A Foreign Vase Painter in Sparta

The Arcesilas Cup in Context: Greek Interactions With Late Period Funerary Art

“…Similarities between the weighing scene on the Arcesilas Cup and depictions of weighing in Egyptian funerary art have been mentioned in most scholarship commenting on the tondo's subject, including Puchstein (1880–1 and 1881–2), Lane (1933–4), Boardman (1958 and 1980), Benton (1959), Schaus (1979, 1992 and 2006), Bresson (2000), Coudin (2009) and Mei (2013), with Maffre (2004, 276) providing a rare critical view of such a connection. However, when one reviews previous scholarship it becomes clear that little detailed analysis of the Egyptian influences on the iconography and composition of the Arcesilas Cup was made before Bresson's La Cité Marchande (2000, 89–94).…”

“…All are written in the Laconian alphabet (De Ridder 1902, 98–100, no. 198; Schaus 1979, 105; Neumann 1979, 86; Wachter 2001, 160–2), and most are close to the characters, which might indicate that they provide each with an appellation or annotation. Two of the inscriptions, ΑΡΚΕΣΙΛΑΣ and ΦYΛΑΚΟΣ, have relatively straightforward readings.…”

“…The community at Cyrene was closely linked to Laconia. The cities shared ancestral and cult ties, not only through Thera, but also because Laconians took the opportunity to migrate onto the agricultural lands discovered by the Therans as they moved from hostile coastal sites like Aziris to more fertile regions (Herodotus 4.151–9; Vries 2015, 1–11; Schaus 2006, 175; 1985, 98–102; 1979, 105; Malkin 1994, 48–57, 169–81, 192–203; White 1984, 99; Currie 2005, 245; Evans 2013, 116–17; James 2005, 1–20) 33 . In part owing to these connections, there was an export market for a very wide array of Laconian pottery in Cyrene, which continued even while exports elsewhere declined (Pipili 2018, 138; Mei 2013; Coudin 2009, 86–92; Schaus 1985).…”

“…In part owing to these connections, there was an export market for a very wide array of Laconian pottery in Cyrene, which continued even while exports elsewhere declined (Pipili 2018, 138; Mei 2013; Coudin 2009, 86–92; Schaus 1985). Differences in the shapes and painters of Laconian pottery found at Cyrene, Tocra and Naucratis appear to present a picture of specific relationships between patrons and producers or traders, rather than some sort of cabotage trade in Laconian fine wares across North Africa (Pipili 2018, 141; Coudin 2009, 92–9; Schaus 2006, 176; Schaus 1979). With evidence for direct Cyrenean access to the Laconian market, and a Cyrenean presence at Naucratis in Egypt (Schaus 2006; Johnston 2013–15), we can, therefore, consider a Cyrenean commission highly plausible.…”

The Pennsylvania University Museum's Demeter and Persephone Sanctuary Project at Cyrene: A Final Progress Report?

“…Apart from a superficial appraisal of the sanctuary's Archaic pottery undertaken half way through the fieldwork, in which it was incorrectly stated that the site contained no identifiable locally manufactured Archaic coarse wares (White 1975, 10-11), discussion of the sanctuary's ceramics outside the final publication has consisted of three separate articles. The first focuses attention on an inscribed Laconian sherd by the Naucratis Painter, whom the author argues was of foreign, conceivably Cyrenean origin (Schaus 1979;Boardman 1986, 173). The second discusses the significance of the sanctuary's sixth century imports for trade along the North African coast (Schaus 1980, supplementing the observations later drawn by the same author, Schaus 1985, 96 ff;Boardman 1986, 172).…”