Euaion Painter

While the identities of most ancient Greek vase painters are unknown, many can be identified by their distinctive artistic styles. Scholars often name these artists after museums or institutions that own their works, such as the Chicago Painter, who is named for a vase at the Art Institute of Chicago. At other times, the artists are named after subjects or scenes that they created, as is the case with the Euaion Painter. His name derives from an inscription on another vase in the Musée du Louvre that identifies a handsome boy as Euaion. Euaion was the son of Aeschylus, one of the great playwrights of ancient Athens. He was a popular subject in Greek vase painting as a number of other artists also identify him with inscriptions. 

The Euaion Painter was an ancient Greek artist active in Athens between 460 and 440 BCE. He decorated vases using the red-figure technique, which was invented about 525 BCE. The Euaion Painter’s style tells us he was a student of another ancient Greek vase painter whose name we do know, Douris. Douris’s name is known because he signed 38 vases as painter, one as potter, and one as both. We can identify the work of the Euaion Painter by the  tall, small-headed, thin and rarely overlapping figures that populate his designs. He specialized in decorating cups but also decorated other small vessels, such as pyxides (sing. pyxis), which were used to hold personal objects.