Calumny of Apelles

The Calumny of Apelles is a tempera-on-panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, made around 1494 to 1495 and measuring 62 by 91 centimeters. It reconstructs a lost ancient Greek painting by Apelles that was described by the classical writer Lucian as an allegory of slander, and shows nine figures personifying that theme: a victim dragged before a king with donkey's ears, reminiscent of Midas, by the figure of Calumny attended by Fraud and blinded by Rancour, while Truth and Repentance approach from behind. The Renaissance theorist Leon Battista Alberti had recommended the subject to painters in his 1435 treatise De pictura, and Botticelli's version is thought to be one of his last surviving secular works. It is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/