18
and
of C aricature
Grotefgue
painter named Cteficles, defcribed alfo by Pliny. It appears that Stra-
tonice, the queen of Seleucus Nicator, had received this painter ill when
he vilited her court, and in revenge he executed a picture in which {he
was reprefented, according to a current fcandal, as engaged in an amour
with a common fifherman, which he exhibited in the harbour of Ephefus,
- and then made his efcape on {hip-board. Pliny adds that the queen
admired the beauty and accuracy of the painting more than fhe felt the
infult, and that {he forbade the removal of the picture."
The fubject of our fecond example of the Greek caricature is better
known. It is taken from an oxybaphon which was brought from the
Continent to England, where it paffed into the collection of Mr. VVilliam
HOpB.'i" The oxyl-aphon (6615Bad)ov), or, as it was called by the Romans,
acetabulum, was a large velfel for holding vinegar, which formed one of
the important ornaments of the table, and was therefore very fufceptible
ofpictorial embellifhment of this defcription. It is one of the molt remark-
able Greek caricatures of this kind yet known, and reprefents a parody on
One of the molt interefting ltories of the Grecian mythology, that of the
arrival of Apollo at Delphi. The artift, in his love of burlefque, has
fpared none of the perfonages who belonged to the ltory. The Hyper-
borean Apollo himfelf appears in the character of a quack doctor, on his
temporary ltage, covered by a fort of roof, and approached by wooden
lleps. On the ftage lies Apollo's luggage, conliiting ofa bag, a bow, and
his Scythian cap. Chiron (XIPQN) is reprefented as labouring under
the effects of age and blindneiis, and fupporting himfelf by the aid of a
crooked itatt", as he repairs to the Delphian quack-doctor for relief. The
figure of the centaur is made to afcend by the aid of a companion, both
being furnithed with the maiks and other attributes of the comic per-
formers. Above are the mountains, and on them the nymphs of Par-
nafliis (NYMQAI), who, like all the other actors in the fcene, are difguifed
with mafks, and thofe of a very grotefque character. On the right-hand
tide
' Pliny, Hist. Nan, lib. xxxv. c. 4.0.
1- Engraved by Ch. Lenormant et de Witt, " Elite des Monuments
graphiques," pl. xciv.
C6ramo-