Situla (plural situlae), from the Latin language word for bucket or pail, is the term in archaeology and art history for a variety of elaborate bucket-shaped vessels from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, usually with a handle at the top. All types may be highly decorated, most characteristically with in bands or running round the vessel.
Decorated Iron Age situlae in bronze are a distinctive feature of Etruscan art in burials from the northern part of the Etruscan regions, from which the style spread north to some cultures in Northern Italy, Slovenia, and adjacent areas, where terms such as situla culture and situla art may be used.
Situla is also the term for types of bucket-shaped Ancient Greek vases, some very finely painted.[ MFA Boston, Attic vase situla ] More utilitarian pottery situlae are also found, and some in silver or other materials,[Kipfer, 518] such as two glass ones from late antiquity in St Mark's, Venice. Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern shapes tend to have a pointed bottom, so that they must rest on a stand or on their side. The practical wider shape is a European invention, first seen in the European Bronze Age.
Bronze Age Europe
Bronze situlae were a feature of the
Urnfield culture which dominated central Europe and parts of southern Europe in the Late Bronze Age. They frequently incorporated schematic depictions of solar boats with bird head
, known as the 'sun-bird-ship' motif.
Iron Age Europe
Typical
Iron Age situlae are
bronze, as in the types of
libation vessels found as
grave goods in
Etruscan art, the
Este culture (example, the
Situla Benvenuti) and neighbouring Golasecca culture, and the eastern zone of the Hallstatt culture of Central and Southeast Europe. Here they have a distinctive style, often without a handle; the Vače situla is a Slovenian example. These usually have sides sloping outwards, then a sharp turn in at the shoulder, and outside Etruria often a short narrower neck. The shape has similarities with the narrower spouted Etruscan shape of
flagon that was also copied to the north, as in the 5th-century Basse Yutz Flagons found in France. They are often decorated, in the most elaborate examples with several bands of figures running round the vessel. They may or may not have handles, and sometimes have lids.
[Megaw, 34-39] Many are made of several sheets held together with
.
[Sandars, 223]
The Etruscan examples are most characteristic in the 7th century BC, though continuing well afterwards. They are in various materials, from pottery to bronze, and sometimes silver. The Situla of the Pania is an unusual luxury Etruscan example in ivory, and the Bocchoris vase a ceramic import from Egypt from an Etruscan burial. The Este and Hallstatt examples are later, with the Slovenian production reaching a peak in quality in the 5th century, up to about 400 BC, well after the Hallstatt period had ended over much of its area.[Megaw, 34–39] Some were found containing cremated ashes, but they were essentially luxury vessels used at feasts.[Sandars, 224]
Numerous Hallstatt situlae were found in Slovenia, mainly (19 of them) in the area of Novo Mesto in Lower Carniola, which has been named the "City of Situlae" due to this.
Later Etruscan and then Roman styles favoured a simple shape curving from the base, becoming vertical at the top, with a wide mouth and no shoulder, but sometimes a projecting rim. These had a variety of uses, including for washing and bathing. Any decoration was often concentrated on the upper part of the sides.
Situla art
Situla art was an important means of transition of Greek-derived motifs from the Etruscans through the regions to the north to the emerging La Tène culture further west.
[Sandars, 223–225; Megaw, 34–39] According to Ruth and
Vincent Megaw, "Situla art depicts life as seen from a masculine viewpoint, in which women are servants or sex objects; most of the scenes which include humans are of the feasts in which the situlae themselves figure, of the hunt or of war".
[Megaw, 37] Similar scenes are found on other vessel shapes, as well as bronze belt-plaques.
[Sandars, 223–224] The processions of animals, typical of earlier examples, or humans derive from the Near East and Mediterranean, and Nancy Sandars finds the style shows "a
gaucherie that betrays the artist working in a way that is uncongenial, too much at variance with the temper of the craftsmen and the craft". Compared to earlier styles that arose organically in Europe "situla art is weak and sometimes quaint", and "in essence not of Europe".
[Sandars, 225, quoted]
Except for the Benvenuti Situla, men are hairless, with "funny hats, dumpy bodies and big heads", though often shown looking cheerful in an engaging way. The Benevenuti Situla is also unusual in that it seems to show a specific story.[Sandars, 224]
File:Sítula de bronze, vaixella per a beure, tomba 504 de Hallstatt.JPG|Bronze situla from Hallstatt, 800–750 BC
File:Situla da tomba dei flabelli a poggio della porcareccia (populonia), 700-550 ac ca..JPG|Etruscan with geometric ornament, 700–550 BC
File:Museo archeologico di Firenze, pisside da Chiusi, terzo quarto del VII sec. a.c..JPG|Etruscan "Situla della Pania", 7th century BC
File:Situla in argento placcata oro con iscrizione plikasnas, da chiusi, 650 ac ca. 01.JPG|Etruscan, silver, Chiusi, c. 650 BC
File:Situla con lamine d'argento stampate, da tomba regolini-galassi di cerveteri, 650 ac ca. 02.JPG|Etruscan, with silver mounts, Cerveteri c. 650 BC
File:Kärl af brons (situla) med drifna ornament, Nordisk familjebok.jpg|Clearer reproduction of the Etruscan bronze situla at the top of the page.
