History of Ancient Pottery: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman....

The next stage in the development of Etruscan civilisation is marked by a change in the form of the tomb. The pit is now replaced by a trench; in other words, the vertical form is exchanged for a horizontal one. Concurrently with this change the practice of inhumation becomes fairly general. This period may be regarded as extending from the eighth century B.C. to the beginning of the sixth, and is marked by the first signs of importations from Greece in the shape of Geometric pottery and bronzes. In general character it is not strongly marked off from the preceding. The great advance is in the development of art in the objects found in the tombs. Not only do we witness the first beginnings of what is destined to become the typical species of Etruscan pottery—namely, the bucchero nero—but towards the end of the period the Greek influence, as evidenced by finds of wheel-made vases with Geometrical decoration, or even of the so-called Proto-Corinthian type, becomes widely felt. It was no doubt largely due to the foundation of colonies in the south of Italy, such as Cumae. Altogether it is a most important period for the history of Etruscan pottery. Of Oriental influence there are at present hardly any signs, and all wheel-made vases found in these tombs are probably of Greek origin, as it does not appear that the wheel was in regular use before the middle of the sixth century.[2266]

It is now necessary to turn our attention to the local hand-made varieties. And, in the first place, it is worthy of note that pottery of the Villanuova type actually survives the transition from the pit-tombs to the trenches, as is seen at Corneto, Vetulonia, and elsewhere. Probably it indicates the pottery in common use, the imported objects being only regarded as de luxe; or else, as Prof. Helbig suggests,[2267] the former types were preserved for religious reasons connected with burial rites, as was often the case in Roman religion.

In the earlier types of pottery from the fossa tombs, such as are common at Vulci, the hand-made pottery of impasto Italico still continues, preserving the same shapes and the same simple linear decoration; but it is better baked, and the surface is somewhat better polished. Red wares are also found, and yellow wares with Geometrical ornaments painted in red, which are evidently local imitations of the Greek Geometrical fabrics (see below).

Later, while the technique remains unaltered, a difference is seen in the forms, which become lighter, more varied, and more symmetrical. Such shapes as the stamnos, kantharos, and trefoil-mouthed oinochoë now for the first time appear. The methods of ornamentation are also modified; new varieties of incised patterns are seen, and the bodies of the vases are sometimes fluted or ribbed; while such motives as friezes of ducks, which are also found on the contemporary bronzes,[2268] now first find a place. M. Gsell, describing in detail the various fabrics found in the Vulci tombs of this period,[2269] speaks of pottery of a grey clay baked to red, perhaps in a furnace, forming urns and jars of a considerable size. He thinks that some primitive kind of wheel (see above) must have been used to produce these. In some of the impasto wares there is a decided advance in technique, the clay being better levigated and the walls of the vases thinner. Some black wares seem to have been fumigated like the later bucchero. Generally speaking, both incineration and inhumation are still practised.

The ornaments are incised, stamped, or painted, and the decoration almost exclusively linear, the stamped patterns being usually in the form of stars. This pottery is, in fact, merely a continuation of that of the pit-tombs, except that the imitation of metal-work is much more strongly in evidence.

Yet another variety preserves the methods and forms of the Villanuova class, but introduces a new kind of clay, altogether black, as distinguished from the earlier reds and browns. A remarkable specimen of this early black ware found at Orvieto has incised upon it the subject of Bellerophon and the Chimaera, the style being, as we should expect, childish to the verge of the ludicrous.[2270] Later, the black wares acquire a very fair glazed surface, and are ornamented with incised linear patterns of zigzags, chevrons, etc.; these are mostly small vases. It is in these two particularly that we see the forerunners of the highly developed bucchero ware.

