Trefoil Oinochoe

With its dark, shiny surface, Etruscan *bucchero* pottery is quite distinctive. Developed about 675 B.C. from a local pottery tradition, *bucchero* is made from clay with the impurities removed. The pots are thrown on a potter's wheel, burnished, and then fired in a kiln with little oxygen, which produces the dark color. Much *bucchero* pottery appears to imitate metalwork, with its smooth, shiny surface, angular shapes, and incised or relief decoration. 

This *bucchero* oinochoe, or pitcher, exemplifies the Etruscan engagement with artistic motifs from the eastern Mediterranean. The row of animals and plants--including panthers, grazing goats, and birds--is very similar to the decoration found on vessels made from gold and silver imported from Egypt and the Near East, which have been found in the tombs of aristocratic families. Etruscan potters reinterpreted the decoration of these precious vessels in the less expensive material of terracotta.