A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TIMANTHES. TIMANTHES. 1133
him at Olympia, the work of Myron. (Paus. vi. his knowledge of aesthetic principles, not his want
8.) [E. E.] of artistic power, that dictated to Timanthes this
TIMANTHES (TLa'dv077s), artists. 1. The mode of representation. His conduct has been
celebrated Greek painter, contemporary with Zeuxis most admirably vindicated by Fuseli, in reply to
and Parrhasius (about 01. 95, B. c. 400; Plin. H. NL the (in this case) mistaken judgment of Reynolds,
xxxv. 10. s. 36. ~ 3), is said by Quintilian (ii. 13) and the shallow flippancy of Falconet (Reynolds,
to have been a native of Cythnos, but Eustathius Discourse viii.; Fuseli, Lecture i. vol. ii. pp. 44(ad II. xxiv. 163, p. 1343. 60) makes him a 58, in Knowles's Life and Writings of Fuscli).
Sicyonian: these testimonies may be reconciled by The whole of Fuseli's remarks should be read;
supposing him to have been a native of Cythnos, but the following extract will perhaps convey their
and to have belonged to the Sicyonian school of spirit sufficiently. " The subject of Timanthes was
painting. Our information respecting his personal the immolation of Iphigenia; Iphigenia was the
history is confined to the facts of his having con- principal figure, and her form, her resignation, or
tended with Parrhasius and Colotes; the works her anguish, the painter's principal task; the figure
which he painted on those occasions will be men- of Agamemnon, however important, is merely actioned presently. Native genius, power of ex- cessory, and no more necessary to make the subject
pression and suggestion, and entire mastery of the a completely tragic one, than that of Clytemnestra
resources of his art, seem to have been the chief the mother, no more than that of Priam, to impress
qualities which characterised Timanthes. (Plin. us with sympathy at the death of Polyxena. It is
1. c. ~ 6.) His pictures were distinguished, Pliny therefore a misnomer of the French critic, to call
tells us, from those of all other painters by sug- Agamemnon' the hero' of the subject.
gesting more than they expressed; and, striking Neither the French nor the English critic apas was the art displayed in them, they showed a pears to me to have comprehended the real motive of
genius which surpassed that art. (Atque in unius Timanthes, as contained in the words,' decere, pro
hujus operibus intelligitur plus se;nper, quam pingitur: dignitate, and digne,' in the passages of Tally,
et cun sit ars sumana, ingenium tanzen ultra artem Quintilian, and Pliny; they ascribe to impotence
est). Only five of his works are mentioned; but what was the forbearance of judgment. Timanthes
they are evidently masterpieces, and one of them felt like a father: he did not hide the face of
involves one of the most interesting questions in Agamemnon, because it was beyond the power of
the history of art. his art, not because it was beyond the possibility,
(1) The work referred to, and that which but because it was beyond the dignity of expression,
appears to have been regarded by the ancients because the inspiring feature of paternal affection
as his masterpiece, is the celebrated picture of at that moment, and the action which of necessity
the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, which he painted in must have accompanied it, would either have decompetition with Colotes of Teos (Quintil. 1. c.); stroyed the grandeur of the character, and the
and the question involved in it is, whether Ti- solemnity of the scene, or subjected the painter
manthes displayed consummate skill, or was guilty with the majority of his judges to the imputation
of a mere trick, in painting Agamemnon with his of insensibility. He must either have represented
face hidden in his mantle. It is evident that the him in tears, or convulsed at the flash of the raised
ancients regarded this stroke of art with the most dagger, forgetting the chief in the father, or shown
unbounded admiration. Pliny tells us that it was him absorbed by despair, and in that state of
c; oratoruan laudibus celebrata;" and it is praised stupefaction, which levels all features and deadens
also by Cicero (Orat. 22), Quintilian (I. c.), and expression; he might indeed have chosen a fourth
Valerius Maximus (viii. 11. ext. 6). Unfortunately, mode, he might have exhibited him fainting and
however, these writers display in this, as in other palsied in the arms of his attendants, and by this
cases, their ignorance of the true principles of art, confusion of male and female character, merited the
by giving an unsound reason for their right judg- applause of every theatre at Paris. But Timanthes
ment of the work. The picture, they tell us, had too true a sense of nature to expose a father's
showed Iphigeneia, standing by the altar, sur- feelings, or to tear a passion to rags; nor had the
rounded, among the assistants, by Calchas, whose Greeks yet learnt of Rome to steel the face. If he
prophetic voice had demanded her sacrifice, and made Agamemnon bear his calamity as a man, he
whose hand was about to complete it, Ulysses, made him also feel it as a man. It became the
who had brought her from her home, and Menelaus, leader of Greece to sanction the ceremony with his
her father's brother, all manifesting different degrees presence, it did not become the father to see his
of grief, so that, when the artist had painted the daughter beneath the dagger's point: the same
sorrow of Calchas, and the deeper sorrow of Ulysses, nature that threw a real mantle over the face of
and had added all his powers to express the woe Timoleon, when he assisted at the punishment of
of Menelaus, his resources were exhausted, and, his brother, taught Timanthes to throw an imagiunable to give a powerful expression to the agony nary one over the face of Agamemnon; neither
of the father, he covered his head with a veil. In height nor depth, but propriety of expression was
the present state of aesthetic criticism, it is hardly his aim."
necessary to poinlt out the absurdity of thus making The question as to whether Timanthes invented
out Timanthes to be the Epimetheus of painting. this mode of representation, or whether he borThe very writers, who have given this false judg- rowed it from Euripides, is altogether beside the
ment, let fall expressions, borrowed doubtless from mark; and, in raising such a question, Falconet
their Greek authorities, which intimate the true merely showed his ignorance of the true relation
reason of the manner in which Timanthes painted between pictorial and poetic invention. It may be
Agamemnon: " patris ipsius vultum velavit, quem worth while, however, to mention that Eustathins
digne non poterat ostendere," says Pliny; "non supposed the idea to have been suggested to
reperiens quo digno modoo patris vultum posset Timanthes by a line of the Iliad (xxiv. 163). An
exprimere," says Quintilian. In one word, it was imitation of the picture of Timanthes was founld on