Calabresi Urn

Photogallery

Calabresi Urn
Calabresi Urn
Room II. Regolini-Galassi Tomb

The cremated remains of an adolescent are stored inside the urn. The typical form of urn produced in Cerveteri is described as “house-shaped”, due to the particular double-gabled roof-shaped lid, which elsewhere faithfully reproduces further details of the architecture of the period, such as antefixes, tiles and acroteria. Here we see the perpetuation of a concept already present in the Etruscan funerary ritual in Latium in the early Iron Age, according to which the remains of the deceased were gathered in a container in the form of a house (or previously, a hut), able to evoke his or her social status within the community [cf. Hut-Shaped Urn].
The Calabresi Urn is considered to be one of the most representative examples of the entire range, due to its rich and well-preserved overpainting depicting palmettes, herons and meanders, typical of the Orientalising tendency in Cerveteri. The “Painter of the Calabresi Urn”, named after this item, is the most qualified exponent of the eponymous workshop that also produced large vessels such as ollæ, amphorae and pythoi.