Piraeicus

(Πειραϊκός). A Greek painter, probably of the time after Alexander the Great. He was the chief representative of what is called ῥοπογραφία, or the painting of petty subjects, such as still-life. He painted genre pictures in the Dutch style (barbers' and cobblers' shops), and subjects in still-life, of small size, but of proportionately careful execution (Propert. iii. 9, 12). In Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 112) the manuscript reading is rhyparographos (“rag-and-tatterpainter”). The word rhopographia is actually found in Cicero (Ad Att. xv. 16 b), and its opposite, μεγαλογραφία, in Vitruvius (vii. 4. 4). See pictura.