1. Biographical information

Colotes was an important painter in Antiquity, contemporary and rival of Timanthes. He came from Teos. It is believed that he was a student of Phidias. His heyday is placed approximately in the beginning of the 4th c. BC. It is mentioned that Timanthes defeated Colotes in a contest, with a painting depicting the sacrifice of Iphigeneia.¹ From this reference we can ascertain that Colotes had also painted the same subject.

2. Works

In Delos, inscriptions mention that there was a building that probably was a painting gallery in the 4th c. BC which housed works mainly of Colotes.² It seems, however, that this collection included at least one work of Parrhasius.³ Apparently some of the works were protected by parapets. Some of the representations must have been portable paintings and not frescoes. At least one painting is mentioned that was created with the “encaustic technique”. On the right of the entrance we should note that they had placed the most representative work of Colotes (perhaps the sacrifice of Iphigeneia) and exactly opposite another one of his masterpieces. Among the works of the collection we should mention two portraits, of a man and a woman, and one of “Prometheus”, which could be the second tragic subject of the collection, if it indeed included Iphigeneia. Some works can be determined to be donations of individuals from periods later than the 4th c. BC, as far as we know, among others including a man from Teos.

Among other works of Colotes, a gold and ivory votive table of the Olympic victors in Olympia is also mentioned.