- chapter 52: The Etruscan painted pottery –
WHITE ON RED^12 AND RED ON WHITE POTTERYThe White on Red pottery (Fig. 52.7) is an impasto pottery with decorations in white
over a red slip. The most ancient vases sporadically appeared in Tarquinia (780–760
bc), later in the interior of Etruria (Bisenzio and Ager Faliscus), and before that on the
Tyrrhenian coast (middle-late IIB phase). This technique is developed in the moment of
transition between the Late Villanovan phase and the beginning of Early Orientalizing.
In the Orientalizing culture there is a general renewal even in the traditional indigenous
arts: in the fi rst half of the seventh century bc the impasto pottery painted in white on
red (“White on Red”) appears at Caere, Veii and in the Ager Faliscus. This fabric has
been studied extensively by Marina Micozzi (1994, see note 9). The class includes plates,
bowls, holmoi, dolii, amphoras, urns and cylindrical pyxides. The production starts in
the fi rst quarter of the seventh century bc at Caere with a repertoire of Subgeometric
types with extremely stylized natural elements taken from the zoomorphic repertoire,
such as herons and fi shes. In the second half of the seventh century bc is a great turning
point with animals (heraldic and in procession) and ornate decorations such as chains of
palmettes.
The best representative of the Calabresi Urn Workshop is the Painter of the Birth of
Menerva (perhaps to be identifi ed with the Painter of Bufolareccia 86),^13 whose personality
was approached in the art of the Tomb of the Painted Animals and the Tomb of the
Painted Lions. His style is Phoenicianizing (linear Geometric patterns, chains of lozenges,
Phoenician palmettes). The Etruscan inscription kvsnailise,^14 as repainted (see Gaultier-
Geppert 2000) seems to be the name of the Painter of the Birth of Menerva, active in
the third quarter of the seventh century bc. The production of Caere is characterized by
complex formal and stylistic elements, but in the third quarter of the seventh century
bc incorporates Geometric linear syntax enriched with typically Corinthian ornate effect,
connected to the Demaratean phase. In the Ager Faliscus the production is characterized
Figure 52.7 White on Red conical stand and bowl, Narce tomb 7F, fi rst half of the seventh century
bc. University of Pennsylvania Museum MS 1221, image no. 152688. Turfa 2005: no. 27.