Timanthes seems to have been a younger
contemporary of
Zeuxis and
Parrhasius. Perhaps his
career fell chiefly after 400 B. C. The painting of his
of which we hear the most represented the sacrifice of
Iphigenia at Aulis, The one point about the picture to
which all our accounts refer is the grief exhibited in
varying degrees by the bystanders. The countenance of
Calchas was sorrowful; that of
Ulysses still more so;
that of Menelaus displayed an intensity of distress
which the painter could not outdo; Agamemnon, therefore,
was represented with his face covered by his mantle, his
attitude alone suggesting the father's poignant anguish.
The description is interesting as illustrating the
attention paid in this period to the expression of
emotion. Timanthes was in spirit akin to
Scopas. There
is a Pompeian wall-painting of the sacrifice of
Iphigenia, which represents Agamemnon with veiled head
and which may be regarded, in that particular at least,
as a remote echo of Timanthes's famous picture.
F. B. Tarbell, A History of Ancient Greek Art
