- Giovannangelo Camporeale –
Figure 48.3 Black Figure hydria by a painter of Micali Group, bronze sculptor in his workshop
(Greek inscription above his head). Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. 96780. Courtesy of
Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana.quality, but it gives evidence that not only great foreign masters but also those of mediocre
quality reached Etruria. An amphora in Würzburg close to the Micali Painter is signed
by an artist, Kape Mukathesa, interpreted “Kape (slave) of Mukathe”, in the same formula
as Aranth (slave) of Heracana, who signed the painting in the Tomb of the Acrobats at
Tarquinia (last decades of sixth century bc): in each case, the signatures are of Etruscan
painters, who lack a gentilicium, but indicate only their link to a patronus (Colonna 1975;
see Chapter 21).
A special situation may be proposed for the so-called Cannicella Venus (Fig. 48.4): a
statue in Naxian marble, found in a sanctuary within the Cannicella necropolis of Orvieto,
and dated to the middle decades of the second half of the sixth century bc. Current opinion
holds that it may be an East Greek import that was restored in antiquity, for instance,
in the replacement of the breasts (also in Greek island marble, but different in source
from the statue itself) (Andrén 1967a, pp. 10–24; Andrén 1967b, pp. 50–51; Cristofani
1987). If one accepts the (quite likely) hypothesis about the restorations, it is necessary
to acknowledge the presence in Orvieto of the raw material (Naxian marble) used in the
restoration by a sculptor expert in working marble. Moreover, following research conducted
in the storeroom of the Orvieto museum and in the old excavation notes, other fragments
of Naxian marble statues had been found there (Andrén 1967a, pp. 24–25; Andrén 1967b,
pp. 51–52, nos. 2–3; Maggiani 1999). Therefore, the number of examples increases and
they are concentrated in Orvieto. In such a situation, the probable hypothesis is that a
sculptor arrived in Orvieto from East Greece along with tools for carving statues. The
only statue (fragmentary) also in Naxian marble, found in Etruria outside Orvieto comes
from Chiusi (Cappuccini 2004); we cannot eliminate the possibility that this last statue
was imported from Orvieto because an intensive network of interchange in sculptural
production existed between the two centers in the Archaic period (Hus 1961, pp. 298–
308; Camporeale 2003b, pp. 157). To a Greek sculptor – by birth or by training – has
been attributed a head (of a statue), made in marble from the Apuan Alps and found in the
stores of the Bargagli Collection in Casole d’Elsa Museum (Cianferoni 2012).