No. 117: Apelles. It was Easter, the Festival of Regeneration, and he needed to paint an egg. An egg was the essential symbol of new life in the offing. He was thinking, too. of old Apelles, the virtuoso painter of ancient Greece. Apelles could draw a perfect egg in one stroke before you could blink an eye. He also pondered the intimidating brilliance of the venerable Constantin Brancusi: all those egg-shaped heads and bodies.