DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0117
CHAP. XXXVII.]
BLACK WARE FROM CHIUSI.
101
there are numerous and excellent specimens; and it is
these which giye this collection its chief interest, for this
very characteristic and peculiarly Etruscan pottery is not
to be seen in the Museo Gregoriano at Rome, in the British
Museum, or in any other national collection in Europe, as
far as I am aware. Here are the tall
cock-crowned vases, with veiled larvce
or spirits of the dead, demons, beasts,
ehimseras, and other strange devices,
surrounding or studding them in relief
—as is shown in the curious jug at
the head of this chapter.1 Some are
Canopi, or vases shaped like the head
and shoulders of a man, the effigy of
the dead whose ashes are contained
within. One of them, shown in the
annexed wood-cut, has less peculiarity
than usual, and has the body adorned
with figures in relief. The lid is in
the form of a cap, tufted by a bird.2
There are also, in the same black ware,
Canopus from Chiusi.
1 The black ware of which these rases
are made is unglazed and imperfectly
varnished; often incapahle of containing
liquid ; whence it may be inferred that
much of this pottery was made ex-
pressly for sepulchral purposes. Such
appears to be the character of the vase
represented at page 92. The animals
in the lower band are panthers, carry-
ing stags, conveniently packed on their
shoulders, as a fox carries a goose.
Wild beasts with their prey are most
common sepulchral emblems, not only
on Etruscan but on Greek and Oriental
monuments. See Vol. I. p. 359. The
heads in the upper band seem to have
an analogy with the silhmettes on the
painted pottery of Volterra. The three
things between them appear to be ala-
baslra—common sepulchral furniture.
The horse is a well-known funereal em-
blem, indicative of the passage from one
state'of existence to another. The eyes
scratched on the spout have evidently
an analogy to those so often painted on
the Hellenic vases ; and have doubtless
the same symbolic meaning. See Vol.
I. Chapter XXII. page 438. Micali, in
treating of this vase (Mon. Ined. p. 176),
takes them for a charm against the evil
eye. The heads which stud the handle
and top of this vase are supposed to be
those of Lance, or the spirits of the
defunct.
2 This Canopus is described by Micali,
Mon. Ined. p. 172 et se%. tav. XXIX.
BLACK WARE FROM CHIUSI.
101
there are numerous and excellent specimens; and it is
these which giye this collection its chief interest, for this
very characteristic and peculiarly Etruscan pottery is not
to be seen in the Museo Gregoriano at Rome, in the British
Museum, or in any other national collection in Europe, as
far as I am aware. Here are the tall
cock-crowned vases, with veiled larvce
or spirits of the dead, demons, beasts,
ehimseras, and other strange devices,
surrounding or studding them in relief
—as is shown in the curious jug at
the head of this chapter.1 Some are
Canopi, or vases shaped like the head
and shoulders of a man, the effigy of
the dead whose ashes are contained
within. One of them, shown in the
annexed wood-cut, has less peculiarity
than usual, and has the body adorned
with figures in relief. The lid is in
the form of a cap, tufted by a bird.2
There are also, in the same black ware,
Canopus from Chiusi.
1 The black ware of which these rases
are made is unglazed and imperfectly
varnished; often incapahle of containing
liquid ; whence it may be inferred that
much of this pottery was made ex-
pressly for sepulchral purposes. Such
appears to be the character of the vase
represented at page 92. The animals
in the lower band are panthers, carry-
ing stags, conveniently packed on their
shoulders, as a fox carries a goose.
Wild beasts with their prey are most
common sepulchral emblems, not only
on Etruscan but on Greek and Oriental
monuments. See Vol. I. p. 359. The
heads in the upper band seem to have
an analogy with the silhmettes on the
painted pottery of Volterra. The three
things between them appear to be ala-
baslra—common sepulchral furniture.
The horse is a well-known funereal em-
blem, indicative of the passage from one
state'of existence to another. The eyes
scratched on the spout have evidently
an analogy to those so often painted on
the Hellenic vases ; and have doubtless
the same symbolic meaning. See Vol.
I. Chapter XXII. page 438. Micali, in
treating of this vase (Mon. Ined. p. 176),
takes them for a charm against the evil
eye. The heads which stud the handle
and top of this vase are supposed to be
those of Lance, or the spirits of the
defunct.
2 This Canopus is described by Micali,
Mon. Ined. p. 172 et se%. tav. XXIX.