Bucchero - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The term Bucchero (ˈbukkero' is most generally associated with a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan

Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

population. This Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

word is derived from the Latin poculum, a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish búcaro, or the Portuguese púcaro.

Regarded as the "national" pottery of ancient Etruria, bucchero ware is distinguished by its black fabric as well as glossy, black surface achieved through the unique "reduction

Reduction

Reduction, reduced, or reduce may refer to:- Chemistry :* Reduction, part of a reduction-oxidation reaction where oxygen is being removed from a compound.** Reduced gas, a gas with a low oxidation number...

" method in which it was fired. After the leather-hard green ware was arranged in the kiln and the fire started, the vent holes were closed, thus reducing the supply of oxygen required in a normal kiln firing. In the smoke-filled atmosphere of the kiln, the oxygen-starved flames drew oxygen molecules from the iron oxide of the pottery. This process caused the fabric of the clay to change color from its natural red to black. Thus, in contrast to the black-glazed Campanian

Campanian

The Campanian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch . The Campanian spans the time from 83.5 ± 0.7 Ma to 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma ...

ware of the Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

colonists in southern Italy, the lustrous, shiny, black surface of many bucchero pots was achieved by diligent burnishing (polishing,) or, occasionally, through the application of a thin slip (clay emulsion).

The first appearance of a ceramic type that can clearly be classified as bucchero occurred around 675 B.C.E. at the coastal community of Caere

Caere

Caere is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of Southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50-60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra and to the Greeks as Agylla...

(the modern-day Cervetri), with somewhat later centers of production to be found at Veii

Veii

Veii was, in ancient times, an important Etrurian city NNW of Rome, Italy; its site lies in Isola Farnese, a village of Municipio XX, an administrative subdivision of the comune of Rome in the Province of Rome...

and Tarquinia

Tarquinia

Tarquinia, formerly Corneto and in Antiquity Tarquinii, is an ancient city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, Italy.- History :Tarquinii is said to have been already a flourishing city when Demaratus of Corinth brought in Greek workmen...

, both cities, like Caere, located in the southern part of the Etruscan heartland. Bucchero ware would seem to have been the natural sequel to the impasto pottery associated with the earlier Villanovan culture

Villanovan culture

The Villanovan culture was the earliest Iron Age culture of central and northern Italy, abruptly following the Bronze Age Terramare culture and giving way in the 7th century BC to an increasingly orientalizing culture influenced by Greek traders, which was followed without a severe break by the...

from which the Etruscan civilization, itself, had evolved . Etruscan pottery is distinguished from Villanovan impasto by the more sophisticated processing of the clays used which were finely levigated to remove the traces of grit common in the earlier pottery, by its being uniformally turned on a potter's wheel, by its carbonized black fabric in contrast to the brown or tan color found in impasto pottery. Although the shapes of Villanovan pots provided the basics for the Etruscan potters they added new types and forms largely inspired through intensified trade with the more advanced cultures at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, in particular the areas of Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, and Phonecia, as well as Egypt. Many of the new, exotic shapes were in imitation of the metalwares imported from these cultures. The potters of Etruria were able to offer their customers a locally-produced and less-expensive ceramic equivalent to the desirable but costly metal products arriving from the east. Some of the Etruscan potshops even carried metalware imitation to the point of covering the surface of bucchero vessels with thin sheets of silver in an attempt to visually duplicate the luxurious imports.

This Orientalizing manner is most apparent in the earliest phase of bucchero production which also is distinguished by the remarkable thinness of the walls of the vessels. Known as bucchero sottile, or delicate bucchero, this ware represents a technical achievement elevating the potters who turned them to the ranks of the very finest ceramicists. So thin-walled are some of bucchero sottile vessels (in some cases, less than 2mm in thickness), such as the products of the Cornacchiola Tomb Potter of Caere, that it is probable that they were turned specifically for funereal purposes rather than for general household use. On the other hand, the broad distribution of bucchero sherds at ancient Caere, Veii, and Tarquinia and at other area sites points to less extreme examples of bucchero sottile as having had a more practical function in the daily life of the Etruscans.

During the Archaic period, the ever-increasing impact of the Greek aesthetic on Etruscan culture can be noted in the influence of Greek vase shapes on the design choices of the bucchero potters. Etruscan potters, however, made their own contributions to the Hellenic ceramic vocabulary by adding the form of the two-handled drinking cup, the kantharos, and that of the related single-handled cup, the kyathos, to the list of Greek vase types. The Nikosthenic amphora with its wide, flat handles was yet another example of Greek potters looking to Etruscan prototypes. The bucchero wares of Etruria even offered some export competition to Greek pottery.

In the production of bucchero sottile, the shape of the pot held pride of place, with surface decoration playing a supporting role. When decoration was used, it was usually limited to enhancing the profile of a chalice, a kantharos, or a kyathos with a row of crisply defined hook notches at the point of carination. The bowl of an oinochoe (pitcher) might be emphasized by closely spaced vertical lines incised into the soft clay before firing. Further decoration could be added before the green ware was loaded into the kiln by using a toothed wheel or a comb-like instrument to create rows of dots arranged in fan patterns. On later examples a roller with recessed reliefs was used to transfer figures of deities or even narratives to the surface of the vessel.

During the Orientalizing period and on into the Archaic, bucchero sottile production continued but gradually lost its unique character as Etruria became increasingly Hellenized. As Rome began to nibble away at the territories of southern Etruria, centers for producing bucchero shifted northwards to the cities of Chiusi and Vulci. There, during the Classical period

Classical period

Classical period can refer to the following:*The Classical Period of ancient Greece, which fell between its Archaic Period and Hellenistic Period.*Classical antiquity*Classical period of music*Classic stage of American archaeology...

, potters put their stamp upon the bucchero tradition by introducing a new variety of the ceramic known as bucchero pesante, or heavy bucchero. In this final phase in the history of bucchero pottery, vessel walls become thicker and proportions squater. The decoration of bucchero pesante ware typically consisted of mold-formed figures applied to the still-damp surface of the pot. By the beginning of the fifth century B.C.E., in part due to the growing availability of the elegant pottery of Greece, the demand for native bucchero ware was in a steep decline. Bucchero no longer was exported and, at home, consumers preferred the colorful pottery of the Greek artisans with their narrative and figurative panels. Etruscan potters now devoted their attention to the production of provincial imitations of Greek red-figure vases.

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