Tra forma e immagine: alcune riflessioni sugli usi dei cateri attici a Felsina

The paper examines the relationship between shape and image through the lens of archaeological evidence from the Etruscan city of Felsina, focusing specifically on Athenian figured kraters found in several individual tombs within the city’s necropoleis. Etruscan citizens in Felsina conceived of the volute krater as a powerful symbol of rank and ancestral legacy and preferred this shape even when other variants were available on the Athenian market. Shape was therefore an essential feature considered in assembling the funerary set, the very focus of the ritual practice in this city. Nevertheless, images travelled with shapes starting from the first generation of imports from Athens to Felsina, and were increasingly carefully selected from the wide range of possibilities offered by Athenian painters. Some of them began producing vases, that connected the customer’s favourite shapes with images which took into account the buyer’s choice; artifacts by other artisans continued to be traded across the Adriatic route due to the convenience of their more produced subjects to the ritual needs of visual expression among Felsinean Etruscans. Variants in krater shapes and images thus together created a language useful to the expression of the Felsinean elite and its internal differences, while the overall process highlight the outstanding leading role of Felsina in managing its imports from Athens.