A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

556 PROTOGENES. PROTYS.
it formed part of the rich collection in the temple of ing to this view the group which Pallsanias took
Peace. Suidas (s. v.) mentions the picture as a for Nausicaa and her companions may be explained
strange and wonderful work, but appears to have as a group of maidens celebrating the festival of the
mistaken the hero Jalysus for Dionysus (the read- god to whom the sacred vessels are bringing their
ing however is doubtful). offerings. This painting is also mentioned by
His next most famous picture was that which Cicero, like the Ialysus, as one of the greatest works
Pliny tells us he painted during the siege of in existence, but he does not mention the artist's
Rhodes, and to which, from that circumstance, a name (in Verr. 1. c.). Pliny tells us that Protopeculiar interest was attached (Sequiturque tabulam genes, in memory of his former circumstances,
ejus tensporis haec flama, quod eam Protogenes sub added to this picture some little ships of war, as
gladio pinxerit). Its subject was a satyr resting additional ornaments or bordering (parerga).
(queen Anapauoonenon vocant), and still holding the Another picture, which Protogenes painted at
pipes; a subject strikingly similar to the celebrated Athens, was that of the Thesimothetae, in the
Satyr of Praxiteles, though, of course, treated dif- senate-house of the Five Hundred (Panus. i. 3. ~ 4).
ferently in the two different departments of art, The other works of Protogenes, inll the list of
This picture was still at Rhodes in the time of Pliny, are Cydippe, Tlepolenmus, the tragic poet
Strabo, who mentions it and the Jalysus, and the Philiscus meditating [PHILISCUS], an athlete, king
Colossus, as the most remarkable objects at that Antigonus, and the another of Aristotle. Pliny adds
place (l.c.). The Satyr (Strabo tells us) was leaning that the great philosopher advised the artist to
against a column, upon which the artist had origi- paint Alexander "propter aeternitatem rerum;"
nally painted a partridge sitting; but the people, but that his own taste and the impulse of his
who flocked to see the picture, were so struck with genius carried him to other subjects, so that there
the perfectly natural appearance of the bird that they was only one of his pictures, and that the last, in
entirely overlooked the principal figure; alnd, to which the Macedonian conqueror appeared: this
make matters worse, the bird-keepers brought tame composition is called by Pliny Alexander and
partridges, which were no sooner placed opposite Panz.
the picture than they began to chirp at the painted In the enumeration of his works, that celebrated
bird, thinking it alive, to the unbounded delight of panel must not be forgotten, which, in its three
the multitude. On this, Protogenes, feeling that simple lines, presented the memorial of the celehis labour was lost (opcsv Tro Epyoyv irapep-yop y/- brated contest between Apelles and Protogenes,,yopos), obtained permission from the keepers of the and excited more admiration than the great works
temple, and obliterated the partridge from the of art near which it was preserved at Rome. To
picture. what has been said on this subject under APELLES,
Another celebrated work of Protogenes was that it need only be added that the words of Pliny,
in the Propylaea of the Acropolis of Athens, which who had seen the picture (and that, no doubt, rePliny thus describes: nobilem Parulalzl et Am- peatedly), evidently describe snere lines drawn
soniada, quamz quidam Nausicaam vocant. The right across the panel (per tabulain); and even
1Paralus, as is well known, was one of the two writers who object to such a display, as not even
sacred ships of the Athenians, to which, at a later within the province of painting, and who seek for
period, three more were added. of which one was other ingenious and elaborate interpretations (such
the Almmonias, that is, the vessel in which offerings as that the three lines were three outlines of figures
were sent to Jupiter Ammon. Thus msuch is or limbs), are found to admit, not only that the
clear; but how these vessels were represented, notion of their being three simple lines is the only
whether each formed a separate picture, or the two one countenanced by the text of Pliny (who, we
were combined in one composition, and what we repeat, saw the picture), but also that this feat,
are to understand by the phrase, quam quLidame though merely manual, was all the greater aind
Neausicaam vocant, that is, what the ship Asmmo- more wonderful, on account of their being mere
nias (or the picture of both ships) had to do with lines of excessive thinness, the one within the other,
Nausicaa and the island of the Phaeacians,-are from the extraordinary command of the instrument,
questions extremely difficult to solve. Pausanias, and precision of eye and hand which such a feat
indeed, tells us (i. 22. ~ 6) that one of the paintings supposes. Let it be remembered also, how great
in the Propylaea represented Nausicaa and her was the importance which the ancients rightly
maidens bathing, with Ulysses near them, as de- attached to acczurate drawing; and, we would add,
scribed by Homer (Od. vi. init.); but he ascribes let those who sneer at the performance attempt to
the picture to Polygnotus, and says not a word of reproduce it.
the sacred ships. The only escape yet suggested Protogenes excelled also as a statuary (Plin. 1. c.),
from this labyrinth of confusion, is by following though none of his works are individually specified:
the clue furnished by the conjecture of Ottfried Pliny only mentions him anmong the artists who
Miiler (Arch. d. Kiinst, Nachtraie, p. 707, 2d ed.), made, in bronze, athletas et arsmatos et veeatores sathlat, instead of carrying on the nominative IIo0- crificantesque (II. N. xxxiv. 8, 19. ~ 34).
yvwrTOS in the passage of Pausanias, we should According to Suidas, Protogenes wrote two
insert IlpwToeeYrvs after e'ypa/e e Seal, so as to works on art, namely, lehpl ypampac&s tcal rxnaimake him, and not Polygnotus, the painter of the Twv OrlgAia /'.
picture which Pausanias describes as that of Nau- 2. A freedman in the family of Augustus, was
sicaa; and further, that the very subject of the an artist in gold and silver. (Bianchini, Sepolcro
painting was disputed among the ancients them- de' Servi, n. 191; R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Scholrn,
selves, "' some," as Pliny says, " taking it for Nau- p. 394.) [P. S.]
sicaa," among whom was Pausanias; and others, PROTYS, an artist of the Graeco-Roman period,
of whom Pliny himself was one, regarding it as the whose name is known by an inscription on the base
representation of some harbour, into which the of a piece of sculpture, representing four figuress
ships Paralus and Ammonias were sailing. Accord- Iplaced back to back, which was found in UIpp)e