Euphranor

Euphranor of Corinth was a Greek artist of the middle of the fourth century BC, perhaps the only figure of antiquity who excelled at once as a painter, a sculptor and an art theorist. He is remembered above all for a treatise on proportions and colours, known today only through indirect references. Although he was born on the Isthmus of Corinth, he worked mainly in Athens, and Plutarch regards him as an Athenian.

Little is known about his life. Pliny the Elder calls him "Euphranor of the Isthmus", a phrase that may refer to Corinth or to a small town near the temple of Poseidon. Pliny places his peak in the 104th Olympiad (364-361 BC), when he worked on the Stoa of Zeus in Athens, early in his career. Ancient writers ranked him as a painter alongside Apelles, Zeuxis and Parrhasius, and as a sculptor alongside Phidias and Polyclitus. His son Sostratus signed his works without naming an ethnic origin, which suggests the family was Athenian.

According to Pliny, he worked in bronze and marble, making figures of every size, from colossal statues to small cups. His sculptures included a Paris, lover of Helen, an Athena in Rome, an Agathodaemon, and a group of Leto with her children Apollo and Artemis, together with Philip and Alexander in chariots. His paintings, as Pliny lists them, included the Twelve Gods, the feigned madness of Odysseus, and a cavalry battle between Athenians and Boeotians, probably the battle of Mantinea (362 BC). No surviving statue has been securely identified as a copy of his work, although several have been attributed to him.

His style recalls that of his contemporary Lysippus: attention to symmetry, slenderer bodies than earlier art had shown, and a fondness for heroic subjects. Pliny notes that he learned quickly, worked harder than anyone and excelled in every genre. His legacy is chiefly theoretical: his treatise, and the reputation ancient writers gave him, made him a reference point for classical painting and sculpture.