- Ulf R. Hansson –
FIFTH-CENTURY WORKSHOPSFrom the early fi fth century bce onwards fewer Greek gems seem to have been circulated
in Etruria, while there was a continuous infl ux of Attic vases. This is refl ected in the
repertory of the Etruscan gem-engravers, who continued to skillfully borrow and adapt
single fi gures from more complex multi-fi gure compositions now found especially in
red-fi gure vase-painting. Other infl uences include toreutics, sculpture, and perhaps
even monumental painting, probably via transmitting minor arts. But the various
mechanisms of this dynamic creative process, especially the inherent diffi culties involved
in introducing new subject-matter from other media and adapting it to the micro-
format, which to some extent would explain the conservative nature of this craft, remain
insuffi ciently studied.
During the Early Classical period, circa 480–430 bce, Etruscan gem-engravers
developed their craft along lines that had begun in the preceding period, retaining some
characteristic traits such as the preference for rendering upper torsos frontally and the
rest of the human fi gures in profi le, and the careful detailing of coiffures and faces. Works
from this period, which are sometimes labeled “Severe style,” are characterized by greater
formal and iconographic diversity due to an increased number of active engravers, and
by a growing interest in the careful rendering of the nude male body, often with highly-
skilled foreshortenings. There is a continued preference for single fi gures such as warriors,
heroes, athletes, hunters, and youths, who are depicted standing, stooping, seated,
collapsing, walking, running or kneeling. Achilles and Herakles remain popular, and
there is a growing interest in the Theban heroes Kapaneus/Capne and Tydeus/Tute, who
seem to have enjoyed greater popularity in Etruria than in Greece. The Early Classical
repertory also includes the old eastern motif of fi ghting animals, one or two winged
fi gures carrying a dead or wounded hero, warriors in council, as well as many two-fi gure
compositions, for example, Herakles and Kyknos/Kukne, Ajax/Aifas and Kassandra, Ajax
and Achilles, Aeneas and Anchises and others, which all show that Etruscan engravers did
not shy away from ambitious multi-fi gure scenes; such compositions are actually more
common on Etruscan gems than on Greek ones. The most famous of these more complex
miniature compositions, the so-called “Gemma Stosch,” which is now in Berlin, shows
no less than fi ve named heroes from the Seven Against Thebes story (see Fig. 24.15). An
interesting scarab from Corchiano, now in Copenhagen, has an intaglio device depicting
the reclining Herakles, with club and bow, sailing on a raft supported by six amphorae
(Fig. 51.7). This subject matter, which seems to have been confi ned to engraved gems and
bronze mirrors, becomes very frequent on later gems in the so-called a globolo technique
(below).
It is sometimes still possible to attribute two or more works to the same “hand.”
Devices with little or no compositional variation occasionally make an appearance,
sometimes with mirrored images. Once a compositional theme was successfully mastered
and proved popular with patrons, it was generally retained. Some fi gure-types thus became
standardized early on and sometimes used for more than one mythological fi gure, the
precise identity of which could be indicated by the addition of a characteristic attribute
or an inscribed name. These inscriptions, which amount to about 160 and mostly belong
in the fi fth and fourth centuries bce, almost always name the fi gure(s) depicted, not the
engraver or owner of the gem. They are mostly Etruscan variants of the names of Greek
heroes.^21 Scholars often assume that the Etruscan engravers arbitrarily applied these