JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET
poets: Theocritus, Burns, Shakespeare and Dante. Under the charm of Theocritus he wished to illustrate one of his idylls: Tircis playing the Pan's pipes and a goat-herd listening. He wished also to represent the subject of Tircis's song—the death of Daphne, as well as three bas-reliefs of a vase described by the poet. These three were: "A beautiful woman, a masterpiece of the gods, for whom two men are fighting. An old man on a rock, fishing in the sea with a net. A boy sitting by a hedge to guard a vine, but so busy weaving a straw cage for grasshoppers that he does not see two foxes, one of which makes off with his breakfast while the other eats the best grapes off the vine." The same disposition of mind shows itself in the four decorative paintings which he did for the dining-room of a hotel on the Boulevard Haussmann, and in which antique subjects are treated under the name of The Four Seasons. They represent: Daphnis and Chloe, Ceres, a frozen cupid being warmed by a woman, etc.
But though he had a sincere love for antique art, he was not at ease in it; and even in these hotel decorations, the most original part is the
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