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]
[Illustration:
From _Gaz. Arch._ FIG. 180. PAINTED ETRUSCAN PITHOS FROM CERVETRI (IN LOUVRE): BIRTH OF ATHENA; BOAR-HUNT. ]
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.
(4) FOURTH PERIOD: CHAMBER TOMBS; ORIENTAL INFLUENCE
Our fourth period, which in many respects shows a close continuity with that of the tombs _a fossa_, is nevertheless clearly defined by two circumstances: firstly, the adoption of a new type of tomb, doubtless developed out of the _fossa_, which takes the form of a large chamber, and is therefore known as _a camera_; secondly, the influence of Oriental art, concurrently with an increased influx of importations from Greece. The period covers about a century of time, from 650 to 550 B.C., and includes several of the largest and most important tombs that have been found in Etruria, which will demand more or less detailed treatment. In none, however, were any great finds of pottery made; but one of these tombs, the Grotta d’ Iside or Polledrara tomb at Vulci, contained several specimens of exceptional interest.
The simplest form of chamber-tomb consists of a narrow corridor or δρόμος leading into a larger chamber; next, the δρόμος opens into a square or rectangular vestibule, round which various side-chambers are attached; finally, the tomb assumes the form of a vast subterranean edifice composed of several wings, and used for more than one corpse—in fact, a “family vault.”
While on the one hand the ceramic types of the Villanuova period still linger on, as in the retention of _ossuaria_ for the receipt of ashes, on the other the painted Greek vases and the local _bucchero_ wares increase more and more, and altogether there is a great advance in the direction of variety and richness. This period saw not only the general introduction of the wheel into Etruria, but also the introduction of the alphabet of Western Greece, through Cumae. A vase of _bucchero_ ware found at Vetulonia bears an Etruscan inscription, which can hardly be much later than 700 B.C.,[2280] and we have already seen an instance on a vase from Caere.
In the earlier chamber-tombs no _bucchero_ is found, and the pottery is of the same types as in the trench-tombs; but with the enlarged arrangement of the tomb come the Corinthian vases of Orientalising style, to be followed later by the Ionian and later Corinthian fabrics, and finally by the Athenian wares. The vestibule disappears after the sixth century, and all later tombs have the simple δρόμος. The typical contents of a chamber-tomb are, as regards local pottery, in the earlier tombs _impasto Italico_ wares, in the later _bucchero_. The former is hand-made, the shapes similar to those found in the trench-tombs—_i.e._ pots incised with zigzags, circles, and other patterns, or painted in white. The latest varieties are wheel-made, of _bucchero_ forms. The latter wares, which are much more numerous, are evolved from the _impasto_: (1) by the use of the wheel; (2) by the introduction of the furnace; (3) by extensive imitation of Greek ceramic and metal forms. The earliest _bucchero_ vases at Vulci and Corneto synchronise with Corinthian pottery of the middle style, about 630-600 B.C., and they last down to the end of the fifth century.
The appearance of the alphabet seems to point to a marked incursion of Greek influence in the early part of the seventh century. The story of the arrival of Demaratos of Corinth, about 665 B.C., with the three artists whom he brought in his train, Diopos, Eucheir, and Eugrammos,[2281] is no doubt an echo of this. The progress of Hellenism was, however, momentarily arrested by the growing power of Carthage, which may partly account for the temporary Orientalising of Etruscan civilisation. It is certainly to the Carthaginian influence in Italy that the Phoenician objects found in the seventh century tombs, such as the silver bowls of Praeneste, are due. Oriental influence is also seen in the large tombs at Vulci, Caere, and Vetulonia, but it is hardly so strong as was at one time supposed; and of late years scholars have generally recognised that Ionian art and commerce played a much larger part throughout in the civilisation of Etruria[2282]; and, further, that Oriental art found its way mainly through these channels. At all events there was throughout the seventh and sixth centuries a keen struggle for supremacy in the Western Mediterranean, in which the Etruscans, the Phoenicians of Carthage, and the Ionian and Continental Greeks alike shared; and hence the diverse influences at work in Etruria.
