The 10 Most Influential Ancient Greek Painters

 

 

 

‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance’

Aristotle

 

Greeks are aesthetic people, how can they not be?

They invented the word, which derives from aisthanomai, meaning ‘I perceive, I feel, I sense’ and all this begins with ‘the pleasures of the imagination’.

Greeks express their feelings through poetry, literature and of course, through art, in the guise of pottery, painting, architecture, sculpture and jewelry.

The Greeks produced some of the most influential painters of the ancient world and their innovative painting techniques are still influencing artists today.

Art has been a form of expression for thousands of years, older even than language.

Ancient Greek art scans four specific periods; the Geometric, the Archaic, the Classical and the Hellenistic.

 

The Four ages of Ancient Greek Art

1. The Geometric Age – 900 to 700 BC

 

 

 The most common form of art during the Geometric Age was to be found as decoration on ceramic vases, which although using simple geometric shapes, progressed from shapes only to include animals and humans.

 

2. The Archaic Age – 700 BC to 480 BC.

 

 

 During the Archaic period potters began to use the first coloured glazes.

First came black and secondly, red but this age is best known for the realistic representations of the human in the form of stone sculptures.

The Archaic age produced the limestone statues know as Kouros (male) and Kore (female), nude statues which always seem to have a smile on their faces.

 

3. The Classical Age – 480-323 BC.

 

 

Created during ‘the Golden Age’, the Classical Age is famous for sculpture and architecture; the time when human statues, with the help of the invention of metal chisels, which sliced through marble, became more life – like, more in proportion.

 

4. The Hellenistic Age – 323 BC to 30 BC

 

 

Museums and libraries appear for the first time in the Hellenistic Age; such as those at Alexandria, in Egypt and Pergamon, an ancient Greek city in Mysia, the modern day city of Bergama,Turkey.

  Greek sculptors, who had mastered the art of carving marble to perfection, began to sculpt humans of such beauty who could not possibly appear so flawless in real life.

Greeks appreciated painting even more than sculpture and by the Hellenistic Age painting had become an important part of a gentleman’s education.

 The Hellenistic Age ended with the Roman invasion of Greece, after which, the Romans went on to copy the style of Greek Hellenistic art.

 

Sikyonian School of Painting

 

 

It was during the Classical age (510 BC to 320 BC) that the great ancient Greek painters emerged, many of them from the  Sikyonian school, acclaimed for its legacy to ancient Greek art, which was located in Sikyon, then an ancient Greek city state in northern Peloponnese near Corinth.

The Sikyonian school was  founded by the ancient Greek painter Eupompus.

Although an acclaimed painter, Eupompus is remembered for the advice he gave to Lysippus, (one of the great sculptors of Classical Greece) rather than his art.

His advice to Lysippus was:

“follow nature rather than any master“

 

Frescoes and Panel Painting

 

The usual forms of art during the Classical and Hellenistic Ages were wall painting, frescos and panel painting (paintings on wooden boards, invented by the ancient Greeks in Sikyon), depicting scenes including figures, portraits and still-life.

 

 

The earliest surviving Greek panel paintings are the Pitsa panels, from c. 530 BC, consisting of four painted wooden tablets (two of them in very bad condition) which were found in a cave in Pitsa, near Sikyon, in the 1930s.

 

 

Sadly, hardly any examples of work belonging to the ancient Greek painters of the fourth and fifth century BC have survived but one important Greek fresco was discovered, in perfect condition, at Magna Graecia, meaning ‘Great Greece’, a Greek settlement in Southern Italy, (present-day regions of Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily), at the Tomb of the Divers.

 

The Tomb of the Divers

 

 

The Tomb of the Divers is a grave built from local limestone slabs in around 470 BC and discovered by the Italian archaeologist Mario Napoli in 1968, during his excavations at the Greek city of Paestum in Magna Graecia, (Great Greece), southern Italy.

It is now displayed in the museum at Paestum.

 

 

Discovered in the tomb were well-preserved frescos from c. 480 BC, depicting a Greek symposium.

