Bucchero

A fine gray pottery, with a black or gray shiny surface, which was produced principally in Greek-speaking or Etruscan areas between the 8th and 5th centuries BC. Shapes and decoration styles varied greatly - incised, stamped and applied were employed. This earthenware pottery was common in pre-Roman Italy between the 7th and early 5th century BC. The shiny surface was produced by polishing and the color achieved by firing in an atmosphere charged with carbon monoxide instead of oxygen ('reducing firing'). The light, thin-walled bucchero sottile, considered the finest, was made in the 7th and early 6th centuries and the shapes were derived largely from Oriental models. In the 6th century the Greek influence changed the forms to alabastrums, amphorae, kraters, kylikes with incised, modeled, or applied birds and animals in friezes or geometric schemes appear. Greek black pigment was used and human and animal figures were painted on the surface of bucchero in black, red, and white. Technique and workmanship declined from about the mid-6th century onward, when bucchero sottile was replaced by bucchero pasantë, a heavy, complex thick-walled ware that was decorated with elaborate reliefs.

Pottery fired so as to be grey throughout the fabric with a slight surface sheen. It was inspired by earlier near-eastern models, and occurs principally in Greekspeaking and Etruscan areas between the 8th and 5th centuries bc. Shapes vary greatly as do styles of decoration (incised, stamped and applied).

A fine gray pottery, with a black or gray shiny surface, which was produced principally in Greek-speaking or Etruscan areas between the 8th and 5th centuries bc . Shapes and decoration styles varied greatly - incised, stamped, and applied techniques were employed. This earthenware pottery was common in pre-Roman Italy between the 7th and early 5th centuries bc . The shiny surface was produced by polishing and the color achieved by firing in an atmosphere charged with carbon monoxide instead of oxygen (“reducing firing”). The light, thin-walled bucchero sottile, considered the finest, was made in the 7th and early 6th centuries and the shapes were derived largely from Oriental models. In the 6th century the Greek influence changed the forms to alabastrums, amphorae, kraters, and kylikes with incised, modeled, or applied birds and animals in friezes or geometric schemes. Greek black pigment was used and human and animal figures were painted on the surface of the bucchero in black, red, and white. Techniques and workmanship declined from about the mid 6th century onward, when bucchero sottile was replaced by bucchero pasante - a heavy, complex, thick-walled ware that was decorated with elaborate reliefs.