Terracotta fragments of a psykter (vase for cooling wine)

Euphronios was a vase painter and potter working in the red-figure technique in Athens from about 520 to 470 BCE. He signed his name on eighteen vases, six times as painter and twelve times as potter. To judge by their drawing style, the vases that he signed as potter seem to be later than those he signed as painter. In his early career Euphronios was one of a group of Athenian vase painters who have been dubbed 'the Pioneers' by modern scholars. Working ca. 520 to 500 BCE, they were the first to exploit the possibilities of drawing in the new red-figure technique. Like his colleagues, Euphronios was interested in showing the human body in a variety of poses, and he used overlapping and foreshortening to give his scenes a sense of depth. On their vases, the Pioneers often depicted one another and even exchanged playful insults about each other. Later in his career, Euphronios's signature as potter appeared alongside the names of several of the finest vase painters of this period, including Douris, Makron, and Onesimos. The precise details surrounding Euphronios's later role as potter are unclear. Perhaps as he got older and his eyesight failed, he switched to the more tactile, less visual craft of potting a vase. Or the potter signature may mean that Euphronios actually owned the workshop, a sign of his prosperity and success in the industry.