Abstract
An Etruscan black-figure stamnos from Vulci, now in Berlin, has been overlooked since its brief description by A. Furtwängler in 1902. After establishing the vase’s affiliation with the workshop of the Group of Munich 883/Pittore dell’Ancile, which has been dated to the first quarter of the fifth century BCE and was active at Vulci, this study analyzes the iconography of the vase’s figural imagery. One side depicts a winged youth holding a fillet while the other contains a representation of a wingless figure holding a double axe and standing in front of a column. The article concludes by suggesting that these figures are early Etruscan representations of underworld demons. In addition, the axe holder may even be one of the earliest extant images of the death demon Charu(n) in Etruscan art, holding the forerunner of the hammer, his more well-known attribute.
About the author
Bibliography
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Acknowledgements
I am indebted to A. Carpino and anonymous reviewers for Etruscan Studies for their helpful comments and suggestions and, above all, to U. Kästner for allowing me to publish the stamnos in Berlin, and to D. Paleothodoros (Volos) for generously sending me very recent publications unavailable to me in Israel. I would also like to thank the staff of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Library in Copenhagen, particularly M. Moltesen, for their assistance. My gratitude also to the following for their help and advice on various aspects of this study: B. Bundgaard-Rasmussen (Copenhagen), F. Gaultier (Paris), M. Iozzo (Florence), and M.L. Petersen (Copenhagen). Special thanks to Y. Olivier-Trottenberg (Munich) for showing me a number of Etruscan black-figure vases before their publication in a forthcoming fascicle of the CVA. For help with the photographs, I would like to thank K. Göransson, H. Hales, O. Kaneberg, L. Makowsky, M. Moltesen, K. Montague, and A. Villing. The drawings of Figs. 4, 10–11, 14–15, and 17–24 were executed by S. Haad.
© 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Candelabra, Thymiateria and Kottaboi at Banquets: Greece and Etruria in Comparison
- Underworld Demons on an Early Fifth Century BCE Etruscan Black-Figure Stamnos from Vulci, now in Berlin
- Faunal remains from the Etruscan sanctuary at Poggio Colla (Vicchio di Mugello)
- Altars at Pyrgi
- Narce’s New Virtual Museum
- Textile-Making in Central Tyrrhenian Italy from the Final Bronze Age to the Republican Period by Sanna Lipkin. Pp. 163, figs. 49. $87.00 Archaeopress, Oxford 2012 (BAR International Series 2369). ISBN 9781407309569.
- Etruscans: Eminent Women. Powerful Men edited by Patricia S. Lulof and Iefke van Kampen and translated by M. Hendricks. Pp. 184, figs. 150+. $35.00. W Books in collaboration with the Allard Pierson Museum and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Amsterdam 2011. ISBN 978-9040078071.
- Amber and the Ancient World by Faya Causey. Pp. 152, figs. 60. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2011. $25.00. ISBN 9781606060827.
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Candelabra, Thymiateria and Kottaboi at Banquets: Greece and Etruria in Comparison
- Underworld Demons on an Early Fifth Century BCE Etruscan Black-Figure Stamnos from Vulci, now in Berlin
- Faunal remains from the Etruscan sanctuary at Poggio Colla (Vicchio di Mugello)
- Altars at Pyrgi
- Narce’s New Virtual Museum
- Textile-Making in Central Tyrrhenian Italy from the Final Bronze Age to the Republican Period by Sanna Lipkin. Pp. 163, figs. 49. $87.00 Archaeopress, Oxford 2012 (BAR International Series 2369). ISBN 9781407309569.
- Etruscans: Eminent Women. Powerful Men edited by Patricia S. Lulof and Iefke van Kampen and translated by M. Hendricks. Pp. 184, figs. 150+. $35.00. W Books in collaboration with the Allard Pierson Museum and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Amsterdam 2011. ISBN 978-9040078071.
- Amber and the Ancient World by Faya Causey. Pp. 152, figs. 60. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2011. $25.00. ISBN 9781606060827.