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Bondone was surprised when Cimabue offered to take his little boy to Florence and teach him to be a great painter . " I know that the lad can draw pictures wonderfully well , " he said . " He does not like to do anything else . Perhaps he will do well with you . Yes , you may take him . " In the city of Florence [ Footnote : Flor'ence . ] little Giotto saw some of the finest pictures in the world . He learned so fast that he could soon paint as well as Cimabue himself . One day Cimabue was painting the picture of a man's face . Night came on before he had finished it . " I will leave it till morning , " he said ; " then the light will be better . " In the morning , when he looked at the picture , he saw a fly on the man's nose . He tried to brush it off , but it remained there . It was only a painted fly . " Who has done this ? " he cried . He was angry , and yet he was pleased . Little Giotto came out from a corner , trembling and ashamed . " I did it , master , " he said . " It was a good place for a fly , and I never thought of spoiling your picture . " He expected to be punished . But Cimabue only praised him for his great skill . " There are few men who can draw so good a picture of a fly , " he said . This happened six hundred years ago , in the city of Florence in Italy . The shepherd boy became a very famous painter and the friend of many famous men . TWO GREAT PAINTERS There was once a painter whose name was Zeuxis . [ Footnote : Zeuxis ( pro . zuke'sis ) . ] He could paint pictures so life - like that they were mistaken for the real things which they represented . At one time he painted the picture of some fruit which was so real that the birds flew down and pecked at it . This made him very proud of his skill . " I am the only man in the world who can paint a picture so true to life , " he said . There was another famous artist whose name was Parrhasius . [ Footnote : Parrhasius ( pro . pa ra'shl us ) . ] When he heard of the boast which Zeuxis had made , he said to himself , " I will see what I can do . " So he painted a beautiful picture which seemed to be covered with a curtain . Then he invited Zeuxis to come and see it . Zeuxis looked at it closely . " Draw the curtain aside and show us the picture , " he said . Parrhasius laughed and answered , " The curtain is the picture . " " Well , " said Zeuxis , " you have beaten me this time , and I shall boast no more . I deceived only the birds , but you have deceived me , a painter . " Some time after this , Zeuxis painted another wonderful picture . It was that of a boy carrying a basket of ripe red cherries . When he hung this painting outside of his door , some birds flew down and tried to carry the cherries away . " Ah ! this picture is a failure , " he said . " For if the boy had been as well painted as the cherries , the birds would have been afraid to come near him . "
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