Agatharchos (painter)

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Agatharchos ( Greek  Αγάθαρχος ) was an ancient Greek painter who lived around the middle of the 5th century BC. In Athens .

No works by Agatharchus have survived. Vitruvius mentions Agatharchus as the author of a work about a stage painting that he made for a tragedy of Aeschylus . In the writing, Agatharchus dealt with the question of how spatial objects should be painted on vertical surfaces in such a way that "one seems to be receding, the other seems to be emerging". Agatharchos is therefore considered to be one of the first known painters who mastered the principles of perspective representation and used them in scenography . Because the special conditions of stage painting, the weakness of which until then had been the strong optical distortions of its paintings for the audience, demanded an illusionistic perspective refinement of painting, the reflections of which can also be found in the simultaneous red-figure vase painting .

Agatharchus thus created the basis on which Apollodoros and Zeuxis could develop their physical shadow painting towards the end of the 5th and beginning of the 4th century.

Agatharchus was proud of the speed with which he painted and his skill, and displayed it publicly. There is anecdotal evidence that Alcibiades is said to have locked Agatharchus in his house and forced him to paint it, but later rewarded him richly.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Vitruvius. VII praef. 11.
  2. ^ Plutarch , Pericles 13.
  3. ↑ Demosthenes 21, 147; Plutarch, Alkibiades 16.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Agatharchus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Agatharchus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek painter
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.