Apollodorus left a technique behind known as skiagraphia, a way to easily produce shadow, that affected the works not only of his contemporaries but also of later generations.
None of his actual paintings remain, for, due to weathering, almost all ancient Greek paintings have been destroyed, and the elegance and beauty of Greek art can mainly be glimpsed in the Macedonian tombs with their rich artistic programmes, in works such as the Derveni Krater, and in the sculptures and motives that were later copied by the Romans and architectural ruins that remain.
Pliny the Elder recorded two paintings, Praying Priest and Ajax Burned by Lightning, that resided in the ancient Greek city of Pergamon which was situated in modern-day Turkey.
The topics of his paintings may have been unimaginative and common during the time period; however, it was his ingenious technique that made him such a renowned painter.
The historian Plutarch recorded an inscription above one of Apollodorus' painting which read, “’Tis no hard thing to reprehend me; But let the men that blame me mend me.”[3] In other words, “You could criticize [skiagraphia] more easily than you could imitate it”.
Apollodorus used an intricate way of “crosshatching and the thickening of inner contour lines as well as the admixture of light and dark tones” to show a form of perspective.
No longer simply used for paintings on canvas of stationary objects, chiaroscuro is used in all types of art, even sculpture, frescoes, and woodcuts.
He stated that the ideas of gradation between light and dark, skiagraphia, were combined with medieval techniques known as incidendo and matizando, which are a “layerings of white, brown, or black in linear patterns over a uniform colour” to indicate relief and volume.
[7] In the end, Apollodorus' master creation after years of evolution transformed into something that, though it still resembled the original and served the same purpose, was new and thoroughly necessary to all great works of art.