Parrhasius
Parrhasius of Ephesus was a famed painter of Ancient Greece. Parrhasius was active during an era when other painters were starting to depict realistic scenes with shading, Parrhasius stood out by sticking to the older technique of line-drawing, and innovated new ways to portray volume using this method. He created new iconographies that future painters would reproduce for centuries.
Also recorded as Parrhasios · Parrhasios of Ephesos · Parrasio · Paracius
Parrhasius
Александр Сигачёв · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 500
- Died
- 460
- Occupation
- painter
- Fields
- portrait
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Documentary summary
Parrhasius of Ephesus was a famed painter of Ancient Greece. Parrhasius was active during an era when other painters were starting to depict realistic scenes with shading, Parrhasius stood out by sticking to the older technique of line-drawing, and innovated new ways to portray volume using this method. He created new iconographies that future painters would reproduce for centuries.
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Note VALÉORINE
Parrhasius (500–460) was a painter. The painter was born in Ephesus. Parrhasius was a member of Zeuxis and Parrhasius.
Genres include portrait. Languages used include Ancient Greek.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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In this article
Life
Life
Born to the painter Evenor, he settled in Athens. The period of his activity is fixed by the anecdote which Xenophon records of the conversation between him and Socrates on the subject of art; he was therefore distinguished as a painter before 399 BC. Seneca relates a tale that Parrhasius bought one of the Olynthians whom Philip sold into slavery, 346 BC, and tortured him in order to have a model for a picture of the bound Prometheus for the Parthenon in Athens; but the story, which is similar to one told of Michelangelo, is chronologically impossible.
Contest with Zeuxis
Contest with Zeuxis
Pliny the Elder tells a story of Parrhasius's contest with Zeuxis in his book Naturalis Historia. Zeuxis was perhaps the most prominent painter of this era, famous for his ability to depict scenes which appeared to be true to life using a new method called skiagraphia. Parrhasius, on the other hand, was the prime exponent of the older techniques of line-drawing, and highly respected for his compositions. The challenge was to try painting the most realistic picture. Zeuxis painted some grapes so perfectly that a flock of birds flew down to eat them but, instead, only pecked at their picture. He then went to Parrhasius' studio to see the painting he had made, confident he had won. When Zeuxis came in, Parrhasius told Zeuxis to remove the curtain covering his painting. Zeuxis attempted to do so, and then discovered that the curtain was not a curtain, but a painting of a curtain. Zeuxis acknowledged himself to be surpassed, for while Zeuxis had deceived the birds, Parrhasius had deceived Zeuxis. This is one of the earliest examples of the idea of trompe-l'œil.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
460
Parrhasius died.
500
Parrhasius born at Ephesus.
Legacy
• Illustration — A Lekythos painted by an artist associated with Group R. Andreas Rumpf and Martin Robertson speculate that the depiction of the central figure, with his slanted head, morose expression, and seated pose, was influenced by Parrhasius. Parrhasius was universally placed in the very first rank among painters by future ancient art critics. Quintilian called him the "law-giver" of painting, who created the definitive model of many gods and heroes for future painters. His skillful drawing of outlines is especially praised by ancient writers, and many of his drawings on wood and parchment were highly valued by later painters for purposes of study. Parrhasius excelled at depicting volume, and some scholars have identified surviving artworks which may have made use of his style. Examples include White-Ground vase-paintings associated with the painters of "Group R," contemporaries of the artist. A small group of paintings found on the marble bed from a Macedonian tomb in Potidaea, dating to the 4th Century BC, are also cited as exhibiting the Parrhasian style. His picture of Theseus adorned the Capitol in Rome. His other works, besides the obscene subjects with which he is said to have amused his leisure, are chiefly mythological groups. A picture of the Demos, the personified People of Athens, is famous; according to the story, which is probably based upon epigrams, the twelve prominent characteristics of the people, though apparently quite inconsistent with each other, were distinctly expressed in this figure. Parrhasius is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Australian lizard, Lygisaurus parrhasius, the fire-tailed rainbow-skink.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
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.Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.10.1-5..
- 2.Seneca the Elder, Controversiae, 10.5 (Latin text).
- 3.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, xxxv.65.
- 4.https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/12D*.html
- 5.https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG58538
- 6.Rumpf, Andreas. “Parrhasios.” American Journal of Archaeology 55, no. 1 (1951): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.2307/501178.
- 7.Pollitt, Jerome J., editor. The Cambridge History of Painting in the Classical World. Cambridge University Press, 2014: 297.
- 8.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, xxxv.69.
- 9.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Parrhasius", p. 201).
Bibliography printed in the source article · 1
- Parrhasius.
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