Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Catagrapha

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CATAG'RAPHA (τà κατάγραφα). Paintings in which the figures are drawn in perspective, or, as the artists have it, fore-shortened, so that, although the whole figure is represented, only a portion of it is seen by the spectator (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 34.); a practice now considered as indicating great skill on the part of the artist, but which the ancient painters seldom had recourse to. The illustration (Catagrapha/1.1) here introduced is from a Pompeian picture, which represents Agamemnon conducting Chryseis on board the vessel which was to convey her to her father. The figure of Agamemnon is slightly foreshortened in its upper portion; but, slight as that is, it is the closest approximation towards such a mode of treatment discoverable in the whole of the works executed by the artists of Pompeii. Even in the celebrated mosaic which represents the battle of Issus, the largest pictorial composition, and richest in number of figures, which has descended to us, the whole of them are represented in full front or side views, and in postures nearly erect, though in the most energetic action. But, with the exception of some arms and legs, and one horse which has his back turned to the spectator, there is no attempt at fore-shortening the figure in the sense now understood, whereby an entire figure is portrayed upon the canvass, within a space which otherwise would only admit a part of it. Even the three men who are wounded, and upon the ground, have their bodies presented in profile, and at full length, their legs and arms only being slightly foreshortened. The same observations are equally applicable to the designs on fictile vases.

• 
  Catagrapha/1.1