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Article

Achilles Painter  

5th century, male.

Active between 460 and 430 BC.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

The Achilles Painter is named for his depictions of Achilles, particularly that on an amphora in the Vatican where the hero is shown armed with a lance and wearing a cuirass. He is depicted standing alone, while on the other side of the amphora is a female figure. This way of presenting single figures, one on either side of a vase, can be compared to the work of the Berlin Painter and initially had a very strong influence on the Achilles Painter. The rather exaggerated anatomical details of the early nudes is borrowed from the Berlin Painter....

Article

Adolus, Joannes  

Greek, 16th century, male.

Active in Nicaea before 1588.

Painter. History painting, portraits.

According to Zani, Adolus reproduced an old Byzantine painting dating from the 14th century, the Portrait of Epiphanias, Bishop of Constance.

Article

Aetion  

4th century, male.

Painter. Historical subjects, peopled scenes, genre scenes.

Ancient Greek.

Probably Ionian, Aetion was active in the second half of the 4th century BC. Lucian describes one of his paintings representing the Marriage of Alexander and Roxane, princess of Sogdiana. The Aldobrandini frescoes may relate to this work. Lucian's text inspired Sodoma (or Raphael ?) to paint the same subject. According to Pliny, who indicates that the artist also worked in bronze, Aetion also painted an ...

Article

Aetion  

C. Hobey-Hamsher

(fl late 4th century bc).

Greek painter. Pliny (Natural History, XXXV.78) placed Aetion in the 107th Olympiad (352–349 bc) and (XXXV.50) included him in a list of painters who used a palette restricted to four colours: white, yellow, red and black. Cicero (Brutus xviii.70), however, listed him among those painters who used a wider palette. It is likely that the four-colour palette was a restriction adopted occasionally by many artists who, in other works, used more than four colours. None of Aetion’s work survives, but Pliny ascribed to him pictures of Dionysos, Tragedy and Comedy, Semiramis Rising from Slavery to Royal Power and an Old Woman Carrying Lamps and Attending a Bride, whose modesty was apparent. His most famous painting depicted the Wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxane, and it was perhaps painted to celebrate it (327 bc). It was described by Lucian of Samosata (Aetion iv–vi), who saw it in Italy. Lucian added that when the painting was shown at Olympia, Proxenides, one of the chief judges of the games, was so impressed by it that he gave his daughter to Aetion in marriage. Alexander the Great stood best man. The painting included erotes playing with Alexander’s armour, a motif repeated in several Roman wall paintings with reference to Mars and Hercules. Another Aetion, also assigned to the 107th Olympiad, appears in a list of bronze sculptors drawn up by Pliny (XXXIV.50); this is probably an interpolation from XXXV.78....

Article

Agatharchos  

C. Hobey-Hamsher

(fl late 5th century bc).

Greek painter. He was the son of Eudemos and came originally from Samos, but worked in Athens; none of his work survives. He was said to be self-taught. Vitruvius (On Architecture VII.praef.11) claimed that Agatharchos was the first artist to paint a stage set on wooden panels. This was for a tragedy by Aeschylus (525/4–456 bc), although it may have been a revival presented later in the 5th century bc. Vitruvius added that he wrote a commentary discussing the theoretical basis of his painted scenery and that the philosophers Demokritos (late 5th century bc) and Anaxagoras (c. 500–428 bc) followed him in exploring theories of perspective. It is unlikely that Agatharchos organized his compositions around a single vanishing point. More probably, individual objects and buildings or groups of buildings were depicted receding towards separate vanishing points. If Agatharchos’ experiments in perspective were confined to stage scenery, they would have been limited to architectural backgrounds, before which the actor moved. Aristotle (...

Article

Agatharchus of Samos (Son of Eudemus)  

5th century, male.

Painter. Historical subjects.

Ancient Greek, Classical Period.

Agatharchus was a Samian painter working in Athens in the second half of the 5th century BC, at the time of Pericles. He is thought to have painted a skene (backdrop) for Aeschylus' play Seven against Thebes...

