Etruscans Now

Technology and workshop production

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Francesco Napolitano

Some considerations on the making and use of colours in Etruria during the Middle Orientalising period

This paper aims to investigate preparation and use of colour in Etruria in Middle Orientalising period (680-630 b.C.). In this period, the colours used for the decoration of tomb walls are mostly yellow and red. The first one comes from hydroxide and the second one from iron oxide. Black is not as frequent and it is made from the vine branches collected during the pruning season. Starting from 650, white colour, from kaolins, is also in use. The colours are prepared by grinding the different substances, and are stored in vases. When used, they are either fixed on the tufaceous rock wall (see Veii: Tb. Monte Michele; Caere: Tb. dei denti di lupo; Tb. Menganelli) or on a thin layer of clay, after being diluted with spring water (see Veii: Tb. delle anatre; Caere: Tb. Maori). The architectonic and wall preparation similarities between funeral chambers and contemporary house walls support the hypothesis by which this latter technique was used also for the wall decoration of palaces and rich houses. The ochre red is used also for the decoration of ostrich egg pottery (see Tarquinia Tb. 55). Here the impossibility of fixing other colours is bypassed with the application of a gold leaf, which tends to leave yellow-greenish traces in time, as a proof of its presence. A different composition of red was employed to decorate a particular group of pottery (amphora and funeral urns) and certain elements used to tile the parts in wood of buildings (architectural terracotta). In order to make this colour, the clay-man resorts to a slip, rich in iron oxide, on which he develops a decorative design in kaolins. The baking of the clay, in oxidising conditions, turns the colours of the slip into red, leaving the white unchanged. The observation of colour use in VII century b.C. gives some technical and social information about Etruscan world and society of that period. Evidences from different craft traditions permits to show how different techniques are passed from one to another. See the use of white colour which passes from ceramic workshops to tomb decoration. Further, our data leads us to recognize some of the places where the colouring substances come from and to insert colour production in the economy of activities of VII century B.C. of some Etruscan centres. For example, red and yellow ochre seem to be secondary products of the extractive activity practiced in the Tolfa mountains within the area of Caere; evidences demonstrate that colours used in Veii are imported. Finally, our data permit to begin to line out differences in the princeps class itself. As the precious vases, the use of writing, and the architectural structures, also the use of colour can be seen as a symbol of social and economical status of Principes Etruriae.

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