The cup was found at Vulci and is now on display in the Cabinet des médailles of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (inv. 189). It depicts Arkesilaos seated under a tent-like sheet and wearing an African hat. Because of this dress style and another vase depicting the nymphKyrene wrestling a lion, the Arkesilas Painter was initially assumed to have been active in North Africa. Later finds indicate that he was Laconian. The king is watching seven men who are packing, weighing and stacking trade goods. Added inscriptions specify their activities and the king's name. It is not clear what products or products they are loading. Some scholars suggest it is silphion, a rare plant for which Arkesilaos had a trade monopoly. His watchful stance mays support this. Several African animals underline the African location of the image.
In style and subject the painting is very unusual in Greek vase-painting. The depiction of a living political figure is extremely rare and unusual in vase painting, and images of Arekisalos II are similarly rare. For technological history, the depiction of weighing scales is of major significance, as their structure and use is shown. Historically, the production of such imagery in Laconia is also important, in that it illustrates the close links between Sparta and North Africa. Another vase by the same painter, depicting the nymph Kyrene, patron of the city of Kyrene, in North Africa, was found on the island of Samos, also a close ally of Sparta.
Bibliography
John Boardman: Early Greek Vase Painting. 11th to 6th Century BC. A Handbook. Thames and Hudson, London 1998 (World of Art), p.185–188, ISBN0-500-20309-1.
In the pottery of ancient Greece, a kylix is the most common type of wine-drinking cup. It has a broad, relatively shallow, body raised on a stem from a foot and usually two horizontal handles disposed symmetrically. The main alternative wine-cup shape was the kantharos, with a narrower and deeper cup and high vertical handles.
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC. Stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style.
Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting.
The Affecter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active in Athens around 550 to 530 BCE.
White-ground technique is a style of white ancient Greek pottery and the painting in which figures appear on a white background. It developed in the region of Attica, dated to about 500 BC. It was especially associated with vases made for ritual and funerary use, if only because the painted surface was more fragile than in the other main techniques of black-figure and red-figure vase painting. Nevertheless, a wide range of subjects are depicted.
The Cavalcade Painter is the conventional name for an ancient Greek vase painter who produced Corinthian black figure vases. He was active during the Middle Corinthian period, around 580 BC.
In archaeological scholarship, the term Mannerists describes a large group of Attic red-figure vase painters, stylistically linked by their affected painting style.
Bilingual vase painting is a special form of ancient Greek vase painting. The term, derived from linguistics, is essentially a metaphorical one; it describes vases that are painted both in the black-figure and in the red-figure techniques. It also describes the transitional period when black-figure was being gradually replaced in dominance by red-figure, basically the last quarter of the 6th and the very beginning of the 5th century BC. Their appearance may be due to the initial uncertainty of the market for the new red-figure style, although that style subsequently became dominant rather fast.
Laconian vase painting is a regional style of Greek vase painting, produced in Laconia, the region of Sparta, primarily in the 6th century BC.
The Arkesilas Painter was a Laconian vase painter active around 560 BC. He is considered one of the five great vase painters of Sparta.
The Rider Painter was a Laconian vase painter active between 560 and 530 BC. He is considered one of the five great vase painters of Sparta.
Boeotian vase painting was a regional style of ancient Greek vase painting. Since the Geometric period, and up to the 4th century BC, the region of Boeotia produced vases with ornamental and figural painted decoration, usually of lesser quality than the vase paintings from other areas.
Euboean vase painting was a regional style of ancient Greek vase painting, prevalent on the island of Euboea.
East Greek vase painting was a regional style of ancient Greek vase painting, produced by the eastern Greeks. In spite of the region's wealth, the pottery was rather unremarkable in comparison to other areas. The clay is red-brown to pink and often contains mica inclusions. Many regional sub-styles of East Greek pottery existed.
A Caeretan hydria is a type of ancient Greek painted vase, belonging to the black-figure style.
The Pontic Group is a sub-style of Etruscan black-figure vase painting.
Etruscan vase painting was produced from the 7th through the 4th centuries BC, and is a major element in Etruscan art. It was strongly influenced by Greek vase painting, and followed the main trends in style over the period. Besides being producers in their own right, the Etruscans were the main export market for Greek pottery outside Greece, and some Greek painters probably moved to Etruria, where richly decorated vases were a standard element of grave inventories.
Pseudo-Chalcidian vase painting is an important style of black-figure Greek vase painting, dating to the 6th century BC.
Gnathia vases are a type of pottery belonging to ancient Apulian vase painting of the 4th century BC.
Klazomenian vase painting was a regional style of ancient Greek vase painting, belonging to the East Greek representations of that form of art.
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