The Getty Museum – Biography of the Antimenes PainterThe Antimenes Painter decorated vases in the black-figure technique in Athens from about 530 to 510 B.C. Working in a period when many artists were switching to the new red-figure technique, the Antimenes Painter was one of the most prolific black-figure artists of his time. Over 140 of his vases survive, mostly amphorae and hydriai. He decorated his vases with a wide range of mythological and genre scenes but seems to have favored two themes: the hero Herakles and fountain-house scenes. As with most ancient artists, the true name of the Antimenes Painter is unknown; he is identified only by the stylistic traits of his work. Scholars named him after a kalos inscription praising the youth Antimenes on a vase now in the Rijksmuseum in Leiden.
