- Laura Ambrosini –
Figure 52.10 Etrusco-Corinthian chalice by Painter of the Large Rosettes, circa 590/580–560 bc.
University of Pennsylvania Museum MS 4837, image no. 151658. Turfa 2005: no. 211.of the Knotted Tails and the Casuccini Painter produced patterned vases frozen in pre-
established formulas; mass production was the main goal. The production is split into
three groups: The Human Mask Group, which decorated kylikes especially with birds
(the artistic level is very low), the Cycle of the Birds, which produced perfume containers
decorated with birds, both particularly popular in Latium, the Confronted Cocks Cycle,
numerically higher, which produced perfume containers, found mostly in Campania. A
sudden increase occurs in plastic vases in all three groups. In Latium and in Campania^20
local production of Etrusco-Corinthian pottery existed. The Etrusco-Corinthian pottery
was also exported overseas as an integral part of the large Etruscan trade. In southern Gaul
were found vases of Vulci third generation (for example, the Painter of Large Rosettes, the
Painter of the Knotted Tails) and Tarquinia (Wolf’s Heads Painter and Painter without
Graffi to) and Human Mask Group (not in Carthage). In Etrusco-Corinthian production,
from 580 bc, two huge production cycles dominate, the Olpai and Rosettes Cycles.
After 560 bc the workshops are still active for a decade or two, but without any artistic
pretensions (Human Mask Group, a Caeretan production, and others).
In conclusion, according to Szilágyi, in the fi rst generation the Etrusco-Corinthian
vases were destined for the wealthy, in the second for the refi ned ruling class that had
a Hellenic style, and in the third generation for the less demanding middle-class. In
the fi rst phase, gravitating to the areas of Caere and Veii, we can see the preference
given to the polychrome technique, while at Vulci the black-fi gure technique begins;
the transition from one class to another is very gradual, as evidenced by the coexistence
of different series in tombs of 630–600 bc. Initially, the predominant role is played by
Caere, and by Vulci in the second generation. The primacy of Vulci lasts substantially
even with the advent of third generation.
On an omphalos phiale dedicated in the Portonaccio sanctuary at Veii by Laris Lethaies,
the signature has been identifi ed as mi(ni) zinace Vel[thur A]ncinies, in the handwriting
of Veii; the phiale was assigned by G. Colonna to the craftsman Velthur Ancinies, a
young colleague of the Rosettes Painter, from whom he had departed stylistically, once he
moved to Veii.^21 In Etrusco-Corinthian pottery the percentage of vases with depictions of
the human fi gure is very low (about 1 percent); the number of images that refer to Greek
mythology is surely irrelevant (in one case Achilles and Troilus, in one case Herakles and
Geryon).