But it was not long before Greece, with its rising colonies of Cumae, Sybaris, and Syracuse, made its predominance to be felt in the Western Mediterranean, and this was consummated by the final victory of Hiero over the combined fleets of Carthage and Etruria off Cumae in 474 B.C. A monument of this exists to the present day in the bronze helmet dedicated by that king at Olympia, now in the British Museum.
We may further define as the second great period of Greek importations, that extending over the sixth and fifth centuries, a period which saw the development not only of the local _bucchero_ fabrics, but also of the Greek black- and red-figured vases, which, heralded by the Corinthian wares, now pour in a continuous stream into Etruria. To this same period belong the paintings of the Etruscan tombs.
The earliest influences from Greece came, as has been hinted, through colonies like Chalcidian Cumae, which were the chief agents in the Hellenisation of Etruria; but at Cervetri, at any rate, the prevailing influence was Corinthian, as testified by the remarkable series of Corinthian and quasi-Corinthian vases in the Campana collection at the Louvre. Later in the sixth century came the connection with Athens, the chief results of which are to be seen in the contents of the tombs of Vulci (Vol. I. p. 76). It extends from the time of the Peisistratidae (540-520 B.C.) down to about 450 B.C., being probably brought to an end by the Peloponnesian War and the destruction of the Athenian maritime supremacy; but isolated instances of importations occur down to the time of Alexander the Great, in the Panathenaic amphorae of which dated examples of 336 B.C. have been found at Cervetri (Vol. I. p. 390).
In sketching this outline of Hellenic influence in Etruria we have overstepped the limits of chronological sequence, and must retrace our steps in order to deal first with the local products of the period from 650 B.C. onwards, and secondly with the effects of the Greek civilisation on the same.
* * * * *
=Polledrara ware.=—The Grotta d’ Iside or Polledrara tomb at Vulci has been dated, on the authority of a scarab of Psammetichos I. (656-611 B.C.) which it contained, towards the closing years of the seventh century. This dating has been generally accepted, and there seems no reason to doubt it, although the evidence of an isolated scarab is not always as trustworthy as appears at first sight. Besides local bronze work and objects of Egyptian or quasi-Egyptian character, it contained one vase of unique character which calls for special consideration.[2283]
This is a hydria of somewhat peculiar, if not unique form, with a very wide body and rudimentary foot. In some details, especially in the treatment of the handles, it exhibits obvious evidence of imitation of metal-work. Although at first sight resembling _bucchero_ ware, the clay is seen on examination to be of a different type, not being grey but reddish brown in fracture, while the lustrous black surface is produced by a thin coating or slip. It is decorated with designs in three colours, red, blue, and a yellowish white, which were laid on the black and then fired. The red is best preserved, the blue fairly so, but the white has almost entirely disappeared.[2284] The designs are arranged in three friezes, of which the lower consists only of isolated bits of key-pattern. On the two upper rows are scenes from the story of Theseus and Ariadne, together with Centaurs, Sphinxes, and other accessory figures. On the upper row Theseus slays the Minotaur; on the lower, Theseus and Ariadne are seen, firstly in a chariot, secondly leading a dance of four other figures, the hero playing a lyre, while Ariadne holds the clue.[2285] The colouring scheme is most elaborate, and cannot be detailed here; an occasional use of incised lines may also be noted.
A small two-handled cup or kylix,[2286] of a type often found at Naukratis decorated with eyes, was also found in this tomb, and appears to belong to the same class. The clay is similar to that of the hydria, as is the decoration, which however, owing to the flaking off of the black slip, has largely disappeared. Although in its technique it resembles the hydria, the subjects and motives are probably derived from Naukratis. Only a few other examples of this “Polledrara” ware are known: an oinochoë in Berlin,[2287] two vases in the Louvre,[2288] and a vase found at Cervetri, unpublished.[2289] From the contents of the tomb in which the last-named was found, it may fairly be dated early in the sixth century.
