Alexander's Court Painter, Apelles, and His Fame among Renaissance Artists

Plutarch praises not only the Macedonian’s military skills but also, and especially, the pictorial skills of Apelles, Alexander’s court painter, when he writes, “Alexander, son of Philip was invincible, but the Alexander of Apelles was inimitable.” ¹ Apelles, who flourished from the late fourth century bc to the early third century bc, was from Colophon and, later, Ephesus. During the Renaissance, Apelles was judged to be the greatest painter of antiquity. He was first taught by Ephorus of Ephesus and later by Pamphilus of Sicyon. Pamphilus was a Macedonian, educated in all areas of learning, especially arithmetic and geometry, without which it was not possible to attain perfection. ² It is interesting that Pamphilus mentions arithmetic and geometry, two subjects that, together with music and astronomy, define the quadrivium. In contrast to the trivium, which consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, the quadrivium was considered the more advanced part of the Seven Liberal Arts because of its theoretical basis and the mathematical structure of its subjects. ³