Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Fictor

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

FICTOR (πλάστης). A general term for any artist who models in clay, wax, or any plastic material, as contradistinguished from one who works in bronze, marble, wood, ivory, or other solid substances. (Cic. Fragm. ap. Lactant. ii. 8. Plin. Ep. i. 10.) The annexed figure (Fictor/1.1), from a bas-relief of the Villa Albani, represents an artist of this description, as is manifest from the small wooden stick held in the left hand, which artists still universally make use of to form their models in clay; the very fine or delicate contours were also finished with the fingers and nails, which gave rise to the expression ad unguem factus homo (Hor. Sat. i. 5. 32.), meaning a finished gentleman.

2. A sort of confectioner, or artiste, who executed models in pastry or wax of different animals required for sacrifice in certain religious rites, but which could not be themselves procured for the purpose. Ennius ap. Varro, L. L. vii. 4. Serv. ad Virg. Aen. ii. 116.

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  Fictor/1.1