Protogenes

Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, relates the story of a contest between Apelles and Protogenes: 'Apelles sailed [to Rhodes], eager to see the works of a man known to him only by reputation, and on his arrival immediately repaired to the studio.

It fell out as he expected; Apelles did return, and, ashamed to be beaten, drew a third line of another colour cutting the two first down their length and leaving no room for any further refinement.

Protogenes owned himself beaten and hurried down to the harbour to find his visitor; they agreed to hand down the painting just as it was to posterity, a marvel to all, but especially to artists.'

On one picture, the Ialysus, he spent seven years; on another, the Satyr, he worked continuously during the siege of Rhodes by Demetrius Poliorcetes (305-304 BC) notwithstanding that the garden in which he painted was in the middle of the enemy's camp.

The picture painted during the siege of Rhodes consisted of a satyr leaning idly against a pillar on which was a figure of a partridge, so lifelike that ordinary spectators saw nothing but it.

However, Protogenes was also a sculptor to some extent, and made several bronze statues of athletes, armed figures, huntsmen and persons in the act of offering sacrifices.