- chapter 50: Etruscan jewelry –
which fi ts on the thickest part of the ring which is itself, and in front view, a large
oblong to the lower part of which are affi xed hollow spheres arranged in a cluster, with
intervening smaller spheres and granules.^54 During the course of the fourth century
bc the upper plate tends to take an oval shape and its decoration will go so far as to
accommodate human protomes and fi gures of marine animals. This type of earring is
sometimes presented in a simplifi ed form, reduced to a simple stamped plaque: it is a
cheaper alternative exclusively for funerary use. Another well attested type is in the form
of a simple curved tube. In the second half of the fourth century bc, this tube can be
enriched on its front surface with a convex plate decorated with stamped designs and a
ring to carry in turn a pendant vase, globular or amphora-shaped.
A series of signet rings with almond-shaped bezel, decorated with a mythological
or erotic scene surrounded by rows of tongues are collected under the name of Fortnum
Group (Fig. 50.10)^55 from the name of a collector; it testifi es to the same taste for
stamped and popular decoration, quite distant from contemporary Greek jewelry,
which is more sober and refi ned, the models of which will be widely disseminated
and reproduced in Etruria after Alexander’s conquests at the turn of the fourth to
third century bc. The jewelry found in Etruscan tomb furnishings then reconnects
with the refi ned techniques of fi ligree and granulation, and mingles various other
materials with the gold: amber, garnet, glass or enamel, illustrating the research into
polychromy of the Hellenistic period. However, it becomes diffi cult in the third–
second centuries bc, even in the most abundant series such as earrings in the form
of a disc or pelta (shield), with chains and pendants in the shape of an amphora, bird
or inverted pyramid (disc-and-pendant class), or in the earrings in the shape of an
open-ring decorated with a head of an animal or a Negro, to distinguish between the
productions of southern Italy, where Tarentum is an important center of production,
and those of the workshops of Etruria.^56
Figure 50.9 A grappolo-style earrings. Fourth century bc. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Bj 322–323
© RMN (Musée du Louvre) Gérard Blot/Christian Jean.