Erichthonios Painter

Painter of red-figure vases in Athens, active around 450-420 BC.

Named by John Beazley after a red-figure pelike with a painting of the discovery of the infant Erichthonios (Ἐριχθόνιος), a mythical king of Athens. On side B are two draped ephebi (youths). 440-430 BC. Found in grave 74 of the ancient cemetery at Fikellura, near the site of the city of Kamiros, western Rhodes. British Museum, London. Inv. No. 1864,1007.125 (Vase E 372). Height: 26.67 cm, diameter 18 cm.

Eucharides Painter

Vase painter in Athens, active around 500-460 BC.

Perhaps a pupil of the Nikoxenos Painter.

Named by John Beazley after the signature of the potter Meidias inscribed on a hydria now in the British Museum, Vase E 224.

A variety of black-figure and red-figure vases, from large kraters to small cups, have been attributed to the Eucharides painter. His subjects were scenes from mythology and daily life. He painted number of Panathenaic prize amphoras, traditionally decorated in black-figure, and may have the first red-figure artist to have painted a number of them after 500BC.

A red-figure oichonoe depicting Nike at an altar by the Eucharides Painter. Around 490-480 BC. Agora Museum, Athens. Inv. No. P 15010.

Panathenaic prize amphoras were containers for oil from a sacred grove of olive trees. The oil itself was the prize awarded to victors in contests of the Greater Panathenaia festival, held in Athens every four years. Winners received a specific amount of oil in a number of amphoras, on one side of which was a painting depicting the event in which they were victorious (see photo below). The form and decoration of these amphoras had become more or less standardized by around 530 BC, and the tradition of decorating them using the black-figure technique continued after the introduction of red-figure painting at the end of the same century.

Typically, as here, Athena the patron goddess of Athens is depicted in a panel on one side of the amphora's body. She is shown as the warlike Athean Promachos (Athena at the Forefront), striding to the left, wearing a high-crested Attic helmet and a snaked-fringed aegis over a long chiton. On her left arm she carries a round shield, and with her raised right arm she aims a spear. She is flanked by two tall Doric columns, on each of which stands a votive sculpture of a cockerel. Written vertically in mirrored letters to the right of the left-hand column is the inscription "Ton Athenethen athlon" ("One of the prizes from Athens").

Euphronios

Εὐφρόνιος

Vase painter and potter in Athens,
active around 535 - after 470 BC.

Probably a pupil of Psiax.

He worked in the workshops of the potters Kachrylion, who produced drinking cups, and Euxitheos, but appears to have worked with other potters on other vase forms. He may have had his own workshop from around 500 BC.

Originally a painter of black-figure pottery, he became part of the Pioneer Group, the modern name given to a group of vase painters involved in the shift from black-figure to red-figure pottery and the transition from Late Archaic to Early Classical art. The group also included the Dikaios Painter, Euthymides, Hypsias, Phintias, Smikros and the Sosias Painter. They were not the inventors of the red-figure technique, thought to have been first practised in the workshop of the potter Andokides around 530 BC, perhaps by the Andokides Painter or Psiax. Members of the group adopted the technique up to ten years after its invention, and Euphronios' earliest red-figure works are dated to around 520 BC.

He was one of the most important artists of the red-figure technique, and one of the first known artists to sign his work. His drawing style is clear, bold, precise and detailed, and his compositions monumental. He experimented with various painting styles and techniques.

Around 27 mostly fragmentary black-figure and red-figure vases, including drinking cups, kraters and amphoras, have been attributed to Euphronios. His subjects were scenes from mythology and daily life.

His finest work is considered to be the "Euphronios krater" (or "Sarpedon krater"), a red-figured calyx-krater dated around 515 BC, signed by Euxitheos as potter and Euphronios as painter. Height 45.7 cm, diameter 55.1 cm. It is the only vase by Euphronios to have survived complete.

Side A shows the death of the Homeric hero Sarpedon, son of Zeus and king of Lycia, who was killed by Patrocles during the Trojan War. Hermes directs Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death) who carry Sarpedon's corpse after it has been rescued by Phoebus Apollo. On side B, three young Athenians put on their armour before battle.

Looted by grave robbers from an Etruscan tomb near Cerveteri, Italy (ancient Caere, Etruria) in 1971. Formerly in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. No. 1972.11.10), it was returned to Italy in 2008. First moved to the National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome (Inv. No. L.2006.10), it is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Cerveteri.

Exekias

Ἐξηκίας (signature ΕΧΣΕΚΙΑΣ, Exsekias)

Potter and painter in Athens,
active around 550-525 BC

He taught the Andokides Painter, who with Psiax, is among those credited with the invention of red-figure painting around 530 BC.

Foundry Painter

Vase painter in Athens,
active around 500-470 BC.

He worked in the workshop of the potter Brygos, and specialized in cups. He also worked with Onesimos, Euphronios and the Brygos Painter.

Gela Painter

Black-figure vase painter in Athens, active around 500-450 BC.

Most of the vase paintings attributed to the Gela Painter are on lekythoi (small funerary vases), found in Italy (Magna Graecia, or West Greece), and particularly in Sicily, to where they had been exported from Athens. His real name is unknown; he is named after the ancient Greek colony Gela, on the south coast of Sicily, where many of his works have been discovered.

Images by this prolific but "undistinguished" painter, mainly mythological and genre scenes, are original but executed in a loose, "careless" manner.

Herakles and Apollo struggle for the Delphic tripod on an Attic black-figure lekythos attributed to the Gela Painter, circa 520 BC (see photo below). From Akragas (Agrigento), Sicily. Agrigento Regional Archaeological Museum. Inv. No. R 146.

Apollo, wearing a laurel wreath, a chamlys and a quiver over his shoulder, and carrying a bow and arrows, holds onto two rings on the top of the Delphic tripod as Herakles attempts to escape with it to the right. Herakles, wearing a lion skin, a quiver and a scabbard, carries the tripod by one of its leg with his right hand, while with his left hand he raises his club threateningly. Between the two figures is the inscription NO NO.

Hermonax

Ἑρμῶναξ

Red-figure vase painter in Athens,
active around 470-440 BC.

Probably a pupil of the Berlin Painter with the Achilles Painter, and a contemporary of the Providence Painter.

Over 150 vases have been attributed to him, including 10 signed "Hermonax has painted it". He mainly painted large vessels, including pelikai and stamnoi, but also lekythoi and some cups. Many of his surviving works depict Dionysiac themes.

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