Introduction
- This article is about the Greek artist. For Eirene, the personification of peace and wealth, one of the Horae, see Horae.
Eirene or Irene (Greek: Ειρήνη) was an ancient Greek artist described by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century. She was the daughter of a painter, and created an image of a girl that was housed at Eleusis.
One of the six female artists of antiquity mentioned in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (XL.147-148) in A.D. 77: Timarete, Irene, Calypso, Aristarete, Iaia, Olympias.
During the Renaissance, Boccaccio, a 14th-century humanist, included Eirene in De mulieribus claris (Latin for On Famous Women). However, in this telling Boccaccio apparently conflated many of the women described by Pliny and attributed many more works to Eirene. Some other paintings he credits to Eirene are an older Calypso, the gladiator Theodorus, and a famous dancer called Alcisthenes.