Apelles

Apelles, the most famous of Greek painters, was the contemporary and friend of Alexander the Great, of whom he is said to have painted several portraits. He was probably a native of Colophon, though some consider that the island of Cos, where he lived and died, was also his birthplace. His great but unfinished work, Venus Anadyomene (rising from the sea), was bought by Augustus from the people of Cos and placed in the temple of Caesar. Though a man of pleasure, he was very industrious, and, according to Pliny, gave rise to the proverb "Nulla dies sine linea," whilst "Ne sutor ultra crepidam." the Latin version of his reply to the cobbler who criticised the legs as well as the shoes of one of his figures, is no less widely known. There is a tradition that a picture in the Louvre, copied from a Roman fresco, Nuptiae Aldobrandinae, hands down some faint reflection of this master's style.