CHAPTER FIFTY TWO

THE ETRUSCAN PAINTED POTTERY

Laura Ambrosini

I

n this study the most important topics relating to Etruscan painted pottery have been
selected and necessarily synthesized.^1 An attempt was made to focus not only on the
artistic aspects of the pottery, but also on the technical aspects and on the organization of
pottery workshops. This choice was made because in Antiquity the organization of work,
different from today, stimulated many cultural exchanges, the fruits of which are evident
for us even in the objects that have survived. As is known, while we have a large amount
of iconographic and archaeological evidence for the organization of pottery workshops
in Greece, for the Etruscans we are less fortunate. However, it is the oldest period that,
almost surprisingly, gives us a greater number of documents.

ETRUSCO-GEOMETRIC POTTERY^2

For the oldest productions we are all grateful to Marina Martelli who has carried out many
studies on Etrusco-Geometric pottery, Orientalizing and Etrusco-Corinthian pottery,
making our work of synthesis easier. Her study emphasizes the important role played by
the islands (especially the Cyclades),^3 but also by Attica (Fig. 52.1), so far underestimated
in favor of Euboea and Pithekoussai,^4 in the birth and development of Etrusco-Geometric
ceramics. She stresses the main role of Caere, a city that since the beginning of the
seventh century bc becomes the center of excellence in pottery decoration. As we all
know the Greek (Euboean) craftsmen and traders who had set up a base on Pithekoussai
(Ischia) circa 770 bc, moved to the mainland and established the colony of Cumae (750
bc). A large quantity of Greek pottery imports reached southern Etruria. After a period
of production in the last decades of the eighth century bc imitating Greek drinking
cups with geometric decoration (almost Euboic), i.e. running chevrons and concentric
design known as the “pendant semicircle,” Greek potters went to Etruria from the new
colonies: from Euboean mother cities and Cycladic islands, they introduced in Campania
and southern Etruria new technologies and new ideas. These new technologies were the
use of purifi ed clay, the fast potter’s wheel, and the fi ring at high temperature in closed
kilns. The new ideas were the decoration in Late Geometric style, with fi gures of birds,