Mr. Cecil Smith regards the Polledrara hydria as the result of an Italian attempt to imitate the new _bucchero_ technique which was at this time being perfected (see below), the form of the vase being borrowed from an Ionic source.[2290] Ionic influence (see above, p. 296) is visible in more than one respect in this vase, as also in the reliefs decorating the bronze bust from the same tomb. Other details, such as the imitation of metal-work, are rather to be referred to a Corinthian source; and it is worthy of note that two Corinthian vases were among the contents of the tomb.
The striving after a gaudy effect by the use of polychrome decoration, and especially the employment of blue, a colour otherwise unknown in vase-painting before the end of the fifth century, finds a parallel in the sixth century poros-sculptures from the Athenian Acropolis, in which even more violent effects of colour are attained, as in the bright blue beard of the Triton. But in this case there seems little doubt that the idea is borrowed from Egypt, with its fondness for brightly decorated mummy-cases and bright blue images of faïence and porcelain. Other details which betray an Egyptian origin are the lions’ masks, the all-pervading lotos-flower, and the seated dog or jackal. The connecting link is no doubt the great trading centre of Naukratis, through whose agency the Egyptian scarabs, porcelain objects, and ostrich eggs found in this tomb also came to Etruria.
As a parallel to the Polledrara finds should here be cited the painted terracotta panels from Caere now in the British Museum and Louvre, which are certainly local products, and give a realistic representation of the Etruscan people. They are described below (p. 319). These again, both in subject and style, lead to a comparison with the large Etruscan terracotta sarcophagi, of which the most remarkable is that in the British Museum.[2291] Here, as in the Polledrara bronze bust, the rude native attempts at sculpture in the round are combined with reliefs which successfully reflect the style of Ionic art. Lastly, we note another parallel in the paintings of animals on the walls of a tomb at Veii.[2292]
Mr. Cecil Smith sums up: “The Polledrara ware was probably local Italian, made at Caere under the combined influence of Ionian and Naukratite imports, acting on an artistic basis principally derived from Corinth.” Developed _pari passu_ with the red _impasto_ ware (of which a painted example was found in the Vulci tomb), it gradually gave way to the _bucchero_ ware with which we deal in our next section. It only remains to note that similar ware has been found in Rhodes,[2293] where also later wares of a genuine _bucchero_ type, unpainted, have come to light; and these appear to be instances of a counter-importation from Etruria to Asia Minor.
The only other piece of pottery from the Polledrara tomb which calls for special comment is one to which reference has just been made, a large _pithos_ of the primitive _impasto_ red ware, made on the wheel (Plate LVI.). It falls into line with the painted and stamped fabrics from Caere already described (p. 292 ff.), and is, like the hydria, painted in polychrome, but the colours are much faded. The subjects are a frieze of animals and a ship.
Three other tombs which rival the Polledrara in size and importance are the Regulini-Galassi tomb at Caere,[2294] the Tomba del Duce at Vetulonia,[2295] and the Bernardini tomb at Praeneste.[2296] Although the finds of pottery herein were small, they are yet of great interest for the history of Etruscan art in general, especially as they afford evidence for approximate dating. In the two former Etruscan inscriptions were found. The Caere and Praeneste tombs are probably the earliest, about 650 B.C., and the Del Duce and Polledrara tombs are not later than the end of the seventh century.
