Apelles (design for a mosaic in the Victoria and Albert Museum)

Companion to the Phidias mosaic design from the same year and commission, this canvas depicts Apelles — the most celebrated painter of the ancient world, whose work survives only in Roman literary descriptions. Apelles was a figure of particular significance for Victorian painters: his legendary friendship with Alexander the Great and his mastery of illusionistic painting (described by Pliny the Elder) made him a hero of the academic tradition. Including Apelles in the V&A's decorative scheme alongside Phidias created an implicit argument for the equal dignity of painting and sculpture within the canon of ancient art — a claim with contemporary relevance in Victorian debates about the hierarchy of the arts. Poynter's identification with the ancient painter — both were committed to craft mastery and classical subject matter — gives this mosaic design an autobiographical resonance beyond its decorative function.

Like the Phidias companion design, this canvas had to satisfy the compositional requirements of a public decorative program while translating naturally into mosaic technique. The figure's attribute — likely a panel and brush, or a mahlstick — would identify his profession, and the composition's scale and orientation would have been calibrated to its intended architectural position within the V&A interiors.