File:Situla veneta.jpg|Situla Benvenuti, Este culture, c. 600 BC
File:Hallstatt culture Kleinklein - bronze vases & situlas.jpg|Bronze vases & situlae, Eastern zone of Hallstatt culture D, Kleinklein
File:Museo Archeologico Villa Mirabello, Varese - St 12456 - situla - Golasecca II A.jpg|Golasecca culture II A, turn of the 7/6th century BC
File:PMS - vaška situla (1).jpg|The Vače situla, Slovenia, 5th century BC
File:Necropoli del casone, tomba di calisna sepu, situla a campana in bronzo, III sec ac 01.JPG|Late Etruscan, 3rd century BC, bronze
File:Produzione volterrana, situla a vernice nera, da pisa, fine IV-inizi III sec ac..JPG|Late Etruscan, c. 300 BC, pottery
File:Hemmoorer Eimer.jpg|Roman bronze situla from Germany, 2nd–3rd centuries
File:Bronze stamnoid situla, c. 340-320 BC, part of the Vassil Bojkov Collection, Sofia, Bulgaria.png|Bronze Stamnos situla, c. 340–320 BC, Sofia, Bulgaria
File:Antikensammlung Kiel 109.JPG|Ancient Greek () pottery situla vase, 340-320 BC
File:Situla in argento con donne al bagno, da ercolano, 190-210 dc ca. 01.JPG|Roman silver situla with lady (or Venus) bathing, 190–210 AD
Attribute of Isis
The term is also used for pails carried by figures in other art forms; according to
Plutarch and other sources this was a sign of a devotee of
Isis, who herself is often shown carrying one (containing water from the sacred
Nile), of a rather different shape, with a rounded bottom, and sometimes lidded. This rounded shape, often with a "nipple" at the bottom (see Luristan example in , below), is believed to have represented the female
breast.
[Witt, 55. Isis situla ] These were also donated to temples as
votive offerings by devotees.
Christian situlae
Elaborate
early medieval situlae, sometimes called
aspersoria (singular:
aspersorium), were Christian
liturgy objects used to hold
holy water, also usually of bronze, and straight-sided with a handle. An
aspergillum was dipped in the situla to collect water with which to sprinkle the congregation or other objects.
Four richly carved ivory examples from the 10th century are known: the Basilewsky Situla of 920 in the Victoria & Albert Museum, decorated with twelve scenes from the life of Christ on two levels (it contains one of the very few depictions of Judas Iscariot showing remorse and throwing the thirty silver coins on the floor of the Temple),[Basilewsky Situla V&A Museum] the "Situla of Gotofredo" of c. 980 in Milan Cathedral,[ Image of Aachen situla ] and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[ Metropolitan Museum example] All came from the milieu of the Ottonian art court: an inscription says that Archbishop Gotfredus presented the Milan example in anticipation of a visit by the Emperor,[Lasko, 92–3] also referred to in the London example which was possibly from the same workshop.[Though Lasko, 92 disagrees with this.] The latest and most lavish is the Aachen example, which is studded with jewels and shows an enthroned Emperor, surrounded by a pope and archbishops. This was probably made in Trier about 1000.[All except the New York situla are illustrated and discussed in Beckwith, pp. 129–130, 135–136]
, in ivory]]
ivory situla with scenes from the Life of Christ c. 860–880 AD]]
Outside Europe
The term may also be used for similar vessels from other cultures, especially the ancient
Middle East and China and Vietnam.
[ Metropolitan, Vietnamese bronze situla]
Bronze bath buckets are also found in Islamic art, such as the 12th century Persian Bobrinsky Bucket in the Hermitage Museum.
File:Egyptian - Situla with Erased Cartouche of Akhenaten - Walters 48456 - Profile (cropped).jpg|Egyptian faience situla with erased cartouche of Akhenaten, 12 inches high
File:Situla Luristan MBA Lyon 1936-1.jpg|Situla from Luristan, 9th century BC; note the "nipple" at the bottom
File:Decorated Situla, 305-30 BC, Ptolemaic Dynasty, bronze - Cleveland Museum of Art - DSC08681.JPG|Egyptian, 305–30 BC, Ptolemaic Dynasty, bronze
File:Acetre (29344797692).jpg|Nasrid situla from the Alhambra, 14th century. Bronze with niello.
Citations
Sources
-
Beckwith, John. Early Medieval Art: Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, Thames & Hudson, 1964 (rev. 1969),
-
Kipfer, Barbara Ann. Encyclopedic dictionary of archaeology, Springer, 2000, , . Google books
-
Peter Lasko, Ars Sacra, 800–1200, Yale University Press, 1995 (2nd edn.)
-
Vincent Megaw, Celtic Art: From Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells, 1989 (2001 2nd edn), Thames & Hudson
-
Sandars, Nancy K., Prehistoric Art in Europe, Penguin (Pelican, now Yale, History of Art), 1968 (nb 1st edn.)
-
Witt, Reginald Eldred. Isis in the ancient world, JHU Press, 1997 (2nd ed), , . Google books
Further reading
-
Beckwith, John. The Basilewsky Situla, 1963, HMSO
-
Frey, Otto-Herman. Die Entstehung der Situlenkunst: Studien zur figürlich verzierten Toreutik von Este, 1969.
-
Kastelic, Joze, and Karl Kromer, Guido Mansuelli. Situla Art: Ceremonial Bronzes of Ancient Europe, NY McGraw-Hill 1965
-
Kern, Anton, and Cordie Rosemarie, Guichard Vincent. Situlen - Bilderwelten zwischen Etruskern und Kelten auf antikem Weingeschirr, 2009
