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The Most Famous

PAINTERS from Greece

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This page contains a list of the greatest Greek Painters. The pantheon dataset contains 1,421 Painters, 12 of which were born in Greece. This makes Greece the birth place of the 20th most number of Painters behind Czechia and Norway.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Greek Painters of all time. This list of famous Greek Painters is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Greek Painters.

Photo of El Greco

1. El Greco (1541 - 1614)

With an HPI of 80.36, El Greco is the most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 100 different languages on wikipedia.

Dominikos Theotokopoulos (Greek: Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, IPA: [ðoˈminikos θeotoˈkopulos]; 1 October 1541 – 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (Spanish pronunciation: [el ˈgɾeko]; "the Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was a nickname, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, often adding the word Κρής (Krḗs), which means "Cretan", in Ancient Greek. El Greco was born in the Kingdom of Candia (modern Crete), which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, Italy, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570, he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance taken from a number of great artists of the time, notably Tintoretto and Titian. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings, such as View of Toledo and Opening of the Fifth Seal. El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation by the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

Photo of Giorgio de Chirico

2. Giorgio de Chirico (1888 - 1978)

With an HPI of 70.07, Giorgio de Chirico is the 2nd most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 49 different languages.

Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( KIRR-ik-oh, Italian: [ˈdʒordʒo de ˈkiːriko]; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. His best-known works often feature Roman arcades, long shadows, mannequins, trains, and illogical perspective. His imagery reflects his affinity for the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and of Friedrich Nietzsche, and for the mythology of his birthplace. After 1919, he became a critic of modern art, studied traditional painting techniques, and worked in a neoclassical or neo-Baroque style, while frequently revisiting the metaphysical themes of his earlier work. In 2018 it was suggested that de Chirico may have suffered from Alice in Wonderland syndrome.

Photo of Jannis Kounellis

3. Jannis Kounellis (1936 - 2017)

With an HPI of 56.82, Jannis Kounellis is the 3rd most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Jannis Kounellis (Greek: Γιάννης Κουνέλλης; 23 March 1936 – 16 February 2017) was a Greek Italian artist based in Rome. A key figure associated with Arte Povera, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome.

Photo of Agatharchus

4. Agatharchus (-500 - -460)

With an HPI of 56.22, Agatharchus is the 4th most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Agatharchus or Agatharch (Ancient Greek: Ἀγάθαρχος) was a self-taught painter from Samos, who lived in the 5th century BC. His father was named Eudemos (Εὔδημος). He is said by Vitruvius to have invented scenic painting, and to have painted a scene (scenam fecit) for a tragedy which Aeschylus exhibited. Hence some writers, such as Karl Woermann, have supposed that he introduced perspective and illusionism into painting.However, as this appears to contradict Aristotle's assertion that scenic painting was introduced by Sophocles, some scholars understand Vitruvius to mean merely that Agatharchus constructed a stage. But the context shows clearly that perspective painting must be meant, for Vitruvius goes on to say that Democritus and Anaxagoras, carrying out the principles laid down in a treatise written by Agatharchus, wrote on the same subject, showing how, in drawing, the lines ought to be made to correspond, according to a natural proportion, to the figure which would be traced out on an imaginary intervening plane by a pencil of rays proceeding from the eye, as a fixed point of sight, to the several points of the object viewed. It was probably not till towards the end of Aeschylus's career that scenic painting was introduced, and not till the time of Sophocles that it was generally made use of, which may account for what Aristotle says.Agatharchus was therefore the first painter known to have used graphical perspective on a large scale, although rare occurrences of perspective do appear in vase painting around the middle of the 6th century BC. He is also said to have led the way for later painters, such as Apollodorus.Agatharchus was a contemporary of Alcibiades and Zeuxis, and was often singled out for the ease and rapidity with which he finished his works.Plutarch and Andocides at greater length tell an anecdote of Alcibiades having inveigled Agatharchus to his house and kept him there for more than three months in strict durance, compelling him to paint it. The speech of Andocides above referred to seems to have been delivered after the destruction of Melos (416 BC) and before the expedition to Sicily (415 BC); so that from the above data the age of Agatharchus may be accurately fixed.

Photo of Apollodorus

5. Apollodorus (-500 - -460)

With an HPI of 55.51, Apollodorus is the 5th most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Apollodorus Skiagraphos (Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος ὁ σκιαγράφος) was an influential Ancient Greek painter of the 5th century BC whose work has since been entirely lost. 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. This shading technique uses hatched areas to give the illusion of both shadow and volume.

