Etruscan Hydria c. 550-500 BC, from Chiusi, Tuscany, Italy. Bucchero pottery is an evolution of impasto pottery. Impasto pottery, a product of the Iron Age, was a dull gray-brown ware formed from a rough groggy clay body. Bucchero pottery replaced impasto pottery at the end of the 7th century BC. Bucchero ware was more attractive to customers than impasto ware because of the distinctive shiny black surface and wheel thrown form that Bucchero ware boasts. Bucchero forms were simply more sophisticated in appearance and process and soon became very prized possessions by consumers of the 7th to 5th centuries BC. Bucchero ware is pottery pretending to be metal ware. Not unlike today, metals such as gold and silver were considered very precious in Etruria. So, if one could not afford the real deal, why not purchase a look alike? The types of decoration more commonly found on metalwork were applied to Bucchero ware in an effort to make the pottery appear more convincing of metal materials. Some of these more common metal-working techniques or characteristics that were applied to the surface of Bucchero ware were ridged surfaces and curved over rims. The sharp lines in the form and in the surface of Bucchero pottery were also characteristic of beaten bronze. In early Bucchero pottery, engraved reliefs that were geometric or figurative in form were used for decorating the vessels. In the later forms of Bucchero pottery, heavy added or rolled reliefs were added. All these decorative styles were reminiscent of metalwork, whether it is Bucchero Sottile or Bucchero . In some cases Bucchero ware was covered in fine silver leaf to give an even more convincing appearance of true metalwork. There are only a few examples left of Bucchero pottery in the form of a vases, which have been covered with a thin layer of gold or silver leaf. This coating was meant to give the exterior a metalic appearance making them more precious. Bucchero ware was derived from Greek forms with a slight Etruscan twist being incorporated. Most Bucchero is some sort of utilitarian tableware such as drinking vessels, serving dishes for eating, or storage vessels. This was the beauty of Bucchero ware; it was made to be used.
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