These are the only example of Greek paintings of scenes, incorporating figures, dating from the Archaic or Classical eras, to survive in perfect condition.

Greek wall-paintings were common in the Greek world but unfortunately few survived.

Of the many thousands of Greek tombs from this era, 700–400 BC, The Diver’s Tomb is the only one decorated with human figures.

 

 

Among art historians the consensus is that most of the famous Roman wall paintings, at sites such as Pompeii, are copies of famous ancient Greek panel paintings.

 

The most Influential Ancient Greek Painters

 

Thanks to many Greek and Roman historians, especially Pliny the Elder, a Roman author, naturalist and philosopher, we are familiar, not only with the names of ancient Greek painters, mostly from the Classical and Hellenistic periods but also with their works and techniques.

Below is a list of the ten most well-known ancient Greek painters, along with a short description of their lives and accomplishments.

  Apelles of Kos, seemed to have ranked first, Pliny thought him to have “surpassed” all the other painters who either preceded or succeeded him’.

 

1. Cimon of Cleone – 8th or the 6th century BC

The first painter of perspective

 

 

Cimon of Cleone (Cleonae or Kleonai, a city in ancient Peloponnese, near Corinth), is one of the earliest ancient Greek painters, who lived in the 8^th or 6^th century BC.

Little is known of Cimon, however, he is known in the art world for his extraordinary, and at the time, unique way of depicting human figures.

Cimon invented the technique of “foreshortening” or ‘three-quarter views’ where, although the whole figure is represented, only a portion of it is seen by the viewer, giving the powerful illusion of perspective

 

 

This foreshortening technique was what gave Cimon of Cleone the title of:

“The first painter of perspective“

 

 

Cimon is also thought to be the first painter to apply Catagrapha; figures not only looking straight ahead but which were also looking upwards, backwards, sideways and downwards.

 

 

With his obsession for intricate details and life-like accuracy, plus the attention he gave to joints and wrinkles, how he emphasized veins and the folds, creases and draping of clothing, Cimon’s unique style of painting stood out amongst other artists of the day.

 

2.  Agatharcus – 5th century B.C.

The Optical Illusionist

 

Agatharchus, a painter from the fifth century BC, born on the Greek island of Samos, was the first artist to integrate perspective on a large scale in his paintings.

With his ingenious idea of placing objects against the sun, in order to show their corresponding shadows, he created the art of ‘scene painting’ and brought perspective and illusion to the art world.

 

 

Agatharcus’s most famous work was the backdrop for Aeschylus’ (ancient Greek playwright), tragedy: ‘Seven against Thebes’.

Agatharcus even wrote a book about scene painting, which inspired both Anaxagoras and Democritus, Greek philosophers of the fifth century BC, to write on the subject of perspective.

 Plutarch (Greek philosopher), tells us, Agatharchus, known for the ease and speed with which he finished his paintings, was coaxed into the home of Alcibiades (a prominent Athenian statesman and general), who kept him more or less imprisoned there for around three months, until he painted his whole house.

 

3.  Apollodorus Skiagraphos – 5th Century BC

The Shadow Painter

 

The works of Apollodorus Skiagraphos, although similar in content to his peers, stood out through his adept control of shadow, called skiagraphia; shadow painting, which influenced many future painters.

 The Italian renaissance artists called it chiaroscuro and it’s still important to artists today and is absolutely essential to all great works of art.

Skiagraphia is a technique of shading by highlighting sections to give the impression of shadow and volume.

The type of shading used by Apollodorus, a complicated “crosshatching’ and use of both light and dark tones to give a form of perspective is tricky, even today it’s a difficult to get the hang of it.

 

 

It was this shadow painting technique which gave Apollodurus his name; Apollodorus Skiagraphos – Apollodorus the shadow painter and put him well and truly in the archives of art.

Apollodorus is one of the first well-known artists, who, instead of painting directly onto a wall, used an easel.

