Pausias was an ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 painter of the first half of the 4th century, of the school of Sicyon

Sicyon

Sikyon was an ancient Greek city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day prefecture of Corinthia...

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Biography

Pausias 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 describes a bull painted by him should be quoted:
Pausias is thought to have invented the encaustic painting

Encaustic painting

Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used...

 method. He was proud of being able to finish a picture in just 24 hours. His most famous work was of a bull called A Sacrifice improved by his son Aristolaos

Aristolaos

Aristolaos was a Greek painter of high caliber who lived in Sicyon, and who was the son and pupil of the painter Pausias.According to Pliny he was a very austere painter. He tried to improve the work of his father, The Sacrifice of Oxen. Works by Aristolaos include Theseus, Pericles, Epaminondas,...

. The Porticus Pompei at Rome contained this large painting by Pausias.

In Pausanias' Description of Greece some wall paintings by Pausias are mentioned. In the Tholos at Epidaurus, there was a painting of Eros laying down his bow and arrow to pick up his lyre. There was also a painting portraying Drunkenness drinking wine from a crystal goblet, with his face showing through the goblet.