The Etruscans are known for their impasto and bucchero pottery, as well as local versions of black- and red-figure vase painting.

Impasto

Impasto is a coarse form of pottery made from clay that contains chips of mica, a silicate, or stone. In its soft form, impasto clay can range from red to brown. After it is fired, its surface becomes black and glossy. It was first used by the Villanovan civilization, which preceded the Etruscans, around the tenth century BCE. Between the eighth and seventh centuries BCE, the Greek colonies to the south of Etruria began importing impasto vessels, a testament to their intercultural popularity. The Etruscans used impasto for basic, utilitarian pottery, such as storage jars and cooking pots, as well as for funerary urns during the Orientalizing period. Artists incised the vessels with geometric designs, as well as stylized images of humans and animals.

The amphora in the image below depicts a spiral and a stylized bird, among other designs. Spiral motifs appear frequently in the art of numerous European cultures beginning in the Neolithic era. While their meanings are still a matter of debate, scholars hypothesize that spirals could symbolize astronomical phenomena or specific religious references.

The bird, on the other hand, could be a reference to love or fertility. Turan (the Etruscan goddess of love, fertility, and vitality) was commonly associated with a variety of avian species. Similarly the lynx, a bird-like creature in Etruscan mythology, also symbolizes love.

Bucchero

Bucchero pottery, developed around 675 BCE, was an Etruscan invention. It was created from a fine clay fired to produce a glossy black surface and burnished to shine. A finished bucchero surface imitated the appearance of metal. The Etruscans produced a variety of objects—such as plates, chalices, vases, and pitchers—from bucchero, demonstrating the versatility of the material. While less expensive than metal, it was still considered a luxury item and was exported around the Mediterranean. Bucchero goods have been found as far east as Egypt and Syria.

During the Orientalizing period, objects could be as little as less than two millimetres. This type of bucchero ware is known today as bucchero Sottile, or delicate bucchero, and the thin delicate walls further reinforced the material’s imitation of metal.

The decoration on bucchero was often limited to abstract designs and did not usually include figures. Bucchero was often simply decorated with incised lines that formed geometric and abstract patterns. Some patterns were incised with a stylus and others with a toothed wheel or comb-like instruments to create consistent rows of dots or patterns of dots in the shape of fans.

While bucchero thrived during the Orientalizing and Archaic periods, its production began to decline during the Classical period as painted Greek pottery became more available and popular in Etruscan culture, and as goods for funerary deposits.

Vase Painting

Vase painting in the Etruscan culture thrived from the seventh to the fourth century BCE. It was strongly influenced by Greek vase painting and followed the main trends in style over the period. Besides being producers in their own right, the Etruscans were the main export market for Greek pottery outside Greece. Among the Etruscans, richly decorated vases were often interred with the dead.

Black-Figure Painting

Initially, Etruscan vases followed the examples of black-figure vase painting from Corinth and East Greece. It is assumed that in the earliest phase, vases were produced mainly by immigrants from Greece. They mainly produced amphorae, hydriai and jugs. Depictions included revellers, symposia, and animal friezes. Mythological motifs occur more rarely, but are already created with great care. By this time, Etruscan vase painting began to take its main influence from Attic vase painting. The black-figure style ended around 480 BCE. In its final phase, it developed a tendency toward a manneristic style of silhouette drawing.

Pseudo-Red-Figure Painting

The Etruscans developed an imitative adoption of the red-figure technique (known as pseudo-red-figure) around 490 BCE, nearly half a century after that style had been invented in Greece. As on some early Attic vases, this was achieved by covering the whole vase body in a black shiny slip, then adding figures on top, using paints that would oxidize into red or white during firing.

In true red-figure painting, the red areas were left free of slip. In pseudo-red-figure painting, internal details were marked by incisions, similar to the usual practice in black-figure vase painting, rather than painted on, as is true in red-figure painting. Even after true red-figure painting became the dominant style, some workshops continued to specialize in pseudo-red-figure painting into the fourth century BCE.

Red-Figure Painting

Only by the end of the fifth century BCE was the true red-figure technique introduced to Etruria. In the second half of the fourth century BCE, mythological themes disappeared from the repertoire of the Etruscan vase painters. Instead, the vase bodies were mostly covered with ornamental and floral motifs, and larger compositions only occurred in exceptional cases.