- chapter 52: The Etruscan painted pottery –
placed in the third quarter of the fi fth century bc. The founder of the workshop, the
Bonci Casuccini Painter, prefers mythological representations. The provenence of the
vases has suggested a localization of the workshop in Chiusi.
THE RED-FIGURE POTTERY^42The real red-fi gure technique seems to have been born at Vulci, apart from some strongly
Atticizing large vases, made in inner Etruria (Orvieto and Chiusi) even in the fi fth
century bc, which are still connected with the black-fi gure (Orvieto Group) and with
the Praxias Group. The Rodin^43 cup, made in Vulci, seems to date from around 400 bc.
The external decoration copies faithfully an Attic kylix of the Oedipus Painter found at
Vulci and that of an amphora by the Painter of Achilles. In the internal tondo, in addition
to the two satyrs, is the overpainted inscription Avles V(i)pnas naplan which mentions
Aulus Vibenna that would come with Caelius to Rome with the fellow Mastarna, who
would seize power and take the name of Servius Tullius. The groups gathered around the
Stamnos of Bologna 824^44 and the kylikes, that mimic the Attic red-fi gure^45 kylikes, with
Atticizing style and Lucanian characters highlighted by Cristofani and Harari. Both the
Perugia Painter and the Sommavilla Painter^46 still have an Atticizing style but use only
the relief line technique. Around the end of the fi fth century bc the production called
“earlier red-fi gure,”^47 of Attic infl uence, starts. The style is a little barbaric and simplifi ed.
In this production the Painter of Stamnos Casuccini, the Argonauts Painter, the Perugia
Painter and the Sommavilla Painter are included. Recently, M. Denoyelle^48 proposed
identifying the Perugia Painter (end of the fi rst decades of the fi fth-fourth century bc)
with the Lucanian Arnò Painter, who may have moved to Etruria. Gilotta stressed these
contacts with the Lucanian pottery involving, in general, the Creusa-Dolon Group, the
Intermediate Group and the Primacy Group.^49 In the vases of the Argonauts Painter there
are links with the Proto-Lucanian Amykos Painter (last quarter of the fi fth century bc).
Probably the transfer of Magna-Graecian craftsmen into Etruria may be connected with
the foundation of Thurii (444/3 bc). The production of Faliscan red-fi gured pottery was
born in Falerii Veteres (now Civita Castellana, near Viterbo) around 380–370 bc by the
transfer of Attic artisans into the Ager Faliscus (for example, Del Chiaro Painter). This
phenomenon has been linked to the economic crisis resulting from the Peloponnesian
War, the confl ict between Sparta and Athens for hegemony over Greece, lasted almost
thirty years (from 431 bc to 404 bc). Additionally, the arrival of Attic red-fi gure vases
at Falerii Veteres in the fi rst decades of the fourth century bc, for example, the vase of the
Talos Painter, the Painter of London F 64 and the Workshop of the Meleager Painter,^50
certainly brought new life to the local pottery production in the iconography (themes and
representations), in the schemes for the composition of scenes, and in the style and more
appropriately in the technique (for example, the wise use of white overpainting). Around
380 bc at Falerii Veteres some Greek craftsmen started the production of red-fi gure pottery.
The Del Chiaro Painter, founder of Workshop A (identifi ed by B. Adembri) was
probably Greek (Attic painter of the Jena Painter circle), and the next generation of
painters were already of local origin. The workshop continues to produce in the following
decades with the Nepi Painter and the Diespater Group, accepting stimuli both Attic
and Italiote and adapting to a very local taste. Two other workshops are active (B and C),
headed by the Painter of Vienna 4008 (370 bc) and the Villa Giulia Painter 8361 (360
bc) respectively.