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