Scarab

Scarab with high body, engraved scene on face. Within a characteristic 'orlo etrusco' border, a charioteer, rendered in 'a globolo' drives a two-horse chariot, raising a thin whip over the horses' backs. The chariot is rendered as a single four-spoked wheel linked by a bar to the front horse's rump; the far horse appears only as four legs and a line for the mane. The joints on the horses' legs and, to a certain extent, the driver's hands are rendered as drilled hemispheres; whip, reins, harness and tail are very fine lines. This is an early example of the distinctive Etruscan 'a globolo' style, in which drilling to create rounded forms, rather than hand-carving, was raised to an artistic style.