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| Girolamo Mocetto Frieze with Triumph of Neptune ca. 1500-1510 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Girolamo Mocetto Judith with the Head of Holofernes ca. 1500-1510 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Girolamo Mocetto The Calumny of Apelles ca. 1500-1510 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
from Slander: A Warning
" . . . it is my design to sketch the nature, the origin, and effects of slander, though indeed the picture is already in existence, by the hand of Apelles. He had been traduced in the ears of Ptolemy as an accomplice of Theodotas in the Tyrian conspiracy. As a matter of fact he had never seen Tyre, and knew nothing of Theodotas beyond the information that he was an officer of Ptolemy's in charge of Phoenicia. However, that did not prevent another painter called Antiphilus, who was jealous of his court influence and professional skill, from reporting his supposed complicity to Ptolemy: he had seen him at Theodotas's table in Phoenicia, whispering in his ear all through dinner; he finally got as far as making Apelles out prime instigator of the Tyrian revolt and the capture of Pelusium. Ptolemy was not distinguished for sagacity; he had been brought up on the royal diet of adulation; and the incredible tale so inflamed and carried him away that the probabilities of the case never struck him: the traducer was a professional rival; a painter's insignificance was hardly equal to the part; and this particular painter had had nothing but good at his hands, having been exalted by him above his fellows. But no, he did not even find out whether Apelles had ever made a voyage to Tyre; it pleased him to fall into a passion and make the palace ring with denunciations of the ingrate, the plotter, the conspirator. Luckily one of the prisoners, between disgust at Antiphilus's effrontery and compassion for Apelles, stated that the poor man had never been told a word of their designs; but for this, he would have paid with his head for his non-complicity in the Tyrian troubles."
"Ptolemy was sufficiently ashamed of himself, we learn, to make Apelles a present of £25,000, besides handing Antiphilus over to him as a slave. The painter was impressed by his experience, and took his revenge upon Slander in a picture. On the right sits a man with long ears almost of the Midas pattern, stretching out a hand to Slander, who is still some way off, but coming. About him are two females whom I take for Ignorance and Assumption. Slander, approaching from the left, is an extraordinarily beautiful woman, but with a heated, excitable air that suggest delusion and impulsiveness; in her left hand is a lighted torch, and with her right she is haling a youth by the hair; he holds up hands to heaven and calls the Gods to witness his innocence. Showing Slander the way is a man with piercing eyes, but pale, deformed, and shrunken as from long illness; one may easily guess him to be Envy. Two female attendants encourage Slander, acting as tire-women, and adding touches to her beauty; according to the cicerone, one of these is Malice, and the other Deceit. Following behind in mourning guise, black-robed and with torn hair, comes (I think he named her) Repentance. She looks tearfully behind her, awaiting shamefaced the approach of Truth. That was how Apelles translated his peril into paint."
– from a treatise written in Greek by Lucian (AD 120-192) concerning the Greek painter Apelles (370-306 BC), the text as translated by H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler in The Works of Lucian of Samosata (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905)
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| Monogrammist F.P. after Parmigianino Hercules and Cerberus ca. 1530 etching Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Battista del Moro Hercules slaying the Hydra 1552 etching Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| René Boyvin after Rosso Fiorentino Ignorance Vanquished ca. 1560-70 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Andrea Andreani after Raffaellino da Reggio Adoration of the Magi ca. 1590 chiaroscuro woodcut Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giovanni Gallo after Marco Pino Cain and Abel ca. 1550-1600 chiaroscuro woodcut Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Master of the Die Apollo and Daphne ca. 1530-40 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Domenico Campagnola Twelve children dancing 1517 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giovanni Antonio da Brescia after Amico Aspertini Five children dancing and playing ca. 1515-20 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giovanni Antonio da Brescia Samson and Delilah before 1525 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giovanni Antonio da Brescia Roman Lion Hunt before 1525 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giulio Sanuto Tantalus ca. 1565 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Marcantonio Raimondi Man carrying the base of a column ca. 1510-20 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |