The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Laura Ambrosini –

Figure 52.12 Black-fi gure amphora and lid, Orvieto, circa 500–480 bc. University of Pennsylvania

Museum MS 2490A–B, image no. 4687. Turfa 2005: no. 213.

imperfections of fi ring techniques, shows some engagement with the Micali Painter and
the desire to imitate the perspective of Attic pottery. In the early decades of the fi fth
century bc the same themes also interest the Dancing Satyrs Painter^39 (Lotus Flowers
Workshop) who works in Caere almost to the middle of the fi fth century bc. The scenes
of his vases have themes of Attic imitation, with new functions in an Etruscan key, and
subjects related to military values.

THE ANCIENT OVERPAINTED POTTERY: THE

PRAXIAS GROUP^40 AND THE VAGNONVILLE GROUP^41

Around 480 bc, to mimic the red-fi gure pottery, the use of overpainted pottery is
introduced in Etruria. The technique, called “Six’s technique” in its simplest form involves
laying on fi gures in pink or orange on an all-black surface and incising details (so that the
black shows through). This technique was used on Athenian black fi gure vases from the
fi rst half of the sixth century bc. The drawback is that the pale paints used are fugitive.
One of the initiators of the overpainting technique in Etruria is Arnthe Praxias, active
around 480 bc. His signature, in the Greek Chalcidian alphabet, is painted before fi ring
on the rim and on the handle of an amphora kept in Paris. He is a metic who uses his
Greek name as a gentilicium to demonstrate his incorporation into civic society and takes
an Etruscan personal name (see Chapter 48). However, it is possible that he is actually
the Etruscan son of a Greek immigrant. In his workshop the hands of several painters can
be distinguished: the style is subarchaic, in some ways still linked to the Micali Painter.
The Jahn Painter in the early decades of the fi fth century bc shows an Atticizing line of
pioneering experiences with contacts traced by Prag to the Attic Painter of Copenhagen.
The Vagnonville Group, a sort of subsidiary of the Vulcian Praxias workshop, can be