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Arretine and early South Gaulish Potters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

The influence of Arretine on early South Gaulish potters has often been assumed, but direct evidence has hitherto been obscure and difficult to establish. The present note with the accompanying comparative drawings of Arretine and South Gaulish pottery of the Tiberian-Claudian period provides some proof of this influence, which was probably established by direct immigration of certain potters from Arezzo to South Gaul. It is clearly shown in the close imitation of their decorative details by such early South Gaulish potters as Crestus (or Crestio), Senicio with the diminutive variety Seno, Stabilio (with his acanthus or demi-acanthus), Bilicatus, Licinus, etc., and many similar cases might also be cited.

Crestvs, South Gaulish potter shows a scene depicted on an Arretine vessel stamped M PERENN TIGRANI (fig. 15, 1), representing a Dionysiac sacrifice of a sucking pig by a Satyr with a short tail. He is standing on his left leg, his right foot crooked behind his right knee, and he stabs the pig's throat with a triangular knife while holding its right foot. Facing him is a woman, holding the other three legs of the pig; and, at her feet, is a bowl to receive the blood for ritual purposes. The bowl is flanked by stalked, slender flowers, as at Arezzo (Walters, BM, L 107 with acanthus). The same Dionysiac group occurs on a marble medallion in the Naples museum (Museo Borbonico (1843), XIII, Tav. XII).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Felix Oswald 1956. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The following abbreviations are used :—

Walters, H. B., Catalogue of the Roman pottery in the Department of Antiquities, British Museum (London, British Museum, 1908) = WaltersGoogle Scholar.

Hermet, F., La Graufesenque, vols. 1, 11 (Paris, Lezoux, 1934) = HermetGoogle Scholar.

Oswald, F., Index of figure-types on Terra Sigillata (Liverpool University Press, 19361937) = OGoogle Scholar.

Oswald, F. and Pryce, T. D., An Introduction to the Study of Terra Sigillata (London, Longmans Green and Co., 1920) = O and PGoogle Scholar.

Knorr, R., Die Terra-Sigillata-Gefässe von Aislingen (Jahrb. der histor. Vereins Dillingen, 25. Jahrg. 1912), Dillingen, 1913Google Scholar.

Terra-Sigillata des ersten Jahrhunderts Stuttgart (Kohlhammer, 1919) = Knorr' 19.

Terra-Sigillata-gefässe des ersten Jahrhunderts mit Töpfer Stuttgart (Kohlhammer, 1952) = Knorr'52.

Töpfer und Fabriken verzierter.

2 Soc. Ant. Research Report no. XIV.