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PLATE LVI
[Illustration:
EARLY ETRUSCAN POTTERY. 1. CAULDRON AND STAND OF RED WARE FROM FALERII; 2. PAINTED AMPHORA OF RED WARE (POLLEDRARA TOMB) (BRITISH MUSEUM). ]
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In the Regulini-Galassi tomb the pottery takes the form of large caldrons of red glazed ware, which mark a transitional stage between the _impasto_ and _bucchero_. They are characterised by the large Gryphons’ heads projecting in relief round the sides, to which are attached chains. Sometimes they are supported on high open-work stands. In 1892 the British Museum acquired a series of these and similar vases (Plate LVI.), including some plain specimens of _bucchero_ ware from early tombs at Civita Castellana (Falerii: see Vol. I. p. 75).
* * * * *
=Bucchero ware.=—This may be called the national pottery of Etruria. Its technique is not at present perfectly known, and analysis does not show certainly whether the black paste is natural or artificial. Modern experiments have been made which seem to indicate that this result may be obtained by fumigating or smoking the clay in a closed chamber after the baking, which process blackens the clay throughout.[2297] But M. Pottier[2298] thinks that the black surface was obtained not by fumigation of the vase, but by applying a slip of pounded charcoal already smoked, which at a moderate temperature would permeate the clay. The surface was then covered with wax and resin, and polished, like the Polledrara hydria. A combination of analyses of the paste made by Brongniart[2299] gives the following result:
Silica 60-70 parts. Clay earth 12-16 ” Carbonate of lime 2-4 ” Magnesia 1-2 ” Water 8-10 ” Carbon 1 -3 ”
The oldest _bucchero_ vases go back to the tombs _a fossa_ of the end of the seventh century. They are small and hand-made, ornamented, if at all, with geometric patterns, incised. The engraving was done by a sort of toothed wheel or a sharp tool; more rarely, hollowed out in grooves. Obviously the process is an imitation of metal engraving. Oriental influence soon appears, first of all in the chalice-shaped cups found at Cervetri, the surface of which is covered with figures of lions, deer, etc., in Oriental style. Both form and decoration are derived from metallic prototypes. The projecting Gryphons’ heads mentioned above are also typical of this class.
In tombs of 560-500 B.C., along with Corinthian vases, a different type occurs, the vases being wheel-made, of light and elegant forms—cups, chalices, pyxides, amphorae, and jugs.[2300] The ornament is in the form of reliefs, either stamped from a cylinder on a narrow band, as in the red ware from Caere (see p. 292), or composed of a series of medallions separately modelled or made from moulds and stuck on. This, again, is an imitation of metal. Examples of these types are given in Plate LVII. figs. 1-3, 5.
The subjects are not very varied. They range from animals such as stags and lions, or monsters such as Sphinxes and Centaurs, to winged deities, suppliants with offerings before deities, and other mythological figures—Chimaera, the Asiatic Artemis, or the Minotaur. Egyptian masks are also common. Episodes of hunts or banquets occur,[2301] and also groups of figures in meaningless juxtaposition. Some vases have only curvilinear patterns, such as palmettes, all of a vegetable rather than a geometrical type. In this group the general tendency is rather Hellenic than Oriental, especially towards Ionian art.[2302] This is only a temporary phase, and is practically confined to Cervetri, Veii, and Corneto—_i.e._ the maritime region in which the Corinthian vases are found.
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PLATE LVII
[Illustration:
ETRUSCAN BLACK WARE: HUT-URN AND BUCCHERO
(BRITISH MUSEUM). ]
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At Chiusi an extraordinary development is manifested, which gradually obtained a monopoly. The city was far from the sea and Hellenic influences, and retained Oriental traditions. After the end of the sixth century all the varieties of _bucchero_ were fused into one type, which lasted down to the end of the fourth century.[2303] The shapes include amphorae, trefoil-mouthed oinochoae, various forms of cups, bowls with raised handles and ladles (kyathi), table-utensils, basins imitating metal forms, braziers, and vases in the form of birds or fishes. They are ornamented with reliefs from top to bottom, the subjects being much the same as in the last group. The tops or covers are often in the form of female or cows’ heads, or surmounted by birds (cf. Plate LVII. fig. 5). The figures and ornaments are stamped in from moulds and fixed by some adhesive medium, incised designs being inserted to fill up the spaces. These reliefs are never found earlier than the period of Attic importations.
