Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Cleanthes 3.
CLEANTHES, an ancient painter of Corinth, mentioned among the inventors of that art by Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 5) and Athenagoras (Legat. pro Christ. c. 17). A picture by him representing the birth of Minerva was seen in the temple of Diana near the Alpheus. (Strab. viii. p. 343, b.; Athen. viii. p. 346, c.) This work was not, as Gerhard (Auserles. Vasenbilder, i. p. 12) says, confounding our artist with Ctesilochus (Plin. xxxv. 40), in a ludicrous style, but rather in the severe style of ancient art. [L. U.]