Journal - Comune di Monteleone di Spoleto

iii.15 iii.16 iii.17
details of the toolmarks on the monteleone
chariot: iii.15 on the woman’s chiton on the central
panel. iii.16 on the shield on the proper right
panel. iii.17 – iii.18 on the spots and the eyebrow
of the panther on the central panel. iii.19 on the
feathers of the eagle on the draft pole
52
iii.18 iii.19
Figures iii.13– iii.15), whereas the collaborator generally
hammered the tool in a single direction (Figure iii.28).
a totally different working method is observed in the
side friezes (cats. 11, 12). The repoussé work is finished
with chasing and a tracing tool with a different point, and
it appears thicker and shorter (see Figures iii.34 – iii.37). The
rectangular rather than triangular shape of the strokes making
the lines suggests that the tool was held less obliquely,
at times almost vertically. This is certainly the work of a
third craftsman, whose technical skills differ from those
of the master and his other assistant. The repoussé work of
the crouching rams (cats. 13, 14) is also attributable to this
craftsman.
it is difficult to ascribe the elements of the yoke (Figures
iii.38– iii.40), but intervention by the master must be ruled
out. The warts are filled with concentric rings of dots instead
of the scattered dots observed elsewhere. Here also the incisions
are executed with tracing, punching, and chasing, but
the tools were used in a slipshod fashion, especially the
tracing tool, which was dragged across the bronze before
being hammered. This feature, also evident in the feathers
of the eagle head, is extremely awkward. The current lions
may have replaced a previous pair of arms on the yoke,
perhaps when a second team of horses replaced the first
during the chariot’s long use prior to being buried (see
cats. 2a, 16, and iii.d). if this was the case, the eagle head
must have been retouched for reasons now unknown.
in order to distinguish the workshop tradition of the master
of the monteleone chariot, i investigated the tracing
techniques on bronze objects found in italy, both locally
made and imported and both contemporary with and earlier
than the chariot. my findings revealed two different traditions.
The first method uses a tracing tool with a hull-shaped
point. The tool is held almost vertically and tapped continuously,
producing lines consisting of a succession of strokes
that are wider in the center and pointed at the ends and that
occasionally overlap at the apexes (Figure iii.41). a skillful
craftsman can execute the individual strokes so that the
lines appear continuous and regular. Specially pointed tools
were also used for the small circles, semicircles, and crescents
articulating the spots in the fur of some of the mammals,
the plumage of the birds, and the scales of the hybrid
figures that populate