Antiquities Circle Lecture: The Red and the Black

In this Antiquities Circle lecture, Dr. Delphine Tonglet, Assistant Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, explores the vast networks between the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Greeks and others during the first millennium BCE. Though not the only type of goods exchanged—and certainly not the most important—pottery exported to Etruria, especially Corinthian and Attic black- and red-figure vases, is the most striking and famous witness of this context. For decades, scholarship analyzed this relation, its economic, artistic and cultural impact from a predominant Greek perspective, considering the Etruscan cities as a mere receptor of an acculturating Greek civilization. Bearing in mind Joseph Veach Noble’s interest for pottery techniques and starting from some of his collected pieces, this talk will place the focus on some striking cases of mutual inspiration between Etruria and Greece, focusing on the black and red-and-black appearance of the vases.

Museum admission is required.