Article

Aglaophon I  

6th – 5th century, male.

Active at the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th centuries BC.

Born in Thasos.

Painter.

Ancient Greek, Archaic Period.

Father and teacher of Polygnotes and Aristophon, Aglaophon I was probably the grandfather of Aglaophon II. He is believed by some to have produced the original ...

Article

Aglaophon II (Son of Aristophon)  

5th century, male.

Active in Athens in the second half of the 5th century BC.

Born to a family originally from Thasos.

Painter. Mythological subjects.

Ancient Greek, Classical Period.

Nephew of Polygnotes and grandson of Aglaophon I, Aglaophon II produced votive paintings including Olympias and Pythias crowning Alcibiades...

Article

Alcimachus  

5th century, male.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

We know from Pliny that Alcimachus was living in 410 BC.

Article

Alcimachus  

4th century, male.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

Alcimachus lived at the time of Alexander the Great. Pliny calls him one of those 'next to the top rank' ( primis proximi ). He painted the portrait of an athlete in the Olympian Games who won the pancration (boxing and wrestling)....

Article

Alcisthene  

female.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

Alcisthene is perhaps the name of a woman painter from antiquity, but scholars disagree on the meaning of the relevant passage in Pliny. '(Pinxit) Alkisthene saltatorem' (Alcisthene [painted] the dancer) should perhaps be read as 'Alkisthenem saltatorem' ([painted] the dancer Alkisthene). In the latter case, Alcisthene would be the name of a (male) dancer depicted in a painting from the Greek period....

Article

Alexander  

4th – 3rd century, male.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

A monochrome painting on marble found at Herculaneum bears the signature of Alexander. Known as Girls Playing Knucklebones, it depicts Phoebe trying to reconcile Leto and Niobe who have quarrelled over their game, while Ileaira and Aglae continue to play, kneeling on the ground. The delicate style is reminiscent of the elegance of Attic white-ground pottery....

Article

Altamura  

5th century, male.

Active in the first half of the 5th century BC.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

This name is found on the volute krater found at Altamura and now in London. Some of his red-figure pottery has been found at Spina. He seems to have been active between 470 and 455 BC. His work is generally found on large vases and depicts solemn scenes, airy compositions imbued with a religious sense reminiscent of Aeschylus. The draperies are painted with a sense of volume, but the anatomy is still archaic in style....

Article

Altamura, Johann  

Greek, 19th century, male.

Born 1852, in Athens; died 1878.

Painter. Waterscapes, seascapes.

A friend of the architect H.C. Hansen, Altamura visited Copenhagen where he attended the fine arts academy from 1873 to 1876. He was primarily a painter of seascapes.

Copenhagen, 3 June 1976...

Article

Amphiaraus  

6th century, male.

Active in Corinth, at the beginning of the 6th century BC.

Painter, potter.

Ancient Greek.

Article

Anagnostaras, Theodor C.  

Greek, 20th century, male.

Active in the USA.

Born in Athens.

Painter, draughtsman. Figures, nudes, portraits, interiors with figures, landscapes, seascapes.

Theodor Anagnostaras studied initially in Athens, but having started singing at the age of six and trained at the National Music Conservatoire, he emigrated to the USA to continue his career as a baritone. He then felt an irresistible need to paint and abandoned his singing career in ...

Article

Anapolitaky, Emmanuel  

Greek, 20th century, male.

Born in Crete.

Painter.

A student of Roilo Castelodro, Emmanuel Anapolitaky was a portrait and still-life painter who he exhibited in Paris at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1926 and 1927.

Article

Anaxander  

male.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

Anaxander is mentioned by Pliny as a minor artist.

Article

Anaxandra  

3rd century, female.

Activec.the middle of the 3rd century BC.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

Anaxandra was the daughter and follower of the Sicyonian painter Nealces.

Article

Anaxenor  

male.

Active in Magnesia.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

The portrait of a singer is attributed to Anaxenor.