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KLEONES (Ancient city) NEMEA
Pliny's description of Cimon of Cleonae presents grave difficulties. Most critics agree to the general conclusion that the inventions ascribed to him are represented broadly by what we see in the red-figured vases of the school of Epictetus, the date of which is now assigned to the age of the Peisistratidae. With the growing popularity of the athletic exercises of the palaestra, comes in the preference for representation of the nude figure, in attitudes and movements hitherto untried; the innovations in the drawing of dress, the improved treatment of the eye, the fine inner markings indicating veins and muscles, are all to be traced to these vases.
Catagrapha in this connexion is difficult to explain. Pliny's interpretation, which represents Cimon as the inventor of profile drawing, seems altogether untenable; in early sculptures in relief, figures which would naturally be in profile are frequently represented in full face; but there is no evidence of any such priority of full-face treatment in Painting. On the other hand, it is probable that the great paintings of this time must have consisted of outline drawings with washes of colour, as on the alabastos of Pasiades in the British Museum. One explanation refers it to linear perspective, or what we should term projection! The most generally accepted interpretation refers it to the practice, common in the vase-paintings of this period, of indicating the outline of the body underneath the dress, which adapts itself to the movements of the figure.
A notable monument of this period is the Stele of Lyseas, an inscribed marble shaft of about 550-525 B.C., with an inscription stating that it is the tombstone and portrait of Lyseas; on the front is painted the full-length figure of the deceased, holding in one hand a cantharus, in the other the twigs of lustration; the chiton is purple, the himation white with a coloured edge, the twigs green, the cantharus black. The outline was first drawn in a dark colour, and the background is red. Below is a minute figure of a galloping horseman. The similarity of this figure to the carved stele of Aristion shows the close connexion that then existed between marble painting and marble relief. Probably such paintings were much in vogue, though naturally very little beyond mere fragments of them have come down to us. The technique corresponds most nearly to that of the black-figured vases. Loeschcke has tried to show that the change from black to red figures in vase-painting was brought about by the influence of marble paintings, such as the Stele of Lyseas; but this suggestion has been generally opposed (see Klein, Euphronios,2 p. 30, and Arch.-Epig. Mitth. 1887, p. 209). We referred above to the statement of Pausanias (vii. 22, 6) that the great artist Nicias painted a sepulchral stele at Triteia: this is important as showing that, even if the Stele of Lyseas is not by a great master, it belongs to a class of work which was not beneath the dignity, and probably reflects the methods, of the great masters.
Another interesting monument, which may probably be referred to this period, has recently been discovered in or near Athens; it is a disk of white marble pierced with two bronze nails for attachment to a wall; on it is painted4 a bearded man seated in a chair, and around the picture is an archaic inscription recording that this is the monument of the excellent physician Aineos or Aineios. The name is an uncommon one, and has been identified with that of the great uncle of the famous Hippocrates; assuming this to be a contemporary portrait, the date would thus fall at about 520 B.C.
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cimon of Cleonae, a painter of great renown, praised by Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 34) and Aelian. (V. H. viii. 8). It is difficult to ascertain, from Pliny's obscure words, wherein the peculiar merits of Cimon consisted: it is certain, however, that he was not satisfied with drawing simply the outlines of his figures, such as we see in the oldest painted vases, but that he also represented limbs, veins, and the folds of garments. He invented the Catasgrapha, that is, not the profile, according to the common interpretation, but the various positions of figures, as they appear when looking upwards, downwards, and sideways; and he must therefore be considered as the first painter of perspective. It would appear from an epigram of Simonides (Anthol. Palat. ix. 758), that he was a contemporary of Dionysius, and belonged therefore to the 80th Olympiad; but as he was certainly more ancient, Klchon should in that passage be changed into Michon.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eumarus, a very ancient Greek painter of monochromes, was the first, according to Pliny, who distinguished, in painting, the male from the female, and who "dared to imitate all figures". His invention wits improved upon by Simon (=Comon) of Cleonae (xxxv. 8. s. 34). Muller supposes that the distinction was made by a difference of colouring; but Pliny's words seem rather to refer to the drawing of the figure.
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