Though now lost, some of Apollodorus’s paintings were recorded by ancient Greek historians,including  the painting of ‘Odysseus Wearing a Cap’ and also ‘Heracleidae‘, a painting which depicted the descendants of Hercules and a painting, thought to be called ‘Alcmena and the Daughters of Hercules Supplicating the Athenians’.

 Pliny, in his book, Naturalis Historia, recorded two paintings belonging to Apollodorus: ‘Praying Priest’ and ‘Ajax Burned by Lightning’ which were in the ancient Greek city of Pergamon, in modern-day Turkey.

One thing that has remained, recorded by an historian, is a message left by Apollodorus  on one of his paintings:

“Tis no hard thing to reprehend me but let the men that blame me mend me, you can criticize my technique easily but you cannot imitate easily.“

 

 4. Zeuxis – 5th century BC

The Still Life Painter

 

 

Zeuxis, famous for realism, born in Heraclea, Southern Italy, lived during the fifth century BC and was a master of still life with an unprecedented ability to mirror nature.

Zeuxis perfected the skiagrafia technique, or shadow painting, first used by his contemporary,  Apollodorus, the first artist to paint things as they actually appeared, which was of the intent of Greek art, to mimic reality.

His technique of using light and shadow, rather than just creating blocks of flat colour, created volumetric illusion (relating to, or involving the measurement of volume).

On witnessing Zeuxis success, Apollodorus is said to have retorted:

‘I have been robbed of my art’

 

 

Zeuxis, who is known to have tried his hand at vase painting as well as a the odd sculpture here and there, favoured working on small paintings rather than murals (he was known for introducing still life into art), which usually included only one figure.

His disregard of outlines, prompted Pliny, to comment that the heads and limbs of his figures were enlarged out of all proportion, which was actually Zeuxis way of achieving the fundamentals of human beauty.

 

Zeuxis’ painting of Helen of Troy

 

 

Zeuxis’s ‘Helen’; a painting of Helen of Troy, classed as the most beautiful woman of ancient Greece, was one of most famous paintings of the era.

Even Zeuxis patted himself on the back and declared it to be the best picture he had ever painted and when he exhibited it, charged people for the privilege of laying their eyes upon this masterpiece.

Whilst working on his painting of Helen, with the image of the ideal nude in his head, Zeuxis, unable to find a woman who matched the image to pose as a model, selected five women, from the city of Croton, a port in southern Italy and combined their most beautiful characteristics to create, what was, in his eyes, the ideal image of beauty.

This mix and match method became a key element of Greek art.

 

 

The contest between Zeuxis and fellow painter, Parrhasius

 

Zeuxis was not the only famous painter at this time, he and his adversary, Parrhasius, were said to be the two best painters of the fourth century BC .

The pair were not only known for their artistic talents but also for their vanity.

Parrhasius, apparently, wore a golden crown while Zeuxis appeared at the Olympic Games with his name embroidered with golden letters on his clothes and both painters boasted about being the best painter of all times.

Pliny, the Roman author, explains to us, how the two artists took part in a contest to decided who was the better painter, Zeuxis or Parrhasius.

Both artists were given a section of wall, each was to paint a mural.

Neither one was allowed to see what the other was painting.

 Zeuxis forte was realism, he used the tricks of what today we call trompe-l’oeil, to bring his paintings to life.

Parrhasius, a little understated in his technique, maybe had the upper hand; his works were intricately thought out and took time.

Who would win, Zeus with his element of surprise or Parrhasius, with his eye on detail?

Zeuxis, hidden behind a curtain, painted a bowl of grapes that were so life-like you could almost taste their sweetness in your mouth.

 

 

As the crowd were admiring the luscious-looking bowl of grapes, a bird suddenly swooped down and thinking they were real, tried to peck at the grapes depicted on the painting.

The crowd gazed on open-mouthed; the poor bird had been a victim of illusion.

 

 

Zeuxis, sure he had won the contest, smirked at Parrhasius and said, ‘let us see your contribution to the contest’.

Parrhasius, faced the crowd, bowed and then turned to face his section of the wall and with a sweep of his arm, said:

‘behold, I give you my masterpiece’.

