Laconian vase painting

In 1934, Edward Arthur Lane collated the known finds, and became the first archaeologist to distinguish several individual Laconian painters.

Laconian vases were quite widely distributed: specimens have been found at Marseille, Taranto, Reggio di Calabria, Cumae, Nola, Naukratis, Sardes, Rhodes, Samos, Etruria and nearly all over the Greek mainland.

Although we know of Spartan citizen families being involved in craft activities of direct importance to warfare, it is unlikely that pottery production was considered among those.

Cups were mostly made for export, the typical Spartan drinking vessel lakaina was mainly found in Laconia.

It can be assumed that the producers were potter-painters, i.e. that both stages of production were performed by the same individuals, as certain specific features in the vase shapes are only found on works ascribed to a single painter.

Earlier than other local styles, e.g. those of Corinth, Attica or East Greece, the figurally decorated interior of the cup became the carrier of the main image.

Around 570 BC, perhaps under the influence of East Greek plates, the Boreades Painter subdivided the interior image into segments.

He also introduced the typical Laconian tripartite subdivision of the exterior surface of the cup bowl (pomegranates, flames and rays).

Other motifs include Troilos and Achilles, Atlas, the hunt for the Calydonian boar, the return of Hephaistos to Mount Olympus, Prometheus and the blinding of Polyphemus.

Special Laconian features are, for example, a horseman with a volute tendril growing from his head, or an image of the nymph Kyrene.

[4] The majority of examples were found by Konstantinos Rhomaios at a Laconian settlement at Analipsis hill near Vourvoura during surface survey in 1899-1900, and then in excavations in the undertaken in early 1950s.

[9][10] Notable examples of the technique include what might be a depiction of a Karneia dancer from the Tomb of the Laconians in Athenian Kerameikos.