Philoxenus of Eretria

{{short description|Ancient Greek painter of renown (active c. 330-315BC)}}

{{other uses|Philoxenus (disambiguation)}}

Philoxenus of Eretria ({{langx|grc|Φιλόξενος ὁ Ἐρετριεύς}}) was a painter from Eretria. He was a disciple of Nicomachus of Thebes, whose speed in painting he imitated and even surpassed, having discovered new and rapid methods of coloring.Pliny: breviores etiamnum quasdam picturas compendiarias invenit, Natural History xxxv. 10. s. 36. § 22. According to Pliny, a picture of his was inferior to none, in particular his depiction of a battle between Alexander the Great and Darius III, which he painted for King Cassander.

File:Battle of Issus mosaic - Museo Archeologico Nazionale - Naples 2013-05-16 16-25-06 BW.jpg, which is believed to be a copy of the original by Philoxenus of Eretria]]

A similar subject is represented in the celebrated Alexander Mosaic found in the House of the Faun in Pompeii. As a disciple of Nicomachus, who flourished about 360 BC, and as the painter of the battle of Issus (333 BC) (or possibly the battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC; Pliny simply states that it was "a picture representing one of the battles between Alexander and Darius"),{{cite web | url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=35:chapter=36 | title=Pliny the Elder, the Natural History, BOOK XXXV. AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS., CHAP. 36.—ARTISTS WHO PAINTED WITH THE PENCIL }} Philoxenus must have flourished in the age of Alexander, from about 330 BC and onwards. The words of Pliny, "Cassandro regi", "Cassander being king", if taken literally, would mean that the creation of the original picture must have taken place some time after 317-315 BC, during the reign of Cassander in Macedon.

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