I capitelli figurati etruschi di età ellenistica

In this study all the Etruscan figured capitals found so far are systematically analyzed for the first time, especially in relation to those of the same type attested in Taranto and other centers in Apulia. They are characterized by the iconographic motif of the protome, mostly female, rising from an exuberant kalathos of acanthus leaves and further phytomorphic elements, which enjoys extensive fortune. The motif seems to have arisen, more or less simultaneously, in several areas of the Medi terranean around the mid-4th century BCE. Considering the documentation to date, it would seem reasonable, given the “cosmopolitan” character of Macedonian art and its openness to artistic influences of various origins, to locate the final elaboration and diffusion of this iconographic motif precisely in Macedonia. It seems possible to point to a chronological “stratification” of the spread of Hellenism in Etruria whose first contacts with Macedonia date as early as around 350/340 B.C. and then peak around the end of the fourth-early third century B.C