![Nicolas Vleughels - Apelles Painting Campaspe [1716] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7348/11962055166_622ac1b9ab.jpg)
Apelles, the celebrated painter of ancient Greece, was court painter to Alexander the Great. The elder Pliny tells how Apelles was engaged by the emperor to paint his favourite concubine, the beautiful Campaspe, and how while doing so he fell in love with her. Alexander, as a mark of his appreciation of the painter's work, made him a present of her.
[Musée du Louvre, Paris - Oil on canvas, 126 x 97 cm]