Apollodorus | Classical Sculptor, Marble Statues, Athenian Art | Britannica (original) (raw)

Quick Facts

Flourished:

5th century bc

Flourished:

c.500 BCE - c.401 BCE

Apollodorus (flourished 5th century bc) was an Athenian painter thought to have been the first to gradate light and colour, that is, to shade his paintings. For this reason he was known, in his own day, as “Sciagraphos,” or “Shadow Painter.” Pliny called him the “first to give his figures the appearance of reality.”

Apollodorus’ paintings are now all lost, though ancient sources mention several of his works. Among them, all in Athens, were: “Odysseus,” “A Priest at Prayer,” and “Ajax Struck by Lightning.”

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.