( fl early 4th century BC). Greek painter. He came from Amphipolis in Macedonia but worked in Sikyon; he was the pupil of Eupompos. Pamphilos charged his own pupils extravagant fees. Among them were Melanthios, Apelles and PAUSIAS, the last of whom seems to have come to Pamphilos to learn the encaustic technique of laying on colours in a wax medium and burning them in, a technique for which the Sikyonian school was famous. Pamphilos was praised for his ratio, the intellectual quality of his painting. He especially emphasized arithmetic and geometry. Through his influence painting on wooden panels became the first step in a liberal education for freeborn boys, first at Sikyon and later throughout Greece. Among his paintings, none of which survives, were a family group, perhaps a grave monument or a votive offering; the Victory of the Athenians at Phlios, perhaps the battle fought in 367 BC; and Odysseus on his Raft. The comic playwright Aristophanes (c. 450–c. 385 BC) ascribed to Pamphilos the Daughters of Herakles Coming as Suppliants to Athens (Wealth 385). Although most scholiasts confirmed Aristophanes’ attribution, one attributed it to Apollodoros. The Sikyonian statesman Aratos (271–213 BC) sent paintings by Pamphilos to Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt.

• Pamphilos
  • Art education, §1: Ancient and medieval, before the 16th century
  • Greece, ancient, §VI, 3(ii): Painting theory and criticism: 4th century BC
  • Greece, ancient, §VII, 2(i): Mosaics: Origins
  • Sikyon
  • methods
    • Encaustic painting, §2(i): Pre-Renaisssance
  • pupils
    • Apelles
    • Melanthios
    • Pausias
  • works
    • Greece, ancient, §VI, 1(ii)(b): Wall and panel painting: Classical-period subject-matter
    • Greece, ancient, §VI, 2(ii)(b): Wall and panel painting: Classical, 4th century BC
  • writings
    • Greece, ancient, §VI, 1(iii): Wall and panel painting: Painters and society