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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue IX, 27 August 1898, Page 272

The art of painting pictures so near to life as to deceive the naked eye is very old. Pliny relates that Zeuxis once, painted some grapes so naturally that birds used to come and peck at them, and that Parrhasius once painted a curtain so artfully that Zeuxis desired it drawn aside that he could see the picture it hid. Discovering his error, he confessed himself outdone, as he had only imposed on birds, whereas Parrhasius had deceived the human intellect. Another time Zeuxis painted a boy with some grapes, and when the birds again flew at the grapes he was very angry, saying that he was certainly at fault with the picture. He reasoned that had it been perfect the birds would have been frightened away by the boy. Cains Valerius Flaccus says that Zeuxis's death was occasioned by an immoderate fit of laughter on looking nt the comic picture he had drawn of an old woman.