Its name is Latin for painter, but it is in fact an abbreviation of its original name Equuleus Pictoris, the 'painter's easel', and it is normally represented as an easel.
Livy regards him as a less trustworthy authority than Fabius Pictor, and Niebuhr considers him the first to introduce systematic forgeries into Roman history.
Beta Pictoris is a star in the southern constellation of Pictor, the Easel, and is located to the west of the bright star Canopus.