The crowd waited, Zeuxis, becoming impatient, asked Parrhasius to draw back the curtain and reveal his painting.

‘I’m sorry’, Parrhasius replied, ‘I can’t do that.’

‘Oh come on, don’t be shy, I’m sure your work is worth having a quick look at, pull back the curtain Parrhasius, there’s a good chap’ retorted Zeuxis.

Parrhasius was silent for a moment, then, he looked at Zeuxis, smirked, and said:

‘You’re looking at it’

Zeuxis stepped forward to inspect the wall.

He was looking at a painting of a curtain!

 

 

Zeuxis had deluded a bird, where as Parrhasius had deluded a man and a fellow artist to boot!

I’ll leave it to you to decide who won the contest!

 

The death of Zeuxis

 

The death of Zeuxis was one of most bizarre deaths of ancient Greece, he died laughing!

Literally, he laughed himself to death over a painting he had made of Aphrodite, commissioned by an old woman, who insisted she be the model for the young, beautiful and sexy Aphrodite.

Zeuxis agreed but on seeing the finished result of Aphrodite personified as an old crone, burst out laughing, choked and died!

The finale to Zeuxis’ life became the inspiration for the self-portraits of two esteemed Dutch painters: Aert de Gelder and Rembrandt.

 

 

In the self-portrait of Aert de Gelder, above, he is clearly seen to be consumed with laughter over the image of the old woman in the painting.

In this famous self-portrait of Rembrandt, below, it’s not so easy to understand the connection with Zeuxis, until you look closely and spot the old woman deep in the background on the left.

 

 

 

 5. Parrhasius – 5th century BC

Master of Symmetry and Animation

 

Parrhasius, born in Ephesus (Turkey) during the fifth century BC, made his living in Athens and was a rival of Zeuxis.

 Parrhasius, who is acknowledged for his accomplished drawing of outlines and in making his figures appear to stand out from the background, is maybe more well- known for his contest with Zeuxis, than for his art.

 

 

 Parrhasius was the first to give symmetry to painting and animation to faces and had the ability to portray psychological states and emotions.

 

 

 A recorded conversation between Parrhasius and the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, who praised Parrhasius’s ability to give not only physical appearances but emotional and psychological states, did as much, if not more, than his talent, to shoot Parrhasius to fame in a remarkably short space of time.

Parrhasius’s passion for capturing emotions was so intense, he is said to have bought a slave, tied him up and tortured him, in order to catch the accurate expression of pain on the face of the enslaved Prometheus,

 

 

Parrhasius’s painting of Theseus took pride of place in the Capitol, Rome and his picture of the Demos, the personified people of Athens, was particularly famous.

None of his works have survived and as with all ancient Greek painters, he is known only through descriptions by classical writers.

 

 

6. Polygnotos – Middle of the 5th century BC

He Who Catches the Mood and Character

 

 

 

Polygnotus, a Greek painter of the 5th century BC, born in Thasos, was famed for his large wall paintings which he executed in a simple and severe Classical style, using only a few simple colours; black, white, red, and ochre.

 Along with his fellow painter; Mikon, Polygnotus was the most appreciated painter of classical Greece, nicknamed the ‘ethographos’, meaning, one who captures the mood and character of his subjects.

Polygnotus is considered to be the first to paint women adorned in transparent garments which revealed their shapely bodies.

He not only gave a freer, more natural look to human faces, sometimes frowning and sometimes with open mouths, something which painters before him had not tried their hand at, he also gave depth to his paintings.

He was the first to place the most distant figures on a higher level than those in the foreground, the ones closest to the viewer.

Polygnotus’s most famous paintings are; the ‘Ἰλίου πέρσις, Iliou persis’ –  ‘The Siege of Ilium’, also known as ‘The Siege of Troy’ and the’ Nekyia’ (visit of Ulysses to the underworld), both depicted life-sized figures.

 

 

 

As a result of his superb work, Polygnotus was granted Athenian citizenship. (Ancient Greece wasn’t a single country or empire united under a single government, it was made up of a number of city-states).

