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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....

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 ...

(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....

(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 (...

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...

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 ...

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...

5th century, male.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

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

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)....

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....

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....

6th century, male.

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

Painter, potter.

Ancient Greek.

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.

5th century, male.

Active probably in the 5th century BC.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

Androbius painted the famous diver Scyllis breaking the oars of the Persian ships. It is likely that this painting, like the Delphic portraits of Scyllis and his daughter Hydna, dates from shortly after the Persian wars....

5th – 4th century, male.

Born to a family originally from Cyzicus.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

Androcydes was a rival of Zeuxis. In c. 380 BC he painted a Battle between Horsemen for Thebes. Also attributed to him is a painting of Scylla surrounded by beautifully executed and lifelike fish. (Legend had it that Androcydes particularly liked fish.)...

4th century, male.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

Pliny Antenorides was, with Euphranor, a follower of Aristides - though not Aristides the famous painter of the time of Alexander but probably the grandfather of the latter and an architect, sculptor and painter. Nothing is known of the works of Antenorides....

4th century, male.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

A pupil of Euphranor, Antidotus was to be the master of the Athenian painter Nicias (which would seem to indicate that he was Athenian, or at least worked in Athens). Attributed to him are a Warrior with Shield, a ...

3rd century, male.

Active in the first half of the 3rd century BC.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

In 282 BC, Antidotus decorated the proscenium of the theatre at Delos with two paintings, for which he received 200 drachmas.

(fl later 4th century bc–early 3rd).

Greek painter. Born in Egypt, Antiphilos was a pupil of Ktesidemos. Although none of his works survives, he painted both large and small pictures and was famous for the facility of his technique (Quintilian: Principles of Oratory XII.x.6). Pliny (Natural History XXXV.114, 138) listed many of his pictures, which included portraits (Philip II and Alexander the Great with the Goddess Athena, in Rome in Pliny’s day; Alexander the Great as a Boy, also taken to Rome; and Ptolemy I of Egypt Hunting) and mythological subjects (Hesione; Dionysos; Hippolytos Terrified of the Bull; and Cadmus and Europa), all of which were in Rome in Pliny’s day. He also painted genre pictures: A Boy Blowing a Fire, a painting much admired for the reflections cast about the room and on the boy’s face, and Women Spinning Wool. The Egyptian city of Alexandria was an artistic centre famous for the depiction of comic figures and grotesques in several media. In that context, Antiphilos contributed a picture of a man called ...

4th century, male.

Active in the Hellenistic era.

Painter.

Ancient Greek.

Born in Egypt, Antiphilus was a pupil of Ctesidemus. A rival of Apelles, he is said to have slandered him to Ptolemy, becoming his slave as a result. Like Apelles, Antiphilus painted official portraits, generally of an idealised kind: ...