Centuripe Ware

Centuripe ware, or East Sicilian polychrome ware, or the Centuripe Class of vase, is a type of polychrome Sicilian vase painting from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. It is rare, with only some 50 examples known. They have been described as "smothered in ornamental colors and shaped too elaborately", an example of Hellenistic "Middle-class taste [that] was often cloying and hideous, sometimes appealing."

The class is named after its first and main find location, Centuripe in Sicily; most other finds are also in Sicily, especially at Morgantina. There were probably a number of workshops in eastern Sicily making such wares. The painted vases were usually pyxides, lebetes and lekanes in their shapes. Centuripe wares are among the very last vases with significant figurative painting in the long tradition of the pottery of Ancient Greece.

The vessels are large, measuring about 50 cm (20 in) in height on average. They are composed of separately made segments of orange clay, typically assembled as a single piece, so that lids cannot be lifted. Conversely other pieces, especially of the lekanis shape, are made in several pieces, making them equally impractical for use. Ornamental motifs, dominated by acanthus garlands and architectural friezes, as well as heads and busts, are modelled in three dimensions, usually by moulding, and applied to the surfaces. These probably reflect metalwork, now very rarely surviving, as well as architecture. The Morgantina treasure, found nearby and now returned from New York to Italy, includes good examples of comparable raised decoration in metal from the 3rd century.

The paintings were only applied on one side, entirely using tempera paints applied after all firing. This is a significant difference from most other Greek vase-painting, although some later vases had added some painting after firing as well as the traditional fired ceramic painting, and Greek terracotta figurines were often painted in this way. The colours tend to be pastel shades, which can include white, pink, black, blue, yellow, red, gold, rarely also green. Pink, magenta, or red backgrounds are typical. As well as a main scene with a few figures, the ornamental zones are at least partly painted, and elements might be gilded. In the main scene, outlines were drawn in black after firing, a white ground applied within the areas to be fully painted, which allowed the lines still to be seen, and finally tempera paints applied.

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