Besides these local fabrics, there are found Greek imported wares with Geometrical decoration of pale yellow clay, with ornaments in brown turning to red; the commonest form is the oinochoë, and the patterns include circles, zigzags, wavy lines, embattled patterns, etc. These are all wheel-made, and are, in fact, the same types as are found in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens and in Boeotia (Chapter VII.); the earliest instances belong to the end of the eighth century, in some late pit-tombs at Caere, in which also “Proto-Corinthian” pottery was found. They coincide with the great impetus given to Greek colonisation in Sicily and Southern Italy, and probably came by that way into Etruria. It should be borne in mind that these vases were imported not for their own merit, but for the value of their contents. It has already been mentioned that local imitations of them are found in the trench-tombs.

To the seventh century belong also two classes of pottery which are more or less connected, and are chiefly associated with Caere.[2271] The first class consists of a series of vases of red ware, mostly large jars and πίθοι, ornamented with designs in relief, the lower part of the body being usually ribbed. The designs take the form of bands of figures stamped round the upper part of the vase, either in groups on the principle of the metope or in extended friezes. In the former case the design was produced from a single stamp for each group; in the latter, it was rolled out from a cylinder resembling those in use in Assyria for sealing documents. Besides the jars, plates of this ware are not uncommon; they may have formed either covers like those of the Villanuova ossuaria, or stands for the jars, in order to hold drippings of liquid, etc. The use of the πίθοι in tombs is not quite clear, though they were doubtless in daily use for holding grain or liquids.[2272]

The subjects are always of an Orientalising character, similar to those found on Greek vases under Oriental influence, and comprising animals, monsters, hunting scenes, combats, and banquets. The origin of these vases is doubtful; they may be either indigenous or imported, as similar examples have been found in Rhodes, Boeotia, Sicily, and elsewhere; but they are rare outside Etruria. The suggestion of a Sicilian origin[2273] has found some favour, but it is more likely that they are native productions after Greek models (see Vol. I. p. 496); some are undoubtedly of local make,[2274] and they were probably made at Caere or in the neighbourhood. Their prototypes go back almost to the Mycenaean period, but were hardly imported before 700 B.C., after which time the local imitations begin, being one more instance of the invariable rule that all Etruscan pottery is more or less imitative. Similar vases in metal were manufactured on the coast of Asia Minor, and the ἀναθήματα of the Lydian kings at Delphi[2275] were probably examples of this class.[2276]

The second class shows some affinities to the other in regard to the shape and the nature of the clay; but the important difference is that the vases are decorated with painted subjects instead of reliefs. The subjects are painted in white outline on a brick-red glazed ground, the process being as follows: The clay, which resembles the impasto Italico, is first hardened by baking, and then a mixture of wax and resin and iron oxide is applied to it, and a lustre given to the surface by polishing. The pigment, a mixture of chalk and lime, is then laid on. The process can hardly be said to be Greek, and yet the subjects are purely Greek, being borrowed in part from the Greek Geometrical vases, such as sea-fights, and in part from later (Ionian) sources[2277]; we actually find representations of the Birth of Athena and the Hunt of the Calydonian Boar (Fig. 180).[2278] The shapes of the vases again are certainly local, as are the animal forms, which resemble those incised on the bucchero wares. The drawing is usually crude in the extreme. It is interesting to note that on the vase from which Fig. 180 is taken the potter has painted in white an Etruscan inscription (not shown in the cut). Another vase of the same class was found in the Polledrara tomb (see Plate LVI. and p. 300 below). The method of painting in opaque pigment on a red or black ground is, it would seem, an Ionian characteristic, being found at Naukratis in the seventh century (Vol. I. p. 347), and also, as we shall see on other quasi-Ionic fabrics in Etruria.

Generally speaking, the tombs a fossa are not later than the middle of the seventh century; evidence of this is given by the absence of bucchero proper and of Corinthian fabrics. There are, however, traces of their lingering on even down into the sixth century, as at Vulci, where Helbig mentions a tomb found in 1884 containing Corinthian vases of that date.[2279] At Corneto the latest belong to the end of the seventh century.