Another Apelles was the founder of a Gnostic sect in the 2nd century; Apelles (theologian)[?].Apelles was a renowned painter of ancient Greece. Of Ionian origin, he became a student at Sicyon under Pamphilus[?]. At the court of Macedon he painted Phillip II and the young Alexander the Great with such success that he became the recognised court painter. His painting of Alexander holding a thunderbolt was highly regarded. He painted various portraits and mythological figures, none of which have survived to the present day.