Butades
Butades of
Ancient Greek: 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
Lucius Mummius 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).[1] He is also said to have invented a mixture of clay and ruddle (red ochre), or to have introduced the use of a special kind of red clay.[2]
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
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 35.12. s. 43.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History, 35.151.
Sources
- "Dibutades". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1867.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Butades". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 877.
- 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. 1-17 [1]
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