Note 184 — XXVII.

Prefatio Edit. Sillig. “Lest I should seem to find too much fault with the Greeks, I would be classed with those founders of the art of painting and sculpture, recorded in these little volumes, whose works, although complete and such as cannot be sufficiently admired, yet bear a suspended title, as Apelles or Polycletus ‘was making’; as if the work were always only begun and still incomplete, so that the artist might appeal from criticism as if himself desirous of improving, had he not been interrupted. Wherefore from modesty they inscribed every work as if it had been their last, and in hand at their death. I think there are but three with the inscription, ‘He made it,’ and these I shall speak of in their place. From this it appeared that the artists felt fully satisfied with their work, and these excited the envy of all.”