Echion (painter)

Echion (Ancient Greek: Έχίων), also known as Aetion (Ἀετίων), was a celebrated Greek painter spoken of by Lucian,^[1] who gives a description of one of his pictures, representing the marriage of Alexander the Great and Roxana.^[2] This painting excited such admiration when exhibited at the ancient Olympic Games, that Proxenidas, one of the judges, gave the artist his daughter in marriage.^[2]

Echion seems to have excelled particularly in the art of mixing and laying on his colors. It has commonly been supposed that he lived in the time of Alexander the Great; but the words of Lucian show clearly that he must have lived about the time of Hadrian and the Antonines.

Mars and Venus by Sandro Botticelli, c 1485. Tempera and oil on poplar panel, 69 cm x 173 cm.^[3]

Aloys Hirt supposes that the name of the painter of Alexander's marriage, whom Lucian praises so highly, as Aetion, is a corruption of Echion.^[4][5]

Sandro Botticelli drew on Lucian's ekphrasis in his Mars and Venus (c. 1485, now National Gallery), borrowing the amoretti playing with Alexander's armour during the ceremony, two carrying his lance and one who has crawled inside his breastplate.

See also

• List of ancient Greeks
• List of painters

References

1. Lucian, De Merced. Cond. 42, Herod, or Aëtion, 4, &c., Imag. 7.
2. Förster, Richard (1894). "Die Hochzeit des Alexander und der Roxane in der Renaissance". Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen. 15 (3): 182–207. ISSN 1431-5955. JSTOR 25167339.
3. "NG page".
4. Gesch. d. Bild. Kunste, w.265—268.
5. Mason, Charles Peter (1870), "Aetion (2)", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, MA, p. 51, archived from the original on 2010-06-08, retrieved 2007-11-04

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Aetion. 2". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.