Polygnotus became one of the most successful and respected painters in the history of Athens.

 

7. Protogenes – 4th century BC

Slow and Steady

 

 

 

Protogenes was born in born in Caunus, on the coast of Caria, (Modern day Turkey) but lived on the Greek island of Rhodes, and was a prominent Greek painter during the fourth century BC, second only to Apelles.

It was Apelles who is said to have discovered Protogenes, who was then already fifty years old and known only as a decorator of ships, nevertheless, he was held in high regard for the intricacies of his detailed work.

Protogenes also did a bit of sculpting on the side and made a few bronze statues of athletes, warriors and hunters, there are also records of him as a portrait painter and as the author of two books on painting.

 

 

When it came to Protogenes and painting, it was a case of slow and steady wins the race, he liked to take his time: he spent from seven to ten years painting ‘The Lalysus’ (hero-guardian of a town on Rhodes of the same name).

His patience paid off, ‘The Lalysus’, became his most famous painting, which is said to have remained in Rhodes for around two hundred years before being taken by Vespasian (Roman emperor from 69 to 79), to Rome, where it perished in the burning of the Temple of Peace.

Protogenes showed just as much tenacity whilst painting his equally famous painting, ‘The Resting Satyr’ which he worked on continuously, in his garden, during the Siege of Rhodes (orchestrated by Demetrius Poliorcetes), even though he garden was in the middle of the enemy’s camp!

Legend would have it that Demetrius was so touched by Protogenes’ dedication, he took precautions to protect both him and his work and when he was told that ‘The Lalysus’  was in a part of the town under assault, Demetrius even changed his plan of operations in order to save the painting.

 ‘The Resting Satyr’, showed a satyr, lazily leaning against a pillar, atop which sat a figure of a partridge; so life-like, that it was the only thing people noticed in the picture, which angered Protogenes so much, he erased it from the painting.

This painting of the satyr was probably one of his last paintings as he must have been about seventy years of age at the time.

 

 

 8. Apelles – 4th century BC

Court Artist to Alexander the Great

 

 

 

Apelles of Kos, (4th century BC), renown throughout ancient Greece and Rome as a painter with control over the proportion, symmetry and placement of figures; had a talent for drawing human faces.

He loved nothing more than to add a little sarcasm to his drawings by the way of allegory and avatars.

One anecdote Pliny tells us about Apelles’ skill at drawing the human face, concerns Ptolemy I, ruler of Egypt, after the death of Alexander, who had a dislike of Apelles.

While at sea, Apelles was caught in a sudden storm, forcing him to land in Egypt, where Ptolemy’s jester, encouraged by Apelles’ rivals, presented him with a fake invitation, inviting him to dinner with Ptolemy.

Furious at Appelles’ unexpected arrival, Ptolemy demanded to know who had given him the invitation, in answer; Apelles grabbed piece of charcoal from the fireplace and drew a sketch on the wall, which Ptolemy immediately recognized as his jester after only the first few strokes.

One painter said of Apelles, using the words of Horace, Roman lyric poet:

“his paintings are as poetry; he paints stories and takes the viewer to another place“’.

 

 

Apelles placed great significance to drawing the perfect line; it’s said he even challenged his rival painter, Protogenes, to a contest to see who could create a finer, steadier line, I don’t think I need to tell you that Apelles won!

Apelles studied art for 12 years in the Sikyon Art School, along with many other great painters of that era, under Pamphilus, a painter in his own right, who believed that knowledge of arithmetic and geometry was essential to artistic excellence.

Said to have been court artist to Alexander the Great, Apelles’ picture of Alexander holding a thunderbolt, is rated by many as being equal in importance with the statue of Alexander holding a spear, by the famous sculptor Lysippus.

 

 

Another story from Pliny tells us that Alexander the Great asked Apelles to paint a portrait his favorite concubine; Campaspe.

