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[German version] Greek painter from Corinth, whose name is known from two epigrams of praise from Anth. Pal. 9,757 and 13,17. His creative period, which can only be reconstructed from source criticism, is disputed, but presumably lay in the first half of the 5th cent. BC. Nothing is known of his work. Nevertheless, the Corinthian painters' school of this period enjoyed great esteem. Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) Bibliography L. Guerrini, s.v. I., EAA 4, 178 G. Lippold, s.v. I., RE 9, 2023.

(Τιμάνθης/ Timánthēs). [German version] [1] Greek painter from Cythnus, 5th/4th cents. BC Greek painter from the island of Cythnos in the Cyclades, active in the late 5th and early 4th cents. BC, contemporary of Parrhasius and Zeuxis [1], against whom he competed, sometimes victoriously (Plin. HN 35,72). T. is assigned to both the Sicyonian and the Attic schools of painting. In his works, all lost, written sources [1] praise primarily his creative inventiveness ( ingenium), less his painting techniques. The original manner of presentation was also considered exemplary…

(ζωγραφία/ zōgraphía, Latin pictura or ars pingendi). [German version] I. Greek painting The earliest evidence of ancient painting can be found on the high-quality monumental wall frescoes (Wall paintings, Fresco) of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilisation in palaces (Palace) and houses in Crete and Thera [1]. The most recent examples are from the Byzantine period [2]. Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) [German version] A. Sources and history of scholarship Original works are scarcely and poorly preserved, if at all. This is particularly detrimental for the evaluation of and …

[German version] (Ἀετίων; Aetíōn) Greek painter (also a sculptor?) of the late classical period, exponent of the four-colour painting style ( Colours). There is an elaborate description of A.'s most famous painting, the wedding of Alexander with Roxane, in Lucian. Hdt. 4-6, which prompted many Renaissance and baroque painters to reinterpret the subject. Influences of this or a further wedding painting described by Plin. HN 35,78, which was meant to symbolize Alexander's unification policies, can pe…

[German version] From the Greek ἐγκαίειν ( enkaíein), to burn in, heat up. A painting technique with  wax as binder for the pigments. The colour emulsion was applied cold or warm or fused with the surface by heating. The process, described incompletely by Pliny (HN 35,122f.; 149) and especially valued by Greek panel painters in the 4th cent. BC, gave the paintings a brilliant quality as well as durability but it was protracted, complicated and expensive. In spite of a great deal of research, even exper…

[German version] (Greek σκηνογραφία/ skēnographía, Latin scaenographia). There is controversial criticism of the development and appearance of this genre, surviving only in ancient literature and in pictorial secondary sources (cf. also Painting), and they remain unclear, despite various synopses of the results of different branches of study of the form and development of Greek theatre and its performing places. Changes in architecture and forms of staging also moulded the character of scenography. In…

(Ἀγλαοφῶν; Aglaophôn) Two Greek painters of the same name. [German version] [1] the Elder From Thasos, father and teacher of  Polygnotus [1] from Thasos, father and teacher of  Polygnotus [1], probably active since the end of the 6th cent. BC. According to Quint. Inst. 12,10,3, he was appreciated for the ‘archaism’ and the plain colouring of his paintings. There is not enough evidence of their style, but it was probably rather plain according to the opinion of classicistic rhetoricians. Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) [German version] [2] the Younger Possibly grandson of [1] possibly grandson…

[German version] (Παύσων; Paúsōn). Greek painter from Athens (?), whose creative period towards the end of the 5th cent. BC can only be indirectly inferred. The atrocious judgment of the content of his paintings in the written sources of the 4th cent. BC - e.g. in Aristotle and Aristophanes - has a conservative ring and evaluates them primarily from a moral point of view. It seems to have been shaped by a similar verdict on his character (or vice versa?). We can only assume that new types of themes…

[German version] Greek painter from Athens, mid 4th cent. BC, celebrated by Plut. as an important representative of the Attic school of painters (Mor. 345f-346a). According to Plin. HN 35,80, his colleagues admired the particular strength and balance of composition in his paintings, achieved by proportionate spatial arrangement of motifs in two dimensions, in order to create the impression of spatial perspective. A. wrote a theoretical text on a compositional method perhaps relying on grids. The h…

[German version] (σκιαγραφία/ skiagraphía). Ancient painting technique, first developed in the last quarter of the 5th cent. BC by Greek artists and used with increasing perfection in the course of the following century. A sophisticated selection of hues and tints and their precise placement allowed a three-dimensional modelling of the images and, as a result, their spatial effect on the image area. In the history of styles, this new use of colours (Pigments) was a breakthrough in the development o…

