- chapter 53: The meanings of bucchero –
Figure 53.6 Bucchero sottile Cypro-Phoenician oinochoe, said to be from the Calabresi Tomb,
Cerveteri, circa 650 bc. (Vatican, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, inv. 20252.)
Drawing adapted from Sciacca and Di Blasi 2003, p. 53, no. 14.a number of other sites as far north as Vetulonia.^21 All date between circa 700 and 650 bc.
These are almost certainly imports from the Near East, but some bronze examples (e.g.
from Caere, Populonia, Narce and other sites) may represent a local response to the more
precious silver and gold examples. The early bucchero examples (e.g. Tomba Calabresi,
Caere^22 ) are clearly inspired by these metal prototypes and are likely imitations of them.
However, unlike the continuity seen in the spiral amphora form, the Cypro-Phoenician
oinochoe evolves into a far less elegant, albeit related form in later bucchero. Instead, the
original shape disappears from the Etruscan bucchero repertoire circa 625–600 bc.
Greek pottery had a strong infl uence on both the shapes and decorative schemes
of Etruscan bucchero. An early example of this infl uence is the bucchero sottile kotyle
(sometimes called a skyphos) from the Regolini-Galassi Tomb, Cerveteri (Fig. 53.1, b).
The shape, a tall cup without lip and two horizontal handles placed near or at the rim,
is a precise copy of the Protocorinthian kotyle and is popular in bucchero from circa
675–650 bc with variations as late as circa 600 bc. Even the decoration follows the
Greek model although in bucchero incision replaced paint. Here too there are Etruscan
examples in gold, silver and bronze: the famous gold kotyle with granulated sphinxes
from the Bernardini Tomb at Praeneste;^23 important silver examples from Pontecagnano,
Marsiliana d’Albegna and the Bernardini Tomb,^24 the last of which also has bronze
versions. The bucchero sottile examples are among the fi nest productions of this type of
pottery. Many have incredibly refi ned and thin walls, some less than one millimeter
thick, and they are meticulously decorated with delicately impressed fans and incised
lines. Exceptional pieces have modeled relief decoration.
It is interesting that the kotyle does not continue into later bucchero pesante. Rather, it is
replaced by shapes imitating other types of Greek cups like the kylix. “The classifi cation
of bucchero cups presents some special problems. Greek infl uence is obvious, but
not always easy to pin down with precision.”^25 One important feature is that several