Painter of Tytios (?)
ca. 550-520 BC
The enochoa (literally, in Greek, "vessel for wine") is a jug that was used to pour the wine into the container where it was mixed with water and to serve the mixture. It usually has a mouth finished in three lobes, a type derived from Phoenician models that soon influenced the Greek ceramic repertoire, especially Attic, and which was adopted by Etruscan craftsmen. This black-figure enochoa has a decoration distributed in two main friezes, separated by strips with vegetal and geometric motifs. At the top there are four naked male figures with long hair, running towards the right, with wings on their ankles and two of them, in addition, on their shoulders. In the lower frieze there are animals, either real (lion and roe deer) and fantastic (sphinx and griffon). The piece is an illustrative example of the eclecticism that characterized Etruscan craftsmanship and a testimony of the diffusion in Etruria, at the end of the Archaic period, of the practice of drinking wine among the new emerging urban social groups, which had as reference the prestige rituals of aristocratic groups. It is possible that this vase belongs to a workshop inspired by the works of the great painters, that produced vases of lesser artistic rigour; its similarity to a vase by the Tytios painter, the latest of the known Etruscan painters of this period, allows to propose a dating around the years 550/540-520 BC.
M. Dolors Molas Font
Room2 ,Floor-1
1 History of the Museum
2 Archaelogy
3 Lapidary
West-central Italy (Etruscan culture)
ca. 550-520 BC
Black figure pottery
32.3 x 9 cm
Provenance from Italy
MEV 17244