Apelles and Self-Portrayal

SOURCE: Notes in the History of Art, 25, 4 (2006) © Norman E. Land APELLES AND SELF-PORTRAYAL Norman E. Land

In the GreekAntholog-r'(9.595),a single, undatedline-apparently the only surviving fragment of a poem or epigram-declares that 'Apelles painted himself in the picture."lWithoutcontextin which to placethe anonymousauthor'sseeminglystraightforward assertion.we shall neverknow what he intendedby it. Nevertheless, assuming that this is a ref-erence to an actualpainting, thereareat leastthreewaysin which its significancecan be explained.One explanation is that the author is referring to a self-portrait in the literal sense-that is, one in which Apelles representeda likeness of himself alone.Another.more likely explanationis that the authorrefersto a painting in which Apelles had portrayed himself We might imagine,say,a with otherfi_eures. u hich battlescenein thereare severalfigures, one of u hom Apelles painted to resemblehimself. A third way of understandingthe line is suggested by Pliny the Elder (.q.n.23-79 ). in a story in his Natural Histon' (35.81-83)of a contestbetween ApellesandProtogenes.r Pliny saysthatApelles,eagerto familiarize himself with the works of Protogenes, sailedto the islandof Rhodes,wherethe latter lived. Upon disembarking,Apelles went to Protogenes'houseand was met thereby the artist'sservant.who was watchingover a large panel resting on an easel.She told Apelles that Protogeneswas not at home and askedwhom shemight say had called. Takinga brushdippedin color,Apellessaid,

"Show him this lab hocl" and drew a thin line on the empty board.When Protogenes returned,his servanttold him what had happened.After carefully examiningthe subtle ("subtilitatem")line, Protogenesannounced that Apelles had been the visitor, for such perfection,he said,could be the work of no one else. In effect, Apelles' line identified him. Pliny saysvery little aboutthe quality of Apelles' line exceptthat it was very fine or subtle.Elsewherein his accountof Apelles' life and works, however,the authorsaysthat althoughApelles admiredProtogenes'paintings, he faulted his rival for the immense labor that Protogenes exerted in making them and for Protogenes'obsessiveattention to detail. Apelles believed that too much effort can ruin a picture and that Protogenes did not know "when to take his hand from a painting."Pliny saystoo that Apelles never allowed aday to passwithout drawing a line, which practicegaverise to a proverb:"Nulla diessinelinea fNevera day without a line]." Pliny impliesthatApelles'very subtle,skillfully drawn lines were born of a spontaneity or readinessmadepossibleby the daily practice of his art. The implication of Pliny's story about Apelles and Protogenes-that an autographicmark is of the very essenceof artwas echoedby other writers of Pliny's era. In De Oratore (3.26), for instance,Cicero (10613 B.c.)impliesthe notionof self-portrayal when he points out that although

thereis a single art or discipline of painting, the works of Apelles can be distinguished from thoseof Zeuxis and Aglaophon("una est ars ratioque picturae, dissimillimique tameninter se Zeuxis,Aglaophon,Apelles, nequeeorumquisquamest,cui quicquamin artesuadeessevideatur").He says,too, that thereis not one amongthosethreepainters "whose art seemsdeficientin any respect."' Cicero could be referring to the skillful perfectionof Apelles'line, but he might alsobe pointing to a certainquality of Apelles' art in general.According to Pliny, there was a particularunsurpassed charm-a venustas, or that which the Greeks call charis-to Apelles' paintings, and the artist even claimed that the works of other masters lacked that quality. In other words, in Apelles' opinion, the paintings of other artistshad many virtues,but they lackedthe charm found in his own works. Cicero might havebeenreferring to this "charm." Also relevantin this regardis an observation made by the Roman poet Statius(n.o. c. 45-c. 96). In his collection of poems known as the Silvae (4.6.29-30), the author

speaksof a painting in which the line "proclaims Apelles from afar."* As Statius implies, Apelles portrayed himself in his painting, for even from a distancethe poet was ableto recognrzethepainter'shandby a characteristicof his line. Like Cicero, Statius might refer either to the skill embodied in Apelles'line, or to its charm,or to both. The idea that Apelles could be identified by the skill and quality of his line was not lost on Renaissance authors.For example,in his so-called"Roman Dialogues"(1538), the Portugueseartist Franciscode Hollanda (1517-1589)has a figure of Michelangelo saythat "a good painter,making a beginning with a simple outline, will at oncebe recognized as an Apelles, if he is one; if he is an ignorant painter,he will be recognizedas such."The figure of Michelangelosays,too, that "by a single straightline, Apelles could be distinguishedfrom that other immortal Greek painter,Protogenes."5 For de Hollanda's Michelangelo,only a skillful artist may be perceivedas an Apelles.He implies,too, that a line by Protogenesis-not of the same quality as a line by Apelles.b

NOTES 1. For the Greek text, see The Greek Anthology, trans. W. R. Paton, Loeb Classical Library, 5 vols. (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Press,1979), III, p. 330. The Anthologia Hellenlftr containsmostly short poems and epigrams written between the seventh centuryB.c. and c. n.o. 1000. 2. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, trans.H. Rackham, Loeb ClassicalLibrary, 10 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961), IX, pp. 320-323. 3. Cicero, On the ldeal Orator (De Oratore), trans. JamesM. May and Jakob Wisse (New York: Oxford

UniversityPress,2001),p.23. 4. SeeStatius,Silvae,ed. and trans.D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press,2003), pp. 282-283. 5. Francisco de Hollanda, Didlogos em Roma (1538): Conversationson Art with Michelangelo Buonarroti, ed. Grazia Dolores Folliero-Metz, trans. Aubrey F. G. Bell (Heidelberg:Winter, 1998),p.Il4. 6. For more on this subjectand for further bibliography, see Norman E. Land, "RenaissanceIdeas about Self-Portrayal,"SOURCE: Notes in the History of Art 20, no. 3 (2001):25-21.