Vase painting traditions in Etruria

Alongside black bucchero vases, other pottery techniques were also in use in Etruria. Large vessels fired red were made of relatively coarse clay and decorated with white paint (1), or in relief. More finely washed clay was used for vessels with dark paint on a light ground, with motifs often known from Greek vase painting, such as a line of ibexes (2).

Etruscan vase painting inspired by Corinthian vases is again characterised by stylistic variety. The Pescia Romana Painter, active in Vulci, worked with an elaborate drawing technique (3), whereas a master from Tarquinia did not use incised lines in the decoration of his animal frieze (4). The Castellani Painter often combined the animal figures with decorative fields, for example filling the body of the lion with a herringbone pattern (5).

The silhouette figures of the one-handled cup (kyathos) evoke the Athenian black-figure technique (6). Cups decorated with symbols of Athens, the owl and the laurels, were common in Etruria both in their Athenian (7) and local versions (8). The connection between the Athenian and the Etruscan workshops was not one-sided: the Etruscan kyathos was a popular shape in Athens as well (9).