Pictorial References to the Work of Apelles?

Abstract

In attempts to identify reproductions of Greek panel paintings in mythological wall paintings of the imperial period caution must be exercised, of course, since Roman wall painters as a rule made relatively free use of the traditional stock of types. This study nonetheless investigates whether the two pictures found in Exedra 35 at the Casa del Citarista in Pompeii could be among the few exceptions and whether the Iphigenia picture possibly draws on a work by Apelles. Apellesʼ »monoknemos« mentioned in a passage in Petronius, Satyrica 83, is recognized in the gure of the bound Orestes. The painting as a whole indeed appears to derive from Apelles, too, as the well-known cobbler anecdote makes likely. The arguments that could support such a hypothesis partly concern the architectural and epigraphic context of the imperial period and are also partly based on narrative and typological comparisons with Late Classical depictions. The article goes on to re-examine two older proposed identifications relating to Apellesʼ work.