- Giovannangelo Camporeale –
masters have been proposed at Bologna for the rectangular stelai surmounted by a disc,
with related decorative schemes: tree of life, heraldic rampant animals (Colonna [– v.
Hase] 1986, pp. 52–54).
For the years around the mid-seventh century bc there is the information, reported
by Strabo (5.2.2 C219), by Cornelius Nepos (ap. Pliny, Nat. Hist. 35.5.16) and Pliny
(35.43.152), relating to the arrival in Tarquinia from Corinth of various artists in the retinue
of the merchant Demaratus: the painter Ekphantos and the coroplasts Eucheir, Eugrammos
and Diopos, the latter responsible for introducing the art of modeling into Etruria (see
Chapter 49). Theirs are clearly professional, “speaking” names. There is little to add to the
declaration of the ancient authors on the professions of Ekphantos (painter) and Eucheir
(expert in use of the hands), but Eugrammos (expert in drawing) and Diopos (expert in
surveying) could refer respectively to the graphic arts and to architecture or city-planning.
The fi eld, then, would comprise various artistic pursuits and would be broader in scope
than Pliny implied. Of these masters cited, we know no works, although hypotheses have
been offered. In all probability, these traditions were elaborated much later than the mid-
seventh century bc, but they prompt the conviction that, at least in the art criticism of the
last years of the Republic, a Corinthian component was perceived in the Etruscan art of the
seventh century bc, including the direct involvement of Corinthian masters in this fi eld.
Also belonging to the middle decades of the seventh century bc are some bronze
cauldrons (lebetes) with handles ornamented with a blooming lotus fl ower between
two rampant lions or two protomes of a lion or bull. The iconography of animals and
fl owers together, their application to the handles of bronze vessels, and the comma-
shaped handle attachment, are found in other vases of the workshops of Vetulonia.
One example, preserved in the Berlin Antikenmuseum, has a fi nely incised geometric
ornament resembling “music paper” around its mouth, a peculiar type found in bronzes
of the Carpathian-Danube region of the Hallstatt culture. This example is unique both
in Vetulonia and in Etruria. It appears that the head of the workshop had worked at
Vetulonia, but he must have been trained in an area of Hallstatt culture. (Camporeale
1986 [1988]). From the same region other bronzes reached Vetulonia: situlae (Secondo
Circolo delle Pellicce, Circolo delle Sfi ngi) and cups (capeduncole), which were also copied
in local ceramic imitations (Camporeale 1969, pp. 28–34). Nor can one exclude the
possibility that the situlae of Kurd type from Vetulonia and other Etruscan centers are
the works of masters from the Hallstatt region, where the type is widely disseminated
(von Merhart 1952, pp. 29–33; 69–70 [= von Merhart 1969, pp. 321–327; 376–377]).
For the entire seventh century in Etruria one fi nds the massive arrival of Corinthian or
East Greek vases, associated with the service of wine (amphorae, kraters, olpai, oinochoai,
skyphoi, kotylai, cups) and of others for the toilette and obviously acquired for their
contents (aryballoi, alabastra, pyxides, plastic vases). With these innovations developed
fashions of body-care, practiced by women, by athletes, and by families to anoint their
dead. At this time the Etruscan market was controlled by Corinthian and East Greek
partners who replaced the Euboeans. With these vases, too, came masters (see Chapter
52). Those acknowledged today are two vase-painters who operated at Vulci during the
last 30 years of the seventh century bc, the Bearded Sphinx and Swallows Painters, who
originated one in Corinth (Szilágyi 1992, pp. 96–128, with previous bibliography) and
the other in East Greece (Giuliano 1963; Giuliano 1967; Giuliano 1975). They initially
adhered to the rules of their respective home schools, but gradually, living in the same
environment and time, infl uenced each other: thus the Bearded Sphinx Painter came to