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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, contempo…

(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 grea…

[German version] (‘monochrome paintings’, from the Greek μονόχρως/ monóchrōs or μονοχρώματος/ monochrṓmatos, ‘monochrome’). Pliny (HN 35,15; 35,56) characterises with this expression the use of colour during an early stage in the development of Greek painting which was also still practiced in his day [3]. He mentions a number of artists in this regard -- one can be dated to the mid-7th cent., based on the evidence of contemporary vase painting, another, Cimon [4], to the end of the 6th cent. Scholarly opinion of the nature and appearance of …

[German version] (Παυσίας; Pausías). Greek painter from Sicyon, belonging to the local school, student of Pamphilus [2], worked between 380 and 330 BC. Representative of light, decorative genre painting that was popular at the time and moved away from the historical-mythical themes of the classical period. With the change in subjects came a preference for predominantly small scenes in splendid Encaustic (painting). Sources (Plin. HN. 35,123ff…

[German version] (Νικοφάνης; Nikophánēs). Painter of the second half of the 4th cent. BC, student of Pausias and therefore belonging to the Sicyonian school of painters (Plin. HN 35,111; 137). He was counted among the decorative genre painters, whose importance increased during this period; assessments of the effect of his art varied and apparently it was especially appreciated by connoisseurs. His manner was pleasing and fine despite a harsh effect of his colours due to the use of much ochre. We k…

[German version] Representations, as realistic as possible, of selected living and non-living objects in an independent composition and a fairly small-scale pictorial arrangement. The motifs of ancient SL were taken from all areas of ancient flora and fauna but also from everyday domestic life. The depicted objects, arranged in a more or less intentional composition, included useful and decorative plants, such as vegetables, field crops, fruit and flowers, smaller mammals and birds, molluscs, crus…

[German version] These are hand-painted illustrations in manuscripts of cultic, lexical, geographic (and cartographic), or literary content, which explain the text through images, or supplement or ornament it. Painting techniques range from roughly-sketched pen or brush drawings using drawing ink and/or water-colour up to lavishly coloured pictures in tempera. The term ‘miniature’ for book illustrations derives from the cinnabar (Lat. minium) used in the Middle Ages to emphasize margins and initials. Grounds were raffia,  papyrus, and  parchment. From th…

[German version] Second-rate Greek painter (according to Plin. HN 35,140), who worked around and after 350 BC and was the teacher of  Antiphilus [4]. Extant works are a battle painting, the sack of Oechalia, and a portrait of Laodamia; nothing is known of their style. Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) Bibliography G. Lippold, s.v. Ktesidennos, RE 11, 2077.

[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…