# Butades > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Butades > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Butades.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butades > Source revision: 1342474047 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Ancient Greek artist *The Invention of Painting* by [Louis Ducis](/source/Louis_Ducis) *The Origin of Painting* by [Jean-Baptiste Regnault](/source/Jean-Baptiste_Regnault), 1785 **Butades** of [Sicyon](/source/Sicyon) ([Ancient Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek_language): Βουτάδης *Boutades*), sometimes mistakenly called **Dibutades**, was the reputed inventor of the art of [modelling](/source/Sculpture) clay in [relief](/source/Relief).[1] An accident first led him to practise, in conjunction with his daughter, at [Corinth](/source/Ancient_Corinth). The period at which he flourished is unknown, but has been estimated at 600 BC.[2] *The Corinthian Maid* by [Joseph Wright of Derby](/source/Joseph_Wright_of_Derby) The story, as recorded by [Pliny the Elder](/source/Pliny_the_Elder), is that his daughter was smitten with love for a youth at [Corinth](/source/Ancient_Corinth) where they lived. When he was due to go abroad, she drew the outline of his shadow on a wall thrown by the light of a lamp. It was 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](/source/Nymphaeum) in Corinth until [Mummius](/source/Lucius_Mummius) sacked that city in 146 BC.[1][3] Because of this occurrence with his daughter, Butades began a practice that is supported by a large body of existing evidence: he began to decorate the ends or edges of [rain gutter](/source/Rain_gutter) roof tiles with masks of human faces, first in low relief (*prostypa*), then in high relief (*ectypa*).[1] It was from these [terra-cotta](/source/Terracotta) figures that the ornaments on the pediments of temples originated.[4] 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](/source/Red_chalk).[5] He is also said to have invented a mixture of clay and [ruddle](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ruddle) (red [ochre](/source/Ochre)), or to have introduced the use of a special kind of red clay.[1] And it is because of him that modellers get the Greek name *plastae*.[1][3] ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:0_1-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:0_1-4) ["Pliny, Natural History, 35 (b)"](http://attalus.org/translate/pliny_hn35b.html#151). *attalus.org*. Retrieved 2026-03-05. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Rosenblum, Robert (December 1957). ["The Origin of Painting: A Problem in the Iconography of Romantic Classicism"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3047729?origin=crossref). *The Art Bulletin*. **39** (4): 279. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/3047729](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3047729). 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_3-1) Pliny the Elder. ["Natural History"](https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL394.373.xml?readMode=recto). *www.loebclassics.com*. Retrieved 2026-03-05. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, DABAR, Dia'goras, Dibu'tades"](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=D:entry+group=9:entry=dibutades-bio-1). *www.perseus.tufts.edu*. Retrieved 2026-03-05. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXV. AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS., CHAP. 12. (6.)—PIGMENTS OTHER THAN THOSE OF A METALLIC ORIGIN. ARTIFICIAL COLOURS"](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.%20Nat.%2035.12.43&lang=original). *www.perseus.tufts.edu*. Retrieved 2026-03-05. ## Sources - This article incorporates text from a publication now in the [public domain](/source/Public_domain): [Chisholm, Hugh](/source/Hugh_Chisholm), ed. (1911). "[Butades](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Butades)". *[Encyclopædia Britannica](/source/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Edition)*. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 877. - [Naturalis Historia, *Liber XXXV*](https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Naturalis_Historia/Liber_XXXV) - [Naturalis Historiae, *Liber XXXV*](https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/35*.html) ## External links - [The Public Domain Review, *The Shadow of Desire: Painting the Origins of Art (ca. 1625–1850)*](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/origins-of-painting/) - [Journal of Art Historiography, *The origin (and decline) of painting: Iaia, Butades and the concept of 'Women’s Art' in the 19th Century*"](https://www.proquest.com/openview/669d9a89fb0545856ce3f70d08708ee9/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=646362) - [Journal of Art Historiography *The origin (and decline) of painting: Iaia, Butades and the concept of 'Women's Art' in the 19th Century*](https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/origin-decline-painting-iaia-butades-concept/docview/2478618921/se-2?accountid=13460) This biography of an artist from ancient Greece is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:AncientGreece-artist-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3AAncientGreece-artist-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:AncientGreece-artist-stub) This article about a Greek sculptor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Greece-sculptor-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3AGreece-sculptor-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Greece-sculptor-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Butades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butades) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butades?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.