De la lenteur en céramologie: les 70 ans du Funnel Group

Abstract

Among many others, the Etruscan red-figured Funnel Group, created by J. D. Beazley in 1947, is still today, in spite
of the efforts made by M. Del Chiaro and by various scholars, which led to different – if not opposite – conclusions,
a problem in terms of coherence, attribution and interpretation. This paper, gathering the most recent publications at
this regard, aims to understand better why progresses are so slow and often uncertain in this specific field. It is argued
that it should be time to overcome the traditional, largely individual approach, in favour of a collective, shared and
debated research, based on a full consideration and publication of the vases (main and secondary decoration, typology),
enhanced by the use of new technologies, in order to get stronger basis for the necessary interpretation, both at an
iconographical and economical level, of ancient vases.