• m10-lak-6-10
    Exterior view of fragment. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-lak-6-20
    Interior view of fragment. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-lak-6-30
    Drawing. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Lakonian Black-figure Cup Fragment

Date
Ca. 575-565 BC, Lydian
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P62.233
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Cup
Pottery Ware
Lakonian Black Figure
Pottery Attribution
Sector
HoB
Trench
HoB
B-Grid Coordinates
W20 / S85 - S90 to *99.4
Findspot
floor
Description

Fragment from central part of bowl. Clay apparently hard, tan; obscured by Expedition registration ink and shellac. Interior and exterior, cream (10 Y R 7/ 4, tan) slip, over which decoration in black (N2/, dark sepia) glaze and red (10 R 4/4) paint. Incision on interior.

Interior: horse or centaur to right, hindquarters with genitals preserved. At upper left, edge of shield (?) with zigzag pattern border. Parallel lines in red and incision on body and haunch.

Exterior. Pattern bands, from inside out: black pomegranates; bands, three thin black, one broad red, three thin black; outlined solid black tongues; three to four thin black bands.

Decoration attributed by Stibbe (personal communication, 5 November 1972) to the Boreads Painter, with whose Group Cb "the outside decoration would go well." The tondo scene "must have been unusual, because the horse stands above the center of the tondo, on a rather high exergue (which is common with this painter). We could think of Achilleus attacking Troilos on his horse from behind: this at least would offer an explanation for the (inside rim of the) shield. The theme is popular with the Boreads Painter of whom w have two other instances (my numbers 123,156)." Another possibility is a centaur, in a centauromachy; but "centaurs are rare in Lakonian vase painting and absent from the work of the Boreads Painter" (Stibbe, personal communication, 17 February 1983).

Dimensions
P.W. 0.0263; PL. 0.031; Th. 0.003
Comments
See Also
Bibliography
For centaurs in Lakonian vase painting, Stibbe, LV 228, fig. 85 (no. 110), pls. 18 (no. 36), and pls. 110 and 111 (no. 313).
Author
CHG