Italy, Etruria, Etrusco-Corinthian period, ca. 630 to 540 BCE. A large and elegant terracotta oinochoe, a vessel for pouring wine, with a trefoil lip, a long neck, a wide shoulder that tapers down to a slender body, and a pronounced, diminutive foot. The handle is composed of three joined cylinders to form a wide strap that rises from the upper shoulder and blends seamlessly into the sensuous curves of the rim. On the handle and around the body are a series of narrow-lined motifs - mostly dense lines and triangular forms filled in with a dark brown; around the center of the body in black is a band of repeated wheel motifs, a common Etruscan image. Each wheel is separated from the two on either side of it by an hourglass form made of inverted triangles. This iconography is painted over the pale beige buff body of the vessel. Size: 8.25" W x 14.5" H (21 cm x 36.8 cm)

Etrusco-Corinthian pottery was an imitation and adaptation of the Corinthian style, produced mainly at the Etruscan cities of Vulci, Caere, and Tarquinia. It was inspired by the intensification of trade between Etruria, Greece, and the Near East throughout the Archaic Period. The pottery manufactured in Etruria was also shipped west, to Gaul and other parts of Europe, and seems to have been used both as funerary goods and to hold trade items. Initially, scholars believed that items like this oinochoe were given only as prestigious gifts from and to elite members of society, but recently, they have begun to reevaluate the place of Etrusco-Corinthian pottery in the Archaic Mediterranean. The discovery of shipwrecks like the Pointe Lequin IA, for example, which contained over two thousand pieces of Archaic pottery, suggests that this oinochoe could have been a trade item available to a wider range of people in ancient society - a functional item rather than just a prestigious one. Its survival today allows us to understand the ancient economy and appreciate the beauty of even utilitarian objects for the ancients.

Provenance: private Swiss collection

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#124231

Repaired from multiple large pieces, with areas of restoration. These are well done and very difficult to see.