Apollodorus of Athens (painter)

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Apollodorus of Athens ( Greek  Ἀπολλόδωρος ) was an Athenian painter who worked in the last third of the 5th century BC. Worked.

Apollodorus is the first painter whom Pliny mentions by name. Although there would have been remarkable painters before, Pliny skipped them in order to quickly get to the “stars of painting”. Because Apollodorus would have been the first to paint things as they really appeared and would have achieved fame with the help of his brush ( penicillus ). Apollodors Akme gives Pliny with the 93rd Olympiad , ie the years 408–405 BC. BC, but this will hit the end rather than the climax of his creative period.

His fame was based on two fundamental, interdependent and initiated innovations in painting. He added the shadow effect to the colored outline drawing that had prevailed until then, the representative of which was the somewhat older Polygnotos , and thus was the first to achieve plasticity and three-dimensional corporeality in his paintings. He was therefore also called σχιαγράϕος , "shadow painter ". In this regard he probably followed similar tendencies that had existed in skenography since the middle of the 5th century BC. Chr. Found their way into the scene under the special conditions of stage painting. Because of the strong optical distortions of their paintings for the audience, the stage painters were forced early on to develop and refine the laws of illusionistic perspective painting. This innovation is associated with the name Agatharchos , reflections can also be found in the simultaneous red-figure vase painting .

The following are passed down from paintings by Apollodor: a priest praying, an Ajax who was struck by lightning, who was in Pergamon at the time of Pliny and of whom Pliny says there is no older picture that would captivate the eye in such a way; an Odysseus , whom he was the first to paint with the Pileus of the boatmen, and the Heraclids , begging the Athenians for protection from Eurystheus . With the latter picture one suspects the influence of Euripides on the art of his time.

His signature, which he should have placed under his works, testifies to the self-confidence of Apollodor: "It is easier to criticize than to imitate" ( μωμήσεται τις μᾶλλον ὴ μιμήσεται ). His relationship to his younger contemporary Zeuxis and a certain arrogance or recognition of the younger can be found in his judgment that Zeuxis stole the art of others and made it his own ( artem ipsis ablatam Zeuxim ferre secum ).

His fame was widespread throughout Greece, as reported in an epigram by an indeterminate Nicomachus.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 35, 60 (36).
  2. ↑ Plutarch , de gloria Atheniensium 2.
  3. ↑ Scholion to Homer , Iliad 10, 265 and Hesych sv σκιά .
  4. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 35, 60.
  5. ↑ Scholion to Homer, Iliad 10.
  6. ↑ Scholion to Aristophanes , The Wealth 385.
  7. ↑ Scholion to Homer, Iliad 10; the same saying is, however, assigned to the Zeuxis in Pliny, Naturalis historia 35, 63.
  8. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 35, 62.
  9. ↑ Hephaistion , de metris et poemate 4, 7.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Apollodorus of Athens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek painter
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.