Protogenes was a Greek painter of the 4th century BC, born in Caunus on the coast of Caria (in present-day Turkey), who worked mainly in Rhodes during the second half of that century. He is important because he was a contemporary and rival of Apelles, and in his own time he was considered one of the great masters, comparable to Apelles in fame and reputation.
Ancient writers describe him as an extremely meticulous artist who spent long periods on each work and finished his pictures with a very elaborate level of detail, both in painting and drawing. One of his best-known works, known as Jalysos, is said to have taken him seven years. It showed a local hero, founder of the city of the same name on the island, probably depicted as a hunter. It remained in Rhodes until Cicero's time and was later taken to Rome, where it was lost in the fire of the Temple of Peace.
During the siege of Rhodes by Demetrius Poliorcetes in 304 BC, Protogenes went on painting his Satyr without concern for the enemy army, which was camped on the land where his garden workshop stood. According to tradition, Demetrius protected the artist and even changed his plan of attack once he learned that the Jalysos was in an exposed part of the city. The Satyr, one of his last works, showed a motionless satyr holding up a pillar with a partridge so lifelike that viewers failed to notice it; the annoyed painter then removed it.
His career also included commissions in Athens, such as figures for the council chamber and paintings for the gallery in the Propylaea, and it is said that his meeting with Aristotle suggested subjects linked to the deeds of Alexander the Great. As a sculptor he made bronzes of athletes, warriors and hunters.
The story of the line drawn on Apelles' panel, to which each rival answered with a new stroke, has become a symbol of their competition. Pliny the Elder recorded it, and his work was admired in Rome, where it was also lost. Protogenes is remembered today mainly for that rivalry and for the fame he enjoyed in his lifetime.