Attic red-figure
Euthymides's 'as never Euphronios' amphora
Museum: Munich, Museum antiker Kleinkunst
Size: 60.5cm (amphora, Type A, signed by Euthymides as painter and son of Pollias, possibly the sculptor known from a dedication on the Acropolis)
Function: storage and display
Technique: red-figure (relief lines, black and dilute brown, washes of dilute)
Style: Pioneer
Subject/s: A. Young Hector, short-haired and already wearing greaves, fastens a leather corselet over his short tunic. His shield, with a satyr's head as device, stands between him and his mother Hecuba (named), holding his helmet and lance. Heavily draped father Priam, with long straggly hair, stubbly beard and bald head, holds a staff and remonstrates. Euthmyides son of Pollias painted (me). B. Three merrymaking komasts, from left to right Komarchos holding a kantharos, Euedemos (named between his legs), turning away from us and towards him, waving his walking stick, and Teles whose pose and gestures suggest dancing to song. The large nude bodies use minimal drapery to highlight their poses: the painter writes as never Euphronios.
Date: late 6th c.
Analysis: large size, careful potting and painting, attention to anatomy and space, and fine lettering in plentiful inscriptions show that this was a tour de force – the painter proclaiming his lineage, his literacy and his comraderie – recognising and challenging his contemporary.
