(Πάμφιλος), artists.
1. Of Amphipolis (Suid. s. v. Ἀπελλῆς ; Macedo natione, Plin.), one of the most distinguished of the Greek painters, flourished about Ol 97-107, B. C. 390-350. He was the disciple of Eupompus, the founder of the Sicyonian school of painting [EUPOMPUS], for the establishment of which, however, Pamphillus seems to have done much more than even Eupompus himself. (Plin. H.N. 35.10. s. 36.7, 11. s. 40; Plut. Arat. 13). Of his own works we have most scanty accounts; but as a teacher of his art he was surpassed by none of the ancient masters. According to Pliny, he was the first artist who possessed a thorough acquaintance with all branches of knowledge, especially arithmetic and geometry, without which he used to say that the art could not be perfected. All science, therefore, which could in any way contribute to form the perfect artist, was included in his course of instruction, which extended over ten years, and for which the fee was no less than a talent. Among those who paid this price for his tuition were Apelles and Melanthius. (Plin. Nat. 35.10. s. 36.8). Not only was the school of Pamphilus remarkable for the importance which the master attached to general learning, but also for the minute attention which he paid to accuracy in drawing. On this subject Pliny says that this artist's influence established the rule, first at Sicyon, and afterwards through all Greece, that freeborn boys were taught before any thing else (in art, of course) the graphic art (graphicen, drawing with the graphics ,) that is, painting on box-wood, and this art was received into the first rank of the studies of the free-born (Plin. l.c.). Two things are clear from this passage. First, it proves the high and just view which Pamphilus took of the place which art ought to occupy in a liberal education: that, just as all learning is necessary to make an accomplished artist, so is some practical knowledge of art needful to form an accomplished mans: and, secondly, the words graphicen, hoc est, picturam in buxo, while they are not to be restricted to mere drawing, are yet evidently intended to describe a kind of drawing or painting, in which the first requisites were accuracy and clearness of outline. (See Dict. of Ant. s. v. Painting, p. 692, note; Böttiger, Ideen zur Archäologie der Malerci, pp. 145, foll.; and Fuseli's First Lecture.)
Modern writers have taken great pains to ascertain how Pamphilus made arithmetic and geometry to contribute so essentially to the art of painting. Speaking generally, the words evidently describe the whole of the laws of proportion, as definitely determined by numbers and geometrical figures, which form the foundation of all correct drawing and composition. This subject is very fully illustrated in Flaxman's fourth Lecture, where he remarks that the laws given by Vitruvius (3.1) were taken from the writings of the Greek artists, perhaps from those of Pamphilus himself: and in another passage he observes, "Geometry enabled the artist scientifically to ascertain forms for the configuration of bodies; to determine the motion of the figure in leaping, running, striking, or falling, by curves and angles, whilst arithmetic gave
These being the principles of the school of Pamphilus, we can easily understand the fact stated by Quintilian (12.10) that he and his pupil Melanthius excelled all other painters in what he calls ratio, by which we must understand proportion in its widest sense, including composition (Pliny uses the word disposition. See MELANTHIUS).
Of his pictures Pliny only mentions four: a Cognatio, by which we must probably understand a family group; a battle at Phlius; a victory of the Athenians; and Ulysses on his raft. It is probable, though by no. means certain, that we ought to add to the list a picture of the Heracleidae as suppliants at Athens, on the authority of the following passage in the Plutus of Aristophanes (382, 385):--
Ὁπῶ τινʼ ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος καθεδούμενον, ἱκετηρίαν ἔχοντα μετὰ τῶν παιδίων καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς, κοὐ διοίσοντʼ ἄντικρυς τῶν Ἡρακλειδῶν οὐδʼ ὁτιοῦν τῶν Παμφίλου.
Some of the Scholiasts thought that the Pamphilus here mentioned was a tragic poet, and Callistratus and Euphronius are quoted as authorities for this statement: but, as a Scholiast remarks, there was no tragic poet of this name mentioned in the Didascaliae. Most of them, however, understand the allusion to be to a well-known picture of the celebrated Pamphilus; though one of them ascribes the picture to Apollodorus, observing that Pamphils was younger than Aristophanes. Notv, bearing in mind that these illusions of the comic poets are generally to the novelties of the day, we may fairly conjecture that Pamphilus, then a young artist, had just visited Athens for the first time, and had executed this picture of the Heracleidae for the Athenians. The date of the second edition of the Plutus was B. C. 388.
Taking, then, this date as about the commencement of the career of Pamphilus, we must, on the other hand, place him as low as B. C. 352, when his disciple Apelles began to flourish. And these dates agree with all the other indications of his time. Thus, he is mentioned by Quintilian (l.c.) among the artists who flourished in the period commencing with the reign of Philip II.; Pliny places him immediately before Echion and Therimachus, who flourished in the 107th Olympiad, B. C. 352; and the battle of Phlius, which he painted, must have been fought between Ol. 102 and 104, B. C. 372 and 364 (Müller, Proleg. zu Mythol. p. 400). What victory of the Athenians formed the subject of the other picture mentioned by Pliny, is not known: it may be the naval victory of Chabrias, at Naxos, in B. C. 376.
Among the pupils of Pamphilus, besides Apelles and Melanthius, was Pausias, whom he instructed in encaustic painting.