Vatican Museums

Heads emerging from acanthus leaves among elaborate floral motifs – flowers, leaves, shoots, tendrils – characterise this frieze in continuous relief. A head with a vine leaf crown, possibly Dionysius, flanked by two half-naked erotes with the rhyton (vessel for drinking or for libation, in the form of an animal or a horn), is serially alternated with a female head adorned with a crown of vines with clusters of grapes, surrounded by two cupids with ribbons, one of whom is recognisable as a Maenad or possibly Arianna herself.
The motif of heads emerging from rich floral decoration, which we find also in the sculpture, ceramography and mirror engravings of Etruria, originates from southern Italy and in particular from the repertoire of Apulian ceramics. This frieze is representative of the context of acquisition of elements from the Italo-Greek world typical of Etruria in the second half of the fourth century B.C. [cf. cista with Amazonomachy].