The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Jean G r an - Ay mer i c h with Jean Macintosh Tu r fa -

Figure 19.5 Etruscan fibulae from various locations in Greece: Olympia, Aegina, Samos, Exoche,

Lindos, Emporio. Eighth-seventh century. (Gras 1985).

Statuettes, figurine attachments and figured vase handles

The introduction of anthropomorphic representations in central Europe manifests a
new way of thinking, and in this regard Etruscan products are accorded a role in the
transmission of the new iconography and ideas. So much is true for the figurines on the
seventh-century cultic bronze chariot from Strettweg, and the figurines from Frog in
Austria.38 A rich repertoire of Etruscan statuettes found in Gaul has been catalogued, but
much information on context is missing — some may derive from the Italian antiquities
market, while others may be of an archaizing style but date to the Gallo-Roman period.
Only a small number of statuettes definitively belong to the Etruscan dossier. The most
remarkable examples are those from Thorigne-en-Charnie (Mayenne), from Chatillon-
sur-Seiche (Ile-et-Vilaine), from Montalin (Seine-et-Marne), and the figurine from the
sanctuary at Fontaines-Salees or Vezelay, south of Auxerre in Burgundy.
The attached figurines and protomes decorate tripods, cauldrons and other vessels
(oenochoae, amphorae, basins). The best-known example is the tripod and cauldron set
from La Garenne at Sainte-Colombe, a site connected to the princely center of Mont-
Lassois. On the littoral, the most intact piece is the tripod recovered off the coast of Agde
(Fig. 19.6). Far more numerous are the handles adorned with figural or vegetal decoration,
which are found as frequently in the Celtic regions as in the western Mediterranean and
in the interior of Iberia. Figures in repousse are well known in the regions north of
the Adriatic, and even more of the Arte delle Situle, and north-west of the Alps where
feline iconography adorns a pyxis from Appenwihr in Alsace. The influence of the figural
decoration of Etruscan bronze vases is recognizable in the earliest Celtic art (masks, man-
eating monsters, bestiaries), especially in the iconographic repertoire on the handles of
Etruscan Schnabelkanne-type oinochoai, whose form inspired local production.39

1587 1588

Egine

1589 1584

Lindos

1592

Exoche

1

3

2

A

Olympie

(^15901591)
1593
1594
Emporio
1585
Samos
1586