Vatican Museums

The Calabresi Tomb, excavated in 1836 in the necropolis of Sorbo, was incorporated in a mound near that of the famous Regolini-Galassi Tomb, and is notable for its fine collection of items in bucchero ceramics. This small container for food is part of a service of four refined pyxides, decorated with bull and ram protomes. Of the original grave goods there remain, aside from an olla in red clay mix, a dining set in bucchero made up also of double ampoules (with the body divided internally to allow two different liquids to be poured together) [cf. Calabresi Ampoule], kyathoi (one with a complex inscription), oenochoai, small amphorae, plates and a chalice with caryatid-statuettes.
The collection is characterised by its taste for rich effects, with decorations in the round and in relief in some cases refined, in others more cursive. It originates from a workshop active in Cerveteri from 660 to 50 B.C., around twenty years after the production of the first works in bucchero, where the technique was rapidly brought to perfection with the execution of extremely pure, glossy, “eggshell” ceramics. Other vessels from the workshop of the Calabresi tomb are from prestigious locations in Cerveteri and Chiusi.