Campaspe

Campaspe, (or Pancaste) the mistress of Alexander the Great and a prominent citizen of Larissa. She was painted by Apelles, who had the reputation in Antiquity for being the greatest of painters. The episode occasioned an apocryphal exchange that was reported in Pliny's Natural History: "Seeing the beauty of the nude portrait, Alexander saw that the artist appreciated Campaspe (and loved her) more than he. And so Alexander kept the portrait, but presented Campaspe to Apelles." Historian Robin Lane Fox noted this as "the most generous gift of any patron and one which would remain a model for patronage and painters on through the Renaissance."