Butades of
Sicyon
Sicyon (; el, Σικυών; ''gen''.: Σικυῶνος) or Sikyon was an ancient Greek city state situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. An ancient mona ...
( grc, Βουτάδης ''Boutades''), sometimes mistakenly called Dibutades, was the reputed inventor of the art of
modelling clay in relief, which an accident first led him to practise, in conjunction with his daughter, at Corinth. The period at which he flourished is unknown, but has been put at about 600 BC.
The story, as recorded by
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
, is that his daughter,
Kora of Sicyon
Kora may refer to:
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* Kora, Bharuch, Gujarat
* Korha, Katihar, also known as Kora, in Bihar
* Kora, Kendrapara, Odisha
* Kora, Wardha, Maharastra
* Kora, Tumakuru, Karnataka
* Toyaguda, Adilabad, Tel ...
, smitten with love for a youth at
Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part o ...
where they lived, drew upon the wall the outline of his shadow, and that upon this outline her father modelled a face of the youth in clay, which he baked along with the clay tiles which it was his trade to make. This model was preserved in the Nymphaeum in Corinth until
Lucius Mummius
Lucius Mummius (2nd century BC), was a Roman Republic, Roman statesman and general. He was consul in the year 146 BC along with Scipio Aemilianus. Mummius was the first of his family to rise to the rank of consul thereby making him a novus homo. ...
sacked that city in 146 BC. Because of this occurrence, Butades began a practice that is supported by a large body of existing evidence: he began to decorate the ends or edges of gutter roof tiles with masks of human faces, first in low relief (protypa), then in high relief (ectypa). Pliny adds that Butades invented the colouring of plastic works by adding a red colour to them (from the existing works of this kind it seems to have been red sand, or modelling them in red chalk). He is also said to have invented a mixture of clay and
ruddle
Ruddle is an unincorporated community on the South Branch Potomac River located in Pendleton County, West Virginia, United States. Ruddle lies along U.S. Highway 220. According to the Geographic Names Information System
The Geographic Name ...
(red ochre), or to have introduced the use of a special kind of red clay.
Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
, ''Natural History''
35.151
Pliny adds ''Hine et fastigia templorum orta'', that is, the terra-cotta figures which Butades was said to have invented, were used to ornament the pediments of temples.
References
Sources
"Dibutades" In William Smith (ed.). ''
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...
''. 1. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1867.
*
* Frasca-Rath, Anna: The Origin and Decay of Painting. Iaia, Dibutades and the Concept of ‚Women Art, in: Hans Christian Hönes & Anna Frasca-Rath (Hrsg.), Modern Lives, Modern Legends. Artist Anecdotes since the 18th century, Journal for Art Historiography, 23, 2020, S. 1-1
7th-century BC Greek sculptors
Ancient Sicyonians
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