Renaissance rediscoveries of the material culture of the ancients, contrasted with their inability to recover antique paintings since these were frail works and most often perished over time. It is for this reason that the Renaissance turned to the 35th book of Pliny’s Natural History to view that, which no longer existed. This essay focuses on one of them, Timanthes’ Sacrifice of Iphigenia. This work aroused curiosity due to Agamemnon’s startling veil. His figure, in many of the writings seems to have displaced that of Iphigenia, the doomed maiden about to be sacrificed. This essay first discusses Timanthes’ impact on the Italian Renaissance, centering on Alberti, Marcantonio Raimondi, and Vasari. The latter painted a canvas where Timanthes draws the Sacrifice of Iphigenia. We then turn to four Spanish poets, Boscán, Garcilaso, Lope de Vega and Argensola in order to analyze the strikingly different ways in which Timanthes was incorporated in the works of these poets, from an allegorical reading to an attempt to recover the brilliance of the ancient; and from a poem that transfers the veil to a woman to one that places it on a courtesan.