Note 17 — FIRST LECTURE. ANCIENT ART.
Reading edition
Cicero Oratore, 73, seq.—In alioque ponatur, aliudque totum sit, utrum decere an oportere dicas; oportere enim, perfectionem declarat officii, quo et semper utendum est, et omnibus: decere, quasi aptum esse, consentaneumque tempori et personæ; quod cum in factis sæpissime, tum in dictis valet, in vultu denique, et gestu, et incessu. Contraque item dedecere. Quod si poeta fugit, ut maximum vitium, qui peccat, etiam, cum probam orationem affingit improbo, stultove sapientis: si denique pictor ille vicit, cum immolanda Iphigenia tristis Calchas esset, mæstior Ulysses, moereret Menelaus, obvolvendum caput Agamemnonis esse, quoniam summum ilium luctum penicillo, non posset imitari: si denique histrio, quid deceat quærit: quid faciendum oratori putemus?
M. F. Quintilianus, 1. ii. c. 14.—Operienda sunt quædam, sive ostendi non debent, sive exprimi pro dignitate non possunt: ut fecit Timanthes, ut opinor, Cithnius, in ea tabula qua Coloten tejum vicit. Nam cum in Iphigeniæ immolatione pinxisset tristem Calchantem, tristiorem Ulyssem, addidisset Menelao quem summum poterat ars efficere Moerorem, consumptis affectibus, non reperiens quo digne modo Patris vultum possit exprimere, velavit ejus caput, et sui cuique animo dedit æstimandum.
It is evident to the slightest consideration, that both Cicero and Quintilian lose sight of their premises, and contradict themselves in the motive they ascribe to Timanthes. Their want of acquaintance with the nature of plastic expression made them imagine the face of Agamemnon beyond the power of the artist. They were not aware that by making him waste expression on inferior actors at the expence of a principal one, they call him an improvident spendthrift and not a wise œconomist.
From Valerius Maximus, who calls the subject ‘Luctuosum immolatæ Iphigeniæ sacrificium’ instead of immolandæ, little can be expected to the purpose. Pliny, with the digne of Quintilian has the same confusion of motive.