Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)
JÁNOS GYÖRGY SZILÁGYI: Archaic Pottery from Veii
logically in the period between end of the middle and the beginning of the late orientalising period in Veii: that is to say, from the last third of the seventh to the beginning of the sixth century. This granted, the vases can be used to make some general observations about the settlement as a whole, which by this time had become a considerable urban centre. These observations are not new, but they corroborate the results of research on the site, which has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent decades. 46 It is apparent from the parallels mentioned above (with no claim to exhaustiveness, which would in this case be pointless) that the pottery types found in Veii, which must represent the lifestyle of the "middle" classes of the city, belonged in the period to a koine widely diffused in southern Etruria and Latium Vetus, less widely to the north, and southward as far as Campania. However humbly, they reflect the three main influences from which the contemporary culture of Veii emerged: the local tradition, and the Corinthian, and (to a lesser extent) the East Greek import trade, with its wealth of new ideas and forms. It is impossible to decide if the lack of the other two important influences on the culture of the area, the influences from the Near East and Egypt is to be explained by the limitations of the "find" itself, or perhaps has more to do with the tendency (prevalent toward the end of the chronological period proposed for the vases) in Latium as in Veii, to increasing modesty in grave goods —because it is certainly beyond doubt that the pieces originated in graves. Whatever the case, the pieces of the former Szőllősy collection from Veii bear witness to the city's greatest period of flowering: the time when the city was at least the equal and rival of Rome. Although the local characteristic not uncommon in other finds are largely missing with the exception of the no. 5 oinochoe, this group is characteristic of one of the first Italic cultures to enjoy the fertilising influence of immigrant Greek artists and the first, according to our current knowledge, to decorate with figure painting the walls of the chamber tombs of its "princely" elite. The mentioned vases are about contemporary with the frescoes of the Tomba Campana; and perhaps the terracotta workshop was itself already in operation, from which, according to tradition, they invited to Rome the master who made the cult statue in the Capitoline temple of Jupiter. János György Szilágyi is chief scientific advisor of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
