Euthymides Is Euphronios' Rival - but No Doubt Also His Friend - in the Pioneer Group

EUTHYMIDES

520 -515 BC

A contemporary of Phinias with, whom he has several points of contact. He too is a pot painter decorating amphorae, one psykter, hydriai, one plate and two cups, but these last two shapes only account for three out of the eighteen works attributed to him. Like Phintias he makes his figures rather heavy. He has signed six vases often adding the name of his father, Pollias who may have been the sculptor known from a number of signed vases found on the Athenian Acropolis.

Euthymides is Euphronios' rival - but no doubt also his friend - in the Pioneer Group: slightly junior in years, perhaps, but no imitator and his equal in invention and draughtsmanship, with a subtly different approach to his art. On the set work, on one side of the amphora with Hector arming there is the well known challenge to Euphronios, ''as never Euphronios could do" (i.e. Euphronios never painted as well as this). This is written next to three revellers. His friendly boast indicates his confidence in the excellence of his paintings: other inscriptions, which are visible in Richter's illustration (the Pioneer Group, as Boardman says, were "literate and garrulous"), indicate the names of these revellers: Komarchos on the left, Euedemos (perhaps a misspelling for Eudemos) in the centre, and Teles on the right.

BELLY AMPHORA

Euthymides shared Euphronios' interest in anatomy - apparent from the painting of the three rather mature and tipsy revellers. These figures are much more generous, if not flaccid, than those of Herakles and Antaios.

THE FIGURES The three male revellers are all naked but for a wrap hanging from their bodies. The poses of the figures are complex. They dance in tipsy elation, the one on the left called Komarchos has a kantharos in his right hand he stands in profile view, but his torso is seen at a three quarter angle. Eudemos, the one in the centre is shown in a successful three-quarter back view, as he swings his staff turning back to Komarchos. From profile legs, through three-quarter view of the buttocks to full back-view and a profile face. The interest in twisting bodies shows a desire to suggest the space in which these figures move. His name is given in an inscription between his legs. On the right we see Teles dancing with his arms and legs spread in consonance with the rhythm. He goes from profile to almost frontal, but retains a profile face (the extreme left of the panel behind Komarchos is the well-known boastful inscription running from top to bottom ''as never Euphronios could do”).

TECHNIQUE (DRAPERY) The drapery is purely decorative and hangs in the same zig-zag folds already noticed in the work of Euphronios. We need to ask why there is such an interest in the body's form and how it stands and moves in space. There are limitations: overlapping is kept to a minimum and not explored greatly to add depth to the scene; there is no background, just the glossy-black of the glaze; and the figures stand on a simple ground-line, again with no depth. Perhaps the answer lies in the red figure technique itself. Light figures against the dark ground projects them in space, the use of brush and dilute glaze, turns muscles into forms rather than flat silhouette or flat patterns, and the end result is that the artist is not interested in just telling what happened in the story, but also in describing in increasing detail HOW it happened. THIS TREND TOWARDS REALISM IS NEW IN ANCIENT ART (Not just Greek art but Near Eastern and Egyptian art as well). It is a development that occurs only once again in Western art, in the Renaissance. It is indicative of a more intense observation by the artist of the world about him, and in particular of his fellow men.

Note on the techniques used. First the design had to be sketched in on the leather hard clay, (before firing). The tool with a blunt point cut a trench which prevented the black background glaze from running over the outline that reserved the red figure. Then the figure was again outlined in relief, i.e. slip or glaze trailed from a nozzle fitted to a bag. The light reflects off these relief lines of clay slips or glaze. Finally the figure details were filled in with a brush.

Euthymides figures are heavier, meatier than Euphronios'. He usually incises the hair outline and avoids relief ringlets. In general he relies more on line than pattern. There a few lashed eyes, simpler ears with a centre tick or hook, the feet long and flat, fingers rubbery. The cloaks stand in stiff folds at the back of the neck. In the florals there are fewer lotuses, their members separated.

On the other side of the vase: The arming of Hektor in the presence of Priam and Hecuba. In the centre, Hektor is seen frontally but with his right leg in profile and his profile face looking down to the right side, putting on his leather corslet. On the right his shield with satyr's head device. Then his mother Hecuba holds his helmet and spear. On the left Priam with bald pate, stubbly beard and wrapped up in his himation, holds a knotted staff in his left, whilst his right is raised to underline some word of advice.

Note the revellers are crowned with vine leaves in purple, and that Euthymides loves the detail and decorative design of the ribs, but in anatomical rendering Euthymides must render to Euphronios ..."just as 'line' and 'design’ must render to the brush (loaded with glaze) and 'form'".