Timanthes

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File:Wall painting - sacrifice of Iphigenia - Pompeii (VI 8 5) - Napoli MAN 9112 - 01.jpg

Timanthes of Cythnus ({{langx|el|Τιμάνϑης}}) was an ancient Greek painter 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, Timanthes and Parrhasius were painters who belonged to the Ionian School of painting. The Ionian School flourished during the 4th-century BCE.{{cite book |last1= Clement|first1=Clara Erskine |title=A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture Painting: An Artistic Journey Through Time|location= New Delhi, India |publisher=Namasakr Books |year= 2024|page=14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=meTzEAAAQBAJ&dq=Timanthes,+Zeuxis,+Parrhasius+Ionian+school&pg=PT14 |isbn= 9782023122518 }}{{cite book|last1=Dyer|first1=Thomas Henry|title=On Imitative Art, with Preliminary Remarks on Beauty, Sublimity and Taste |location= London, England |publisher=George Bell and Sons|year= 1882 |page=280-281|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k_9RUa0nR-wC&dq=Timanthes,+Zeuxis,+Parrhasius+Ionian+school&pg=PA281 |isbn=}}{{cite encyclopedia|editor1-last=Gilman|editor1-first=Daniel Coit|editor2-last= Peck |editor2-first=Harry Thurston|editor3-last=Colby|editor3-first= Frank Moore|encyclopedia=The New International Encyclopaedia |title=Ionian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUArAAAAMAAJ&dq=Ionian+School+of+literature+Parrhasius&pg=PA734|access-date=September 10, 2023|language=English |year=1906|publisher=Dood, Mead and Company|volume=10|page=734|location=New York, NY}}

A fresco discovered at Pompeii, and now in the Museum at Naples, has been regarded as a copy or echo of this painting (Wolfgang Helbig, Wandgemälde Campaniens, No. 1304).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

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 effects 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. Liana de Girolami Cheney, The Homes of Giorgio Vasari. New York: Peter Lang, 2006; and Elizabeth McGrath, "The Painted Decoration of Rubens’ House" Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 41 (1978), pp. 245-277. Writers from Leon Battista Alberti to Jacopo Sannazaro,Michel de Montaigne, "On Sadness" The Essays, 1.2 and from Michel de Montaigne 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, “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

{{EB1911|wstitle=Timanthes|volume=26|page=978}}

Category:Ancient Greek painters

Category:5th-century BC Greek people

Category:People from Kythnos

Category:4th-century BC painters