Euphronius & The Pioneers

Euphronius Calyx KraterVase: Calyx KraterPotter & Painter:

Euphronios signedDate: 510 - 500 B.C.Height: 46 cmDiameter at neck 55cmSubject: Side A: Herakles vs

AntaiosSide B: Flute Recital

Side A: Herakles vs Antaios

Side B: Flute Recital

Pioneer Group

• First painters realize the potential of the new red figure technique invented ca. 530-520 B.C.

• They appear to have been a close-knit group, naming each other on their vases

• They were competitive rivaling one another in their attempts to depict naturalistic bodies in challenging poses.

Red-figure technique

• It was invented in Athens about 525 BC, perhaps inspired by other arts in which figures are set against a dark background.

• Preliminary work could involve rough sketches, perhaps in charcoal, which just bruise the surface of the vase, and a broad band outlining the figures.

Red-figure technique

• A relief line is used on the earlier vases, and varying thicknesses of paint lent an illusion of texture. The technique disappears before the end of the 4th century BC.

Red-figure technique

• The red-figure technique for figure and other decoration on vases involves the painting of outline, with linear detail, and the background filled with black.

Red figure technique

• It is thus like a reverse of black figure with detail executed by a brush rather than a graver, which gave the artist more freedom for the new, realistic style he sought to express.

Side A: Herakles and Antaios

• Herakles and Antaios grapple in the center of the composition.

• Both figures are nude, with the well-defined anatomy characteristic of the artist.

Side A: Herakles and Antaios

• This is one of Herakles twelve labours

• Antaios gained strenght from Mother earth.

• In black figure versions of this painting he is held aloft

(Hercules wrestles with Antaeus)

• The scene was a popular subject in sculpture. According to Appolodorus, on his way back from the Hesperides, Hercules engaged in a wrestling match with the giant Antaeus who was invincible so long as some part of him touched the earth, from which he drew his strength. Hercules held him in the air in a vice-like grip, until he weakened and died. Hercules is depicted with his arms locked round the waist of Antaeus, his feet dangling and feature twisted in pain, levers himself with an arm against Hercules's head in a vain attempt to free himself.

This typical image, well known in the Renaissance, does not appear to derive from any classical model.

The painting was part of a series of seven executed for the Palazzo Cattaneo Adorno di Strada Nuova.

Compare differences in pose

Composition

• Euphronios uses a new ‘W’ composition.• The women mirror each other to create this

effect.

• Herakles' black hair & beard contrasts with Antaios' brown done in dilute glaze.

• Heroic civilised Greek defeating hairy barbarian

Defeat

• Herakles has Antaios in a head lock

• Moment of death depicted; Antaios' fist is unfurled, limp and eyes rolled back.

• Note anatomical detail

Side A: right in the background• Two female figures draped in Ionic chiton

and himation, wearing simple fillets in their hair, flee to the right with their arms raised in fright.

Side A: left in the background

• Wearing chiton, himation, and sakkos head cover, flees to the left, holding up her skirt with right hand in the background.

Side A:• Behind the woman

on the left, Herakles' attributes hang on or lean against the wall: lion skin (details done in relief line), knotted club, and quiver (with ties in added red at top).

• The quiver interrupts the lower part of the elaborate pattern of palmettes which appear above the left handle.

Side B:

• A flute player, dressed in chiton and himation (the folds of which artfully overlap),

• The Player holds the double flute in his raised left hand and steps up onto the performer's platform with his left foot.

The concert is attended by a male seated on a stool at left

The concert is attended by two men seated on stools at the right.

Each is draped from the waist down in a himation and holds a

staff.

The figure at the left wears a wreath in

added red and has sideburns done in dilute

glaze.

The details of the anatomy

are done both in relief line and dilute

glaze.

• Upper border ornament under the rim is a band of palmettes running right.

• Between the bases of the handles is a double row of palmettes and lotuses linked by tendrils.

•

• Three palmettes appear above the left handle.

Decorative Motifs

Elaborate pattern of palmettes interrupted by the quiver appear above the right handle.

Inscriptions:• Kalos/Kale: LEAGROS KALOS: [ME]LASKALOS

Inscriptions:• Kalos/Kale: MELAS • Inscriptions: On side A both figures are named: [epig-rougê]ERAKLES,

Herakles, below the combatants, and [AN]TAIOS, [An]taios, above the figure's head in retrograde. The artist's signature appears beginning to the left of the face of the woman at the left: EUPHRONIOS EGRAPHSEN, Euphronios painted it. On B, LEAGROS KALOS, Leagros is beautiful, beginning to the left of the left figure's head. On the platform: [ME]LAS KALOS, Melas is beautiful (Melas is the name of the performer); in the field above to the right: POLUKLES, Polykles, [K]EPHISODOROS, Kephisodoros.

• Shape Description: Calyx krater • Sources Used: CVA, Paris 1, plates 4-5.; Boardman 1975, 32-33, fig. 23;

Arias & Hirmer 1961, 65 • (Suzanne Heim)• Keywords: Antaios, aulos, chiton, club, female, fight, fighting, fillet, fleeing,

Herakles, Herakles and Antaios, himation, lionskin, man playing aulos, naked, playing, quiver, sakkos, seated, staff, stool, wearing, woman, wreath

Inscriptions:

• Signature: EUPHRONIOSEGRAPHSEN