Wine jug in the shape of a female head

This head of a young woman greets us with an inexplicable smile. Hollow on the inside and with a trefoil mouth on the crown, the vessel must have been part of a clay wine pitcher. The almond-shaped eyes with arched eyebrows and the ring of curls framing the face bring to mind the richly painted marble statues of kore from the Acropolis in Athens, which stem from around the same time. Unusual, however, is the ornate cap painted with an intricate filigree pattern that covers the back of the head, held together by a painted chain attached to two rounded protrusions. The wider base of the neck and mouth on top of the head is adorned with decorative palmettes. The potter Charinos’ signature can be found on the handles: Charinos epoisen – ‘Charinos made (it)’. The front and back of the anthropomorphic vessel were made with clay moulds and then joined together, retouched by hand, and painted. The diversity of the ornamentation is striking: clay slip was skilfully dabbed on to create the tiny curls which were coloured a matt red, as were the lips. The pupils were carefully carved out and finished with a diluted gloss to give an almost lifelike effect, closely resembling the human eye. The head was found in an Etruscan grave together with an almost identical vessel that joined the collection of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg after its discovery. A comparison of these two vessels revealed that they were both made from the same mould. The individuality of each woman’s head is ensured, however, by the differences in the painting and small sculptural variances. Vessels in the form of humans or animals existed from the 7th century BCE. The majority are unguent jars that contained small amounts of perfume or oil and were intended mostly for ritualistic use in the mortuary cults or as grave goods. Wine jars in the form of a woman’s or female satyr’s head were usually fashioned in metal (bronze, silver) and were used for serving wine at the symposium. It is thus very unlikely that they are likenesses of Athenian women who were not even permitted to take part. They probably depict maenads with the ornate jewellery of the exclusive hetaerae.