paintings, representing Alexander holding a thunderbolt, was sold for a sum equal to $200,000. When he had finished a picture, he used to place it in a public place and hide behind it, to hear what was said. Once he overheard a passing shoemaker say that a slipper on the foot of a figure had not ties enough. Apelles corrected the mistake. The next day the shoemaker began to find fault with a leg, when Apelles, putting out his head, desired him to confine his criticism to the slipper.