Arkesilas Painter

The Arkesilas - Painter was a Laconian vase-painters whose works are dated to the period around 560 BC. He is considered one of the five large vase painter of Sparta.

The Arkesilas Painter received his Notnamen by a shell, which is now in Paris in the Cabinet of Médailles the Bibliothèque nationale de France. On this so-called Arkesilas shell, which was found in Vulci, the artist shows the Cyrenian king Arcesilaus II, who is watching his subjects when packing and weighing of goods. It is a singular representation in ancient art. This and a further illustration of the artist, which showed the nymph Cyrene when wrestling with a lion, the archaeologists had first at an origin of the painter from North Africa think what but after excavations in Laconia turned out to be wrong. In another bowl, he shows women who are characterized by opaque white. This technique, which is typical of Corinthian and Attic vases, not found else on laconic works. A similar picture emerges in another bowl, possibly fighting on the Hercules against two Amazons. The legs can not be seen, the faces are partially white.

The Arkesilas painters decorated especially shells. He showed mainly Symposium scenes and mythological pictures. The latter is mainly dominated by images on the herakleischen sagas, Amazons, Atlas and Prometheus. Atlas and Prometheus can be found together on another vase painter. Striking here is that both the Titans are shown in the immediate vicinity, although the one in the west, the other was in the Caucasus. In addition to the ornate works of figurative Arkesilas the painter also merely ornamental painted works are attributed. His character at a time is precise and vivid. The painter was recognized in 1934 as one of the first artists laconic Vases by Arthur Lane. His early work was assigned by this still the Hephaistos Painter, who was later identified as Boreaden painter.