Micon

Micon, also known as Micon the Younger or Mikon, was an ancient Greek painter and sculptor active around the middle of the fifth century BC in Athens. He matters because he was one of the leading mural painters of the early Classical period, working alongside Polygnotus of Thasos on the monumental decoration that accompanied Pericles' rebuilding of the city.

According to the sources, he painted the Argonauts' expedition to Colchis in the Anakeion, the building known as the temple of the Dioscuri. Pausanias notes the importance Micon gave to the figure of Acastus and his horses. Together with Polygnotus, he decorated the Theseion with scenes from the life of Theseus, a building dated to about 470 BC, where he painted a Centauromachy. He probably also worked on the Stoa Poikile, the painted portico in the Agora, where with the painter Panaenus he depicted the Battle of Marathon. These works were painted on whitewashed panels, with figures roughly one metre tall.

His style is associated with emotion, movement and atmosphere. He is credited with innovations such as landscape painting and a stage-like composition built on overlapping planes. His influence lasted, especially in vase painting, which absorbed his approach to composition. Pliny the Elder also remembers him as a maker of athlete statues, and two are attributed to him: one, according to Pausanias, represented the Olympic champion Callias, victor in the pankration at Olympia in 472 BC, and a pedestal of the other, with part of an inscription dated to about 450 BC, was found on the Acropolis. His daughter, Timarete, was also a painter.