부산대학교 도서관

Etruscan handicraft in the middle and late Hellenistic age is commonly-if mostly implicitly- perceived in terms of decline. Indeed, several classes of artifacts typical of the production of the late Classical and the early Hellenistic periods either ceased to be made or experienced dramatic decreases in quality during this age. Whether one considers wall paintings in tombs, the stone sarcophagi of southern Etruria, engraved bronze mirrors, bronze candelabra and incense-burners, red-figure vases, the “silvered” vases from Volsinii or the black-gloss Malacena ware from Volterra, the discrepancy-and sometimes the radical contrast-between the vitality and variety of the fourth and early third century and the monotony from the mid third century on is blatant. While the data on which such a picture is based are largely correct, the picture itself is incomplete and therefore potentially misleading in more than one respect. The most obvious dimension to consider alongside interruption and break is that of continuity and duration. All productions were not discontinued and qualitative decline was not a universal phenomenon: witness bronze sculpture or architectural coroplastics. Nor should one downplay the role of innovation. New classes of objects as well as new shapes and themes came up precisely during the middle to late Hellenistic age. The development of late Etruscan handicraft is not a unilateral phenomenon. It comprises different factors that vary according to local conditions. An adequate picture needs to take this multiplicity into account.