ATTRIBUTED TO THE LA TOLFA GROUP, CIRCA 530 B.C.

According to F. Gaultier (“Painted Pottery of the Archaic Period,” in M. Torelli, ed., The Etruscans, pp. 432-433), the La Tolfa Group takes its name from a town where one of the group’s first identifiable vases was discovered. The earliest phase of the La Tolfa Group workshop demonstrates the influence of Ionian Greek vase painters. The group’s favorite shape was the amphora, frequently adorned with animals and monsters, as here, with one side featuring a griffin and the other a panther. It is thought that painters of the La Tolfa Group, including its founder, the Angular Faces Painter, may have also worked in fresco and participated in the decoration of the Tomb of the Bulls at Tarquinia.