- Richard Daniel De Puma –
face of the siren has almond-shaped eyes, prominent incised eyebrows, pointed nose and
large abstract ears. Sirens are hybrid combinations of human females and birds, so we
would expect to see their wings, but here they are subsumed by the wings of swans
depicted in relief on each side of the siren’s body. Usually, sirens have clawed bird’s feet,
but this one has fat human feet and apparently wears slippers. Incision is used abundantly
to articulate feathers, facial features and to provide irrelevant but decorative ornaments
like the elaborate palmette design on the siren’s breast. This fi ne jug was probably made
at Chiusi and dates circa 550–500 bc.
One fi nal Chiusine product in bucchero pesante is typical of that inland city and its
surrounding villages. Archaeologists call this footed tray a foculum.^37 These objects are
either rectangular and footed, like an example in the Metropolitan Museum, New York
(inv. 96.9.145), or circular and without feet. They usually have two horizontal handles
and almost always have an opening cut out at the front. They were used as offering trays
and deposited in tombs with other items dedicated to the cremated deceased. Several
of these trays contain a variety of small bucchero dishes, containers, spoons, spatulas
and palettes that may have been used to prepare (perhaps symbolically for the deceased)
cosmetics or edibles. The New York foculum is displayed with several of these small items,
but – as in almost every case – we cannot be certain that they were found with it.
Ornament on this foculum is typical of other bucchero pesante products: a combination
of many modeled reliefs and few incisions. In this case, three large palmettes mark the
midpoints of the tray’s back and side walls. Four recumbent lions, modeled in the round,
are stationed at each corner, and the front wall is fl anked by hooded female heads that
look at each other across the opening. Incised reliefs depicting a sphinx and a siren fl ank
the opening and appear again on the back wall. These trays were popular at Chiusi
throughout the sixth century bc. The example in New York is most likely a product of
circa 550–500 bc.
SUMMARY OF BUCCHERO DECORATIVE TECHNIQUESOpen or closed “fans,” made with a small notched tool of wood, and long lines of notched
patterns, probably made with a roulette, are hallmarks of bucchero sottile. On many vases,
especially kantharoi and kyathoi, the carination is often cut with notches. This, as well
as parallel vertical ribbing, are other simple but effective devices that articulate the
contours of the vase. We have seen that shallow relief designs, whether fi gural, vegetal
or geometric, decorate bucchero vessels from the earliest period of production. These
reliefs were often mold-made and affi xed to the vase with a slip of diluted clay while still
leather-hard. In bucchero pesante the reliefs are often not only more numerous and varied
than in earlier bucchero sottile but also higher (i.e. made from deeper molds). Sometimes
ornament includes small sculptures in the round. Reliefs may be cut out to form open
(ajour) designs, a technique popular for the handles of Nikosthenic amphoras and the
struts of caryatid chalices.^38
Incision is the other universal technique and appears throughout bucchero production.
Sometimes the incisions are parallel horizontal lines running around the rim of a kantharos,
adding a simple but effective accent. At other times they may create a complex picture
with multiple fi gures^39 or simply outline or articulate fi gures added in relief. Another
popular decorative technique with a long history involves the use of small stamps or
cylinder seals (cilindretti) to impress a design onto a leather-hard vase. Often these small