[German version] The notion of a 'marble-white Antiquity' which became fashionable during the Renaissance, reached its zenith with J.J. Winckelmann's aesthetics during the period of Classicism, and slowly began to change only in the first half of the 19th cent., e.g. through works such as the architect J. Hittorf's 1830 De l'Architecture polychrome chez les grecs (discovery of architectural polychromy). This notion, along with the poor survival of pigmentary remains on sculptures and architecture and the almost complete absence of original Greek pai…

[German version] (Πάναινος/ Pánainos). Painter and sculptor from Athens, brother or more likely nephew (Str. 8,3,30) of the sculptor Phidias, with whom he worked, possibly in the same workshop. His active period was the second third of the 5th cent. BC. Paus. 5,11,4-6 reports that he painted the fence in the temple of Zeus in Olympia with a programmatic cycle of myths. As can be inferred from remains and dowel holes, this fence was made of individual stone slabs, which were set up between the front…

[German version] From Italian fresco, affresco intonaco, ‘on the fresh plaster’. Wall and ceiling paintings, in which the  pigments are applied to a damp base either in pure form or with the aid of a special binder such as diluted glue, casein, or marble powder. The composition of the covering varies; usually, it is a whitewash mortar mixed with different additives which are applied one after the other in several layers. Basically, the fresco technique lies in the fact that during the drying process o…

[German version] Monumental floor mosaic (5.82 × 3.13 m) representing a battle between the Macedonians and Persians, who were led by Alexander the Great and Darius respectively. Discovered in October 1831 in the ‘Casa del Fauno’ in Pompeii (Regio VI,12; now Naples, MN). The work in opus vermiculatum ( Mosaic), preserved in part only, consists of more than 1.5 million small stones coloured with mineral dye. Large, missing sections filled with stucco, mainly on the left half, and areas patched-up with coarser stones are repairs carried out in …

[German version] Wooden tablets with painted heads or busts of women, men and children. As the topmost, visible layer they were integrated into the casing of a mummy (Mummies ) at the level of the face, where a gap was left for them. Many of the c. 900 known pieces, dating from the birth of Christ to the 3rd cent. AD, come from necropoleis of Fayum, an oasis south-west of Cairo, but they were also found elsewhere along the Nile. MP were discovered by chance at the end of the 19th cent. and soon became desirable objects in the international…

[German version] (Πρωτογένης; Prōtogénēs). Hellenistic painter and sculptor of bronze statues of athletes and warriors (Plin. HN 34,91; 35,101-106) from Caunus, famous together with other leading masters of the Alexander period as consummate painters (Cic. Brut. 18,70). His creative period, about 330‒290 BC, can only be inferred by combining historical dates and persons from written sources that are often coloured by anecdote ( e.g. Plut. Demetrius 22). Reportedly he only turned to panel painting in advanced age and hence produced only a small oeuvre, havin…

[German version] (Μίκων/ Míkōn). Greek painter and sculptor (Plin. HN 34,88) from Athens, active between 475 and 440 BC. He and Polygnotus belonged to the first important generation of the Attic painting school in the early classical period, which broke ground for the development of the great Greek painting. None of the wall paintings in Athens known from numerous written sources of various periods survives, but frequent mention does allow us to infer his great significance. His main patron was Cim…

[German version] A typically Roman genre, common from the middle of the 3rd cent. BC until the Imperial period, today entirely lost and recorded only in written sources. During the triumphal procession (Triumph) of a victorious general, panel paintings or canvas banners were carried past the crowds and were afterwards publicly exhibited (e.g. Plin. HN 35,22-28; Pol. 6,15,8; Jos. BI 7,3-7; other sources in [4]). Rudiments of the content, appearance and intended effect of such pictures can be recons…

[German version] Greek painter from Samos, worked in Athens in the 2nd half of the 5th cent. BC. Ancient sources link A. with chronologically divergent historical events. Vitr. De arch. 7 praef. 11 describes A. in connection with  stage painting as the ‘inventor’ of  perspective in painting and mentions a theoretical work about this. The negative judgement of his contemporary  Zeuxis regarding his hasty painting methods (Plut. Pericles 13), the information that  Alcibiades [2] locked A. in his hou…

[German version] (from Lat. pictura compendiaria, an advantageously short way of painting; ‘abbreviated’ painting). Ancient technical term, often translated as ‘quick painting’. The manner, the application and the influence of this Greek painting technique of the late 4th cent. BC is still debated due to the lack of detailed explanations in the sources (esp. in Plin. HN 35, 110; Petron. Sat. 2). The debate includes a number of methods: impressionist ‘paint spot painting’; the use of a kind of sketchi…