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Myron
A Greek statuary and sculptor, born in Boeotia, B.C. 480. A
fellow-disciple of Polycletus, and a younger contemporary of Phidias.
His great works are in bronze. By far the most celebrated of his
statues were his Discobolus and his Cow. The cow is represented lowing.
(Discobolus is a quoit or discus player.) It is said that the cow was
so true to nature that a bull mistook it for a living animal.
There are several similar legends. Thus it is said `that Apelles
painted Alexander's horse so realistically that a living horse mistook
it and began to neigh Velasquez painted a Spanish admiral so true to
life, that Felipe IV, mistook the painting for the man and reproved it
severely for not being with the fleet. Zeuxis painted some grapes so
well that birds flew at them to peck them. Quentin Matsys painted a fly
on a man's leg so inimitably that Mandyn, the artist, tried to brush it
off with his handkerchief. Parrhasios, of Ephesus painted a curtain so
well that Zeuxis was deceived by it, and told him to draw it aside that
he might see the picture behind it.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Myron from Infoplease:
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