From Zeuxis to xeuxis.com

Zeuxis & Parrhasius

According to ancient accounts, Zeuxis of Heraclea was one of the most outstanding Greek painters of his era. He worked towards the end of the 5th century and at the beginning of the 4th century BC. Today, his artistic works have only survived in the form of written descriptions of these.

A well-known story from Zeuxis’ life is about a competition between him and another prominent painter of his time, Parrhasius. The competition was to determine who was the “better” painter – which in this case meant who could paint more realistically. For this competition, Zeuxis painted a depiction of grapes that looked so lifelike that birds flew in to peck at them. In contrast, Parrhasius painted a curtain.

Image: Zeuxis and his painting of grapes and birds pecking, by Johann Georg Hiltensperger, 1842

While the birds are deceived by Zeuxis’ painted grapes, Zeuxis himself succumbs to the illusion created by his competitor: He tries to pull aside the painted curtain to look at the supposed painting of Parrhasius.

The scene is also depicted here in this copperplate engraving by Joachim Sandrart. Xeuxis founder, Klaus, is a Sandrart fan and this print inspired us to create the name Zeuxis/Xeuxis – to which we have added a modern twist with the phonetic spelling.

Image: The contest between Zeuxis and Parrhasius, etching by Johan Jacob von Sandrart, 1683