Asteas was the most important of the vase-painters working at Paestum in South Italy. The principal artist of a large workshop, he may have invented the free-standing half-palmettes, used to frame an image, that became characteristic of Paestan vase-painting. Asteas decorated hydriai and kraters, as well as some smaller vases, in the red-figure technique. Asteas was one of only two South Italian v
