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Timanthes of Cythnus (Greek: 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.

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).

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. Writers from Leon Battista Alberti to Jacopo Sannazaro, 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

References

1. Clement, Clara Erskine (2024). A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture Painting: An Artistic Journey Through Time. New Delhi, India: Namasakr Books. p. 14. ISBN 9782023122518.
2. Dyer, Thomas Henry (1882). On Imitative Art, with Preliminary Remarks on Beauty, Sublimity and Taste. London, England: George Bell and Sons. p. 280-281.
3. Gilman, Daniel Coit; Peck, Harry Thurston; Colby, Frank Moore, eds. (1906). "Ionian". The New International Encyclopaedia. Vol. 10. New York, NY: Dood, Mead and Company. p. 734. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
4. Chisholm 1911.
5. 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.
6. Michel de Montaigne, "On Sadness" The Essays, 1.2
7. 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/

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Timanthes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 978.

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