The subjects are derived as before from Greek, Egyptian, and Assyrian sources, the Oriental types being so much combined that they must evidently have come through the Phoenicians. Among the Greek subjects we find Theseus and the Minotaur, Perseus and the Gorgons, Pegasos and the Chimaera, warriors, etc. The animals and the four-winged figures are Assyrian in type, while Egypt supplies such types as Ptah, Anubis, and other animal-headed deities, and the female heads on the so-called Canopic jars.
There are here no signs of inventive genius. The technique is purely native, but all is founded on foreign models.[2304] The shapes are those of Ionia and the coast of Asia or of Athens. On the other hand, the development of the technique from the Villanuova pottery is certainly apparent. The Greeks, indeed, tried to imitate it at times, and _bucchero_ ware is found at Rhodes and Naukratis. We may fairly lay down that Etruscan invention is limited to the perfecting of the technique and the combination of the borrowed elements and art-forms. Many of the flat reliefs seem to be copied from ivories, and the rounded reliefs are certainly from bronze _repoussé_ work; in some cases we find traces of gilding, silvering, and colour, which have been intended to reproduce the appearance of metal. Again, in many respects the _bucchero_ vases are merely the counterparts of works in bronze, as in the case of the braziers and the bowl with Caryatid supports given in Plate LVII. fig. 2.[2305] In short, they reproduce for us what is wanting in our knowledge of early Greek metal ware.[2306]
There seem to be some references to this early black ware in the Roman poets, for Juvenal[2307] mentions it as being in use in the time of Numa: “Who dared then,” he says, “to ridicule the ladle (_simpuvium_) and black saucer of Numa?” Persius[2308] styles it _Tuscum fictile_, and Martial[2309] imagines Porsena to have been quite content with his dinner-service of Etruscan earthenware.
* * * * *
A peculiarly Etruscan type of vase which deserves some separate attention is that known as the Canopic jar, resembling the so-called κάνωποι in which the Egyptians placed the bowels of their mummies.[2310] These Etruscan _canopi_ are rude representations of the human figure, the heads, which are often attired in Egyptian fashion, forming the covers. The eyes are sometimes inlaid, and the female heads have large movable earrings and other adornments. In the tombs it was customary to place these vases on round chairs of wood, bronze, or terracotta. An example may be seen in the Etruscan Room of the British Museum, where the chair is plated with bronze, covered with archaic designs in _repoussé_ relief,[2311] and another is shown in Fig. 181. Similar chairs were discovered in the _Tomba delle Sedie_ at Cervetri; but the Canopic jars are almost confined to Chiusi. The type finds a parallel in the so-called “owl-vases” from the second city at Hissarlik (Vol. I. p. 258), in which the same combination of the vase-form with the human figure is to be observed. The lower portion of the jar was intended to receive the ashes of the dead, like the _ossuaria_, this method of placing the mortal remains of a person within a representation of himself being peculiarly Egyptian.
Signor Milani[2312] has traced the origin of the Canopic jars to the funeral masks placed over the faces of the dead, which are sometimes found in the earliest Etruscan tombs. This practice may have been derived from Mycenae, where Schliemann found gold masks in the shaft-tombs of the Agora; but in Etruria the examples are all in bronze, except a few of terracotta.[2313] A gradual transition can be observed from the mask, at first placed on the corpse and then attached to the urn containing its ashes, to the head fashioned in the round and assimilated with the cover; while in later times a further transition may be observed from the vase with human head to the complete human figure. Finally, its place was taken by the reclining effigies on the covers of the sarcophagi (p. 320). The earliest jars are found in the _pozzo_ tombs of the eighth century, the evolution of the head modelled in the round being accomplished by the seventh century, and the archaic types last down to about 550 B.C., when the severe perfected style comes in, to be succeeded by the free style of the fifth century, after which time the Canopic jars cease to be manufactured.
