Racconti a rilievo. Miti e storie esemplari nella ceramica argentata

Within the framework of the progressive simplification of the decorative apparatus that characterizes figured pottery in Hellenistic central Tyrrhenian Italy, relief-decorated vessels constituted one of the privileged supports for visual narration. It is precisely the field of relief-decorated ceramics that has transmitted to us one of the richest image repertoires of the period, offering a vivid picture of the taste of a medium- to high-status clientele. The mechanical reproduction of figurative themes, through the use of molds, recurring in toreutic art, especially of Greek tradition, allowed for their rapid diffusion; these products represent some of the finest outputs of various workshops in the Etruscan and Campanian areas. In Etruria—including the Faliscan region—the phenomenon appears to have had a particularly significant and relatively early impact compared to other territories. It is no coincidence that these areas correspond to those that were most dynamic between the fourth and the first half of the third century BC, among which, for reasons linked to well-known historical and political developments, the centers gravitating around the Tiber Valley stand out, Orvieto and Falerii foremost. The production of relief-decorated vessels is therefore all the more significant because it runs counter to the broader trend of progressive standardization of representations on painted pottery, marked by the morphological simplification of banquet vessels, confined to a narrow range of forms, often of small size. In a context in which the workshops of the major coastal cities entrusted their final decorative efforts primarily to products of this kind, the inland centers of the Tiber Valley – where still-vibrant workshops, heirs to a great tradition initiated at the beginning of the fourth century BC under the impetus of Greek and South Italian craftsmen who were certainly still active locally – found in the relief technique a means of overcoming the limitations imposed by the bichromy of reserved red-figure decoration. Through relief, it became possible to convey volume and thus to approach the expressive language of high-quality Greek toreutic art. At the same time, relief decoration proved to be an effective medium for narrating stories of gods and heroes capable of satisfying the demands of a clientele still interested in the display and consumption of large ceremonial vessels featuring.