Whilst painting Campaspe’s picture, Apelles fell madly in love with her and Alexander, in appreciation of the artists skills, then gave Campaspe to Appelles.,

 

 

 

Aphrodite Anadyomene

 

It is said Campaspe inspired Apelles’ famous painting: Aphrodite Anadyomene (Aphrodite Rising from the Sea) but according to Athenaeus, a Greek rhetorician (Late second century AD), Aphrodite Rising from the Sea was inspired by Phryne, who during the time of the festivals of the Eleusinia and Poseidonia swam nude in the sea.

Phryne is thought to have been the model and lover of Praxiteles, the sculptor of the original Knidos Aphrodite (Venus), the first naked female Greek statue, which has also said to have been the inspiration behind Apelles’s Aphrodite Anadyomene .

 

 

 

 

 

The painting Aphrodite Anadyomene was also thought to be the inspiration behind Botticelli’s

‘Birth of Venus’.

 

 

Apelles’ last painting was of Aphrodite of Kos but he died before completing it, no other painter was deemed capable to finish it and so the painting remained unfinished.

Regretfully, none of Apelles works survive today, many once hung in the house of Julius Caesar, on Palatine Hill but were lost, along with the house, in a fire.

According to Pliny, of all Apelles’ useful innovations to the art of painting, his recipe for a black varnish, which Pliny called  “atramentum”, which both preserved his paintings and softened their colour, was one of the most important.

Understandably, Apelles kept the recipe close to his chest and it died with him.

The simplicity of his paintings, the perfection of the lines and the captivating expressions on the faces, have mesmerized art lovers the world over.

Many Italian Renaissance artists, including Botticelli and Tiepolo, pay tribute to Apelles, the one they considered the greatest painter who ever lived and the prime example of Greek painters.

 

 

 

Raphael may have painted himself as Apelles in The School of Athens and Sandro Botticelli fashioned two paintings; The Birth of Venus and Calumny of Apelles, on the works of Apelles.

 

 

In 1334, Giotto was appointed to work on of the bell tower of the Duomo, in Florence, Italy, after his death, in 1337, he was succeeded by the sculptor Andrea Pisano who was putting the finishing touches to the first set of Baptistery Doors.

At the base of the bell tower is a set of 54 reliefs, one of which shows Apelles, at work, painting.

There is some deliberation, amongst scholars, as to who was the sculptor, Giotto or Pisano, the majority lean towards Pisano.

 

 

The classical scholar Percy Gardner writes, in the Encyclopedia Britannica:

‘Few things are more hopeless than the attempt to realize the style of a painter whose works have vanished. But a great wealth of stories, true or invented, clung to Apelles in antiquity; and modern archaeologists have naturally tried to discover what they indicate’.

 

 

  9. Pausias – First half of the 4th century BC

Invented Encaustic Painting and Coffered Ceilings

 

 

 

Pausias is yet one more ancient Greek painter, of the first half of the 4th century BC, who perfected his artist talents under Pamphilus, at the school of Sikyon, near Corinth, Peloponnese.

Again, as with other Ancient Greek painters, of whom, sadly, works no longer exist, we garner knowledge from the observations of Pliny, (AD 23/24–79), a Roman author, naturalist and philosopher.

Pliny informs us, that Pausias, a whiz kid with a paint brush, who could start and finish a painting in a Day (although he did prefer small paintings).

He introduced the practice of painting coffered ceilings (Coffer: a decorative sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle or octagon in a ceiling, dome, or vault.).

 

 

Pausias’s most outstanding skill was the ability to ‘foreshorten’, an effect of perspective said to have been invented by Cimon of Clenoe, to show something as being closer than it is or as having less depth or distance.

Pliny, a roman author, said of Pausias’s most famous painting; that of a bull called ‘A Sacrifice’, with a frontal view of a bull, was exceptional for how light reflects from the bull’s body:

“Many imitated it but none equaled it“

It’s worth adding here, what Livy, the roman historian , also had to say about how Pausias managed to create such an incredible image of the bull:

“Wishing to display the length of the bull’s body, he painted it from the front, not in profile, and yet fully indicated its measure.

