DOUBLE DOSE OF BEAUTY. Two women—one European, the other African—look out from opposite sides of this Etruscan head vase from the sixth century B.C. The African woman’s hair is painted red, and she wears an earring, while the European woman is unadorned. The lip of the vase is simply decorated with a checkerboard pattern. Measuring 4.5 inches tall and with two large handles, the vessel is a kantharos, or drinking cup for wine, that would have been used at symposia (drinking parties) or funerary feasts.
The “Janiform” style, named after Janus the two-faced god of gates and doorways, was popular among Greek and Etruscan artists in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. Some scholars argue that the contrasting of an African and a European was an attempt to express the infinite variety of mankind and the geographical and anthropological differences of the people who lived on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. This vessel is in the collection of the Museo Nationale di Villa Giula in Rome.
DOUBLE DOSE OF BEAUTY. Two women—one European, the other African—look out from opposite sides of this Etruscan head vase from the sixth century B.C. The African woman’s hair is painted red, and she wears an earring, while the European woman is unadorned. The lip of the vase is simply decorated with a checkerboard pattern. Measuring 4.5 inches tall and with two large handles, the vessel is a kantharos, or drinking cup for wine, that would have been used at symposia (drinking parties) or funerary feasts. The “Janiform” style, named after Janus the two-faced god of gates and doorways, was […]
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