Zeuxis

For more information on Zeuxis, visit Britannica.com.

( fl late 5th century BC-early 4th). Greek painter. Zeuxis of Heracleia achieved wealth and fame as a painter in Athens around the time of the Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BC). Pliny (Natural History XXXV.xxxvi.61) stated that Zeuxis began working in the fourth year of the 95th Olympiad (397 BC) and that writers who dated him to the 89th Olympiad (c. 424 BC) were mistaken. According to Pliny, Zeuxis was the pupil of either Demophilos of Himera or Neseus of Thasos. Both were active around 424 BC, perhaps explaining the confusion of other authors concerning Zeuxis' own date.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Zeuxis, of Heraclea in Magna Graecia, one of the most famous painters of ancient Greece, working in the late fifth century BC. One of his most celebrated paintings was a picture of Helen (of Troy) for the temple of Hera at Croton. He is said to have assembled the five most beautiful maidens of the city and combined the best features of each into one figure of ideal beauty. For another famous anecdote about him see PARRHASIUS.