 Again, while others fill in with white the highlights and paint in black what is less salient, he painted the whole bull of dark colour and gave substance to the shadow out of the shadow itself, with great skill making his figures stand out from a flat background, and indicating their shape when foreshortened.”

Pausanias, a Greek traveler and geographer of the second century AD, describes, in his ‘Descriptions of Greece’, two wall paintings or frescos, created by the agile hand of Pausias, which adorned the walls of the Tholos (a round building) at Epidaurus, site of the ancient theatre.

One painting showed Eros (Cupid), setting down his bow and arrow, in order to pick up his lyre.

The other painting showed a drunken woman drinking wine from a glass, of which through, her face was visible, this was the personification of Methe, Greek for drunkenness or intoxication.

 

 

The portrait of his lover, Glycera, a flower girl, known in Pliny‘s time as The Stephaneplocos (garland-weaver) or Stephanepolis (garland-seller), earned Pausias the reputation as an astute painter of flowers.

 

 

 It’s rumoured that a copy of Pausias’ portrait of Glycera, was bought by Lucullus (118 – 57/56 BC) a politician of the late Roman Republic, at the Dionysia of Athens for an astronomical sum.

 

 

Pausias’s main contribution to the world of art was his introduction of the technique of Encaustic painting; encaustic from the Greek; ἐγκαίειν (enkaíein), to burn in, or heat up, which entails using beeswax as a binder for the pigment.

The colour emulsion of pigment and beeswax, was applied either cold or warm and fused with the surface by heating, which gave a brilliant effect as well as some degree of durability and allowed greater scope for expressive brushwork.

The present-day technique of Encaustic painting has remained similar to how it was all those thousands of years ago.

 

 

 10. Echion –  Mid 4th century to the early 3rd century BC

Inspiration for Botticelli

 

 

What we know about the ancient Greek painter Echion, sometimes referred to as Aetion, comes from Lucian of Samosata  (125 – 180), an Assyrian satirist and rhetorician.

 Lucian tells us about one of Echion’s paintings, which shows the wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxana, a painting which reveals that Echion had an unequalled style of mixing and building up colours.

The painting of Alexander the Great and Roxana was exhibited at the ancient Olympic Games, this was a great honour for Echion, as he was the first Greek painter ever to have his work exhibited at the games.

 

 

Echion’s panting of Alexander and Roxana’s marriage was a great hit, in fact, it impressed Proxenidas, one of the judges at the Olympic games so much that overwhelmed by emotion brought on by the beauty of Echion’s work, he offered him his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Although Echion’s painting no longer exists, we gain some insight into its appearance from Botticelli and Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, who were greatly inspired by Echion.

Sandro Botticelli, Italian Renaissance painter, after reading Lucien’s praise for Echion’s painting, was motivated to paint  his famous; Venus and Mars.

Said to represent the marriage of Venus, goddess of love (Greek Aphrodite) and Mars (Greek Aries), god of war, the painting shows cherubs playing with what is thought to be Alexander’s lance and wearing his helmet and breastplate.

 

 

 

“Art has no end but its own perfection”

Plato

 

Ancient Greece has given so much beauty to the world through art, the works of the great Greek ancient painters may be now lost but we can still appreciate the elegance and allurement of it, it lives on, in ancient ruins, on delicately painted vases and in ancient Greek architecture.

We see it reflected in the works of in the works of Italian Renaissance painters and later we learnt about Greek art from ‘The Grand tour’.

The Grand Tour was a tradition started in around 1660, coming to a head at the turn of the 19^th century, which saw young aristocrats touring Europe, for months, sometimes years at a time rather like a modern gap-year, giving them a chance to see, and get to know, first-hand, the wonders of Greece.

Once home, they revealed to us what they had discovered by writing books, bringing visions to life by painting pictures; replicas, of what they had observed.

Most of all though, I think we have to thank the many Ancient Greek and Roman historians, from the first century onward, who with their ‘ekphrasis’, which comes from the Greek for “the description of a work of art“, taught us about the ancient Greek painters, who are still influencing and inspiring today’s painters, and their techniques, which are still in use.