Photo of Nikolaos Gyzis

6. Nikolaos Gyzis (1842 - 1901)

With an HPI of 55.29, Nikolaos Gyzis is the 6th most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Nikolaos Gyzis (Greek: Νικόλαος Γύζης [niˈko.la.os ˈʝi.zis]; German: Nikolaus Gysis; 1 March 1842 – 4 January 1901) was considered one of Greece's most important 19th century painters. He was most famous for his work Eros and the Painter, his first genre painting. It was auctioned in May 2006 at Bonhams in London, being last exhibited in Greece in 1928. He was the major representative of the Munich School, the major 19th-century Greek art movement.

Photo of Euphranor

7. Euphranor (-301 - -400)

With an HPI of 53.83, Euphranor is the 7th most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Euphranor of Corinth (Ancient Greek: Εὐφράνωρ) (middle of the 4th century BC) was a Greek artist who excelled both as a sculptor and as a painter.Pliny the Elder provides a list of his works including a cavalry battle, a Theseus, and the feigned madness of Odysseus among the paintings; and Paris, Leto with her children Apollo and Artemis, and Philip and Alexander in chariots among the statues.No known existing statues have been identified as copies from works of Euphranor (but see a series of attributions by Six in Jahrbuch, 1909, 7 foil.). His work appears to have resembled that of his contemporary Lysippus, notably in the attention he paid to symmetry, in his preference for bodily forms slighter than those usual in earlier art, and in his love of heroic subjects. He wrote a (now lost) treatise on proportions.He was a contemporary of Antorides, and, like him, studied under Ariston.

Photo of Achilles Painter

8. Achilles Painter (-470 - -425)

With an HPI of 51.49, Achilles Painter is the 8th most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

The Achilles Painter was a vase-painter active ca. 470–425 BC. His name vase is an amphora, Vatican 16571, in the Vatican museums depicting Achilles and dated 450–445 BC. An armed and armored Achilles gazes pensively to the right with one hand on his hip. The other hand holds a spear. On the opposite surface a woman performs libation.J. D. Beazley attributed over 200 vases to his hand, the largest share being red-figure and white-ground lekythoi. In his middle phase (ca. 450–445 BC), he decorates more open forms. The Achilles Painter was a late pupil of the Berlin Painter.The Phiale Painter became the Achilles Painter's most prominent student after he assumed the Berlin Painter's workshop. Almost a dozen other recognizable painters passed through the Achilles Painter's workshop as well. Notable painters include the Westreenen Painter, the Persephone Painter, the Clio Painter, Loeb Painter, and the Dwarf Painter. The Kleophon Painter, the Sabouroff Painter, and the Painter of Munich 2335 all spent time at the workshop as well.

Photo of Amasis Painter

9. Amasis Painter (-550 - -510)

With an HPI of 51.28, Amasis Painter is the 9th most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

The Amasis Painter (active around 550–510 BC in Athens) was an ancient Greek vase painter who worked in the black-figure technique. He owes his name to the signature of the potter Amasis ("Amasis made me"), who signed twelve works painted by the same hand. At the time of the exhibition, "The Amasis Painter and His World" (1985), 132 vases had been attributed to this artist.

Photo of Nikiforos Lytras

10. Nikiforos Lytras (1832 - 1904)

With an HPI of 48.50, Nikiforos Lytras is the 10th most famous Greek Painter.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Nikiforos Lytras (Greek: Νικηφόρος Λύτρας; 1832 – 13 June 1904) was a Greek painter. He was born in Tinos and trained in Athens at the School of Arts. In 1860, he won a scholarship to Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Munich. After completing these studies, he became a professor at the School of Arts in 1866, a position he held for the rest of his life. He remained faithful to the precepts and principles of the Munich School, while paying greatest attention both to ethnographic themes and portraiture. His most famous portrait was of the royal couple, Otto and Amalia, and his most well-known landscape a depiction of the region of Lavrio.

Pantheon has 12 people classified as painters born between 550 BC and 1936. Of these 12, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased painters include El Greco, Giorgio de Chirico, and Jannis Kounellis. As of April 2022, 3 new painters have been added to Pantheon including Nikiforos Lytras, Yannis Tsarouchis, and Thalia Flora-Karavia.

Deceased Painters

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Newly Added Painters (2022)

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Which Painters were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 6 most globally memorable Painters since 1700.