Zeuxis
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Zeuxis. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A celebrated painter born at Heraclea. He flourished 468 years before the Christian He painted grapes so naturally that the birds came to peck them on the canvas; but he was disgusted with the picture because the man in the picture who was carrying the grapes was not natural enough to frighten the birds. 2026 Editor's Note: Zeuxis was a late 5th-century to early 4th-century BCE Greek painter from Heraclea. None of his works survive, but anecdotes about his art have been referenced often in the history and literature of art. One of the most famous stories centers on an artistic competition with the painter Parrhasius to prove which artist could create a greater illusion of nature. (Ed: BR 2026-06-29)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
one of the greatest Greek painters; born in one of the many cities named Heraclea, and flourished in the latter half of the 5th century B. C. He traveled a good deal, spending some time at Athens during the Peloponnesian War, visiting the court of Archelaus, King of Macedonia, and afterward Italy and Sicily. He excelled in form, light and shade, and coloring, in dramatic composition of grand subjects, and in imitation of inanimate objects. He made a large fortune, was extremely vain, and at last used to give away his pictures because he thought them worth more than any price that could be set on them.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
zook'sis (460-355 B. C.), a Grecian painter. His principal paintings related to the Trojan war and are known only by description. His picture of A Boy With-Grapes is said to have deceived the birds who came to pick. But Zeuxis shook his head with the remark, "Had the boy been painted as well as the grapes the birds would have been afraid to come near them."