Zeuxis (painter)
Late 5th-century BCE Greek painter famed for realistic illusion.
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He was born in Heraclea, probably Heraclea Lucania in present-day Italy, and may have studied with Demophilus of Himera or Neseus of Thasos.[1] The Ionian School of painting, to which Zeuxis belonged, flourished during the 4th century BCE.[2] Zeuxis, a Greek painter active in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BCE, was celebrated for producing remarkably lifelike artworks, yet no examples of his paintings are extant.[3]
Life and work
Zeuxis preferred working with small panels and simple compositions that often included only one figure.[4] He introduced genre subjects such as still life into painting and created volumetric illusion by manipulating light and shadow.[5] Zeuxis operated throughout the ancient Greek territories, from Magna Graecia to Athens, and it was in Athens that he produced the majority of his paintings.[6] Among Zeuxis's earliest creations were the "Eros" located in the temple of Aphrodite and a work titled "Penelope."[6]
Cicero recounts that Zeuxis, unable to find a single woman beautiful enough to represent Helen of Troy, combined the best attributes of five different models from Croton to produce an idealized image.[5]
What the cited sources add
TheCollector article by Antonis Chaliakopoulos notes that Zeuxis was born in Heracleia of Pontus but lived in Athens, where he studied and spent most of his life.[4] The same source states that Zeuxis took skiagrafia to new heights and that Apollodorus complained Zeuxis had "robbed" him of his art by improving it.[4] According to the article, when someone blamed Zeuxis for painting slowly, he responded that he painted works to last a long time.[4] The Celsi article also notes that Zeuxis created works in terracotta, which were the only ones remaining at Ambracia.[7]
TheCollector article suggests that Zeuxis's death by laughing at his own painting is probably fictional.[4]
References
- Wikipedia, "Zeuxis (painter)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chilvers, "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists", 2003 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Zeuxis (painter)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clement, "A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture Painting: An Artistic Journey Through Time", Namasakr Books, 2024, p. 14; Dyer, "On Imitative Art, with Preliminary Remarks on Beauty, Sublimity and Taste", George Bell and Sons, 1882, p. 280-281; "Ionian", Dood, Mead and Company, 1906, p. 734 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Zeuxis (painter)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: William Smith, "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: Oarses-Zygia", J. Murray, 1880, p. 1325; Matheson, "Zeuxis", Grove Art Online, 2003; "Zeuxis: The Ancient Greek Painter & Master of Still Life", TheCollector, 2020-06-09; Mansfield, "Too Beautiful to Picture: Zeuxis, Myth, And Mimesis", U of Minnesota Press (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Zeuxis: The Ancient Greek Painter & Master of Still Life", TheCollector, 2020-06-09. facts only, no text reused. thecollector.com
- Wikipedia, "Zeuxis (painter)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cicero, "De Inventione", ReadHowYouWant.com, 2006; Mansfield, "Too beautiful to picture: Zeuxis, myth, and mimesis", University of Minnesota Press, 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Zeuxis (painter)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Giuseppe Celsi, Zeusi e le modelle di Kroton, Gruppo Archeologico Krotoniate (GAK) https://www.gruppoarcheologicokr.it/zeusi-e-le-modelle-di-kroton/ (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Giuseppe Celsi, Zeusi e le modelle di Kroton, Gruppo Archeologico Krotoniate (GAK) https://www.gruppoarcheologicokr.it/zeusi-e-le-modelle-di-kroton/. facts only, no text reused. gruppoarcheologicokr.it
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Zeuxis (painter) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Zeuxis (painter) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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