Gaius Fabius Pictor
Illustration — 19th-century fresco depicting Pictor at works (Hermitage, Russia) Gaius Fabius Pictor was an early Roman painter. According to later writers he was the earliest one; no other painter appears in written records for 150 years. Fabius, called Pictor, was descended from the celebrated Fabia gens, and was the grandfather of the Roman historian Quintus Fabius Pictor.
Gaius Fabius Pictor
Netelo · crop from File:History of Ancient painting in Hermitage - 75, 74, 76 (LXXV, LXXIV, LXXVI).jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 400 · Ancient Rome.
- Nationality
- Ancient Rome
- Occupation
- painter
- Languages
- Latin
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wikidata · Q731587 · wikipedia · Gaius Fabius Pictor
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Biography
In 304 BC, Pictor decorated the Temple of Salus on the Quirinal Hill, with a representation of the victory of Bubulcus over the Samnites. His paintings were preserved until the reign of Caligula, when the temple was destroyed by fire according to Pliny. Italian painting in this era was dominated by the Etruscan style, which used a flat polychromatic treatment. Painting was then little respected by the Romans, and the title of Pictor was not considered as an honourable distinction, but rather intended to stigmatize the artist, as may be inferred from a passage of Cicero, in his Tusculan Disputations: "Do we imagine that if it had been considered commendable in Fabius, a man of the highest rank, to paint, we should not have had many Polycleti and Parrhasii."
The recorded working language is Latin.
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Gaius Fabius Pictor, revision 1358670192 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 2, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, Vol. 3 p. 363 n. 2.
- 2.Plinio il Vecchio, Naturalis historia, XXXV, 7.
- 3.Plinio afferma precisamente anno Urbis conditae CCCCL, ossia il 304 a.C.
- 4.Plinio parla di Fabio Pittore dopo aver concluso la storia della pittura greca e passando a quella della pittura romana, di cui quindi Fabio è il primo esponente (almeno nella trattazione pliniana). Ciò che Plinio scrive su di lui è: Apud Romanos quoque honos mature huic arti contigit, siquidem cognomina ex ea pictorum traxerunt Fabii clarissimae gentis, princepsque eius cognominis ipse aedem Salutis pinxit anno Urbis conditae CCCCL, quae pictura duravit ad nostram memoriam aede ea Claudi principatu exusta., prima di procedere oltre (da Marco Pacuvio in poi).
- 5.Cicerone, Tusculanae disputationes, I, 4: An censemus si Fabio nobilissimo homini laudatum esset quod pingeret, non multos etiam apud nos Polycletos et Parrhasios fuisse?
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 28 August 2026.
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