1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pausias

PAUSIAS, a Greek painter of the 4th century, of the school of Sicyon. He introduced the custom of painting ceilings of houses. His great merit appears to have lain in the better rendering of foreshortening. The words in which Pliny (xxxv. 127) describes a bull painted by him should be quoted: “Wishing to display the length of the bull’s body, he painted it from the front, not in profile, and yet fully indicated its measure. Again, while others fill in with white the high lights, and paint in black what is less salient, he painted the whole bull of dark colour, and gave substance to the shadow out of the shadow itself, with great skill making his figures stand out from a flat background, and indicating their shape when foreshortened.” This passage well marks the state of painting at the time.