Timanthes of
Cythnus
Kythnos ( el, Κύθνος), commonly called Thermia ( el, Θερμιά), is a Greek island and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in the Western Cyclades between Kea (island), Kea and Serifos. It is from the Athenian harbor of ...
( el, Τιμάνϑης) was an
ancient Greek painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
of the fourth century BC. The most celebrated of his works was a picture representing the sacrifice of
Iphigenia, in which he finely depicted the emotions of those who took part in the sacrifice; however, despairing of rendering the grief of
Agamemnon, he represented him as veiling his face.
Zeuxis
Zeuxis may refer to:
* Zeuxis (general) (), Greek general
* Zeuxis (painter) (), Greek painter
* Zeuxis of Tarentum (), Greek physician
* Zeuxis (wrestler)
Zeuxis (born November 3, 1988) is a Puerto Rican ''luchadora enmascarada'', or masked ...
Timanthes and
Parrhasius were painters who belonged to the Ionian School of painting. The Ionian School flourished during the 4th-century BCE.
A
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
discovered at
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
, and now in the Museum at
Naples, has been regarded as a copy or echo of this painting (Wolfgang Helbig, ''Wandgemälde Campaniens'', No. 1304).
Influence
Timanthes' ''Sacrifice of Iphigenia'' was well-known in Rome through
Pliny the Elder's description in Book 35 of his
Natural History. Even before his description,
Cicero and
Quintillian used it to describe the affects of the four men who witnessed or partook of the sacrifice.
Agamemnon is veiled since his sadness was so great that it could not be portrayed in paint. Iphigenia's suffering seems to be left out.
The painting had a strong impact in the
Renaissance. Artists such as
Giorgio Vasari and
Peter Paul Rubens attempted to replicate the lost painting. Writers from
Leon Battista Alberti to
Jacopo Sannazaro, and from
Michel de Montaigne
Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a liter ...
to
Gianbattista Marino, include the sacrifice in their works devoting all their attention to the sadness expressed by the four men and Agamemnon in particular. In Spain
Juan Boscán redirects the suffering to Iphigenia
Frederick A. de Armas
Frederick A. de Armas (born 1945) is a literary scholar, critic and novelist who is Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor in Humanities at the University of Chicago.
Biography
Frederick A. de Armas was born in Havana, Cuba on February ...
, “Un pintor clásico en la poesía del Siglo de Oro: Timantes en Boscán, Garcilaso, Lope de Vega y Argensola,” ''Serenísima palabra: Actas del X Congreso de la Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro (Venecia, 14-18 de Julio 2014)'', eds. Ana Bognolo et al., Biblioteca de Rassegna Iberistica 5. Venezia: Edizione Ca’Foscari, 2017: 49-67.https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/libri/978-88-6969-164-5/un-pintor-clasico-en-la-poesia-del-siglo-de-oro/
References
*
Ancient Greek painters
5th-century BC Greek people
People from Kythnos
4th-century BC painters
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