[Illustration:
From _Mus. di ant. class._ FIG. 181. CANOPIC JAR IN CHAIR PLATED WITH BRONZE. ]
The types are both male and female throughout, the latter being usually distinguished by wearing earrings and necklaces. Towards the end of the series the handles are gradually converted into rudimentary arms, and finally into fully developed human arms, sometimes holding attributes. They are probably placed on chairs as emblems of the power and authority which the deceased enjoyed during his life. In the Berlin Museum[2314] there is a remarkable example of the sixth century in which the jar is placed on a chair of the same clay, covered with _graffito_ ornamental designs and figures of animals. The jars are always made of a plain red unglazed clay, and are uncoloured. In the British Museum[2315] there are two seated female figures on detached square bases, wearing bright red chitons and large circular earrings, which seem to represent the period of transition from the jar to the sarcophagus, the style in which they are modelled being that of the fifth century. Some of the later examples have strongly individualised features, and seem to be genuine portraits; it is possible that they are actually from moulds taken from the faces of the dead.
(5) PERIOD OF GREEK INFLUENCE; PAINTED POTTERY
Although the Etruscans executed such admirable works in bronze, exercised with such skill the art of engraving gems, and produced such refined specimens of filagree-work in gold, they never attained to high excellence in their pottery. The vases already described belong to plastic rather than pictorial art, and are mostly imitations of work in metal. Down to the end of the sixth century B.C. their attempts at painting vases have been, as we have seen, limited practically to two fabrics, the Polledrara ware and the Caere jars with paintings in a similar technique. These methods have, however, nothing in common with Greek vase-paintings of the ordinary kind on a glazed surface, a method which was never popularised in Etruria.
The total failure of the Etruscans in vase-painting finds a curious parallel in their sculpture; all their best work is to be sought in their engraving or figures in low relief, as in the mirrors and _cistae_. Yet the same mirrors and _cistae_ show clearly that it was from no lack of ability in drawing that they failed; wherefore it is the less easy to understand, not only the absence of all originality in their painted vases, but also the rarity of instances of their imitative tendencies in this respect.
Apparently the red-figured vases which were imported into Etruria in such large numbers in the fifth century served as prototypes, not for their paintings, but for the engraved mirrors to which we have alluded. It may have been that they shrank from the task so successfully achieved by Greek painters of suitably decorating the curved surfaces of a vase, and preferred the flat even surfaces supplied by the circular mirrors and the sides of the _cistae_. Moreover, the interior designs of the kylikes, perfected by Epiktetos, Euphronios, and their contemporaries, served as obvious models for disposing a design in a circular space; and they had in the subjects of the vases a mythological repertory ready to hand.
It now remains to be seen to what extent they actually were influenced in their pottery by the imported Greek vases.
For considerably over a century painted pottery, at all times rare in Etruria, is practically unrepresented in the tombs except by Greek importations, Corinthian, Ionic, and Attic; the only local attempts in this direction are the Polledrara and Cervetri vases. As we have seen, early Corinthian vases appear in the _fossa_ tombs, and later Corinthian in the chamber tombs, in which, towards the middle of the sixth century, the Attic B.F. fabrics begin to make their appearance. The latest developments of the Corinthian wares are, indeed, almost unrepresented, but their place is taken by what appear to be local imitations of the Corinthian vases, a large series of which was found at Cervetri, and now forms part of the Campana collection in the Louvre. These are, however, for the most part certainly Greek, being presumably made by the Greek settlers in that town—at any rate, an Etruscan origin cannot be proved for them.[2316]
We have also seen that the Ionian fabrics exercised a great influence on Etruscan art, and this leads us to another series of vases found at Cervetri, the Caeretan hydriae discussed in