( fl last quarter of the 5th century BC). Greek painter. Nicknamed the ‘Shadow Painter’, he is famous for his experiments with chiaroscuro, although none of his works survives. Pliny (Natural History XXXV.xxxvi.60) placed Apollodoros in the 93rd Olympiad (408–405 BC) and credited him with being the first painter to give his figures the appearance of reality and to bring true glory to the brush. Plutarch (De gloria Atheniensium II) was more specific and attributed to him the discovery of mixing colours, as well as the indication of light and shade in his work. Pliny saw Apollodoros as the precursor of ZEUXIS, while Quintilian (Principles of Oratory XII.x.4) stated that the younger painter invented chiaroscuro. Among Apollodoros’ paintings were a Priest at Prayer and, still surviving at Pergamon in Pliny’s day, an Ajax Struck by Lightning. A scholiast of the comic playwright Aristophanes (Wasps, 385) attributed to Apollodoros a picture of the Daughters of Herakles and Alkmene Coming as Suppliants to the Athenians, although Aristophanes himself attributed the picture to Pamphilos. Apollodoros was said to have been the first artist to give Odysseus his distinctive peaked hat, the pilos. The painter’s pride in his work is reflected in the epigram recorded by Plutarch (De gloria Atheniensium II): ‘It is easier for one to find fault than to imitate’.

• Apollodoros (fl 410 BC)
  • Greece, ancient, §VI, 1(iii): Wall and panel painting: Painters and society
  • Greece, ancient, §VI, 3(i): Painting theory and criticism: 5th century BC
  • Greece, ancient, §VI, 3(iii): Painting theory and criticism: 3rd century BC
  • attributions
    • Pamphilos
  • works
    • Greece, ancient, §VI, 2(ii)(a): Wall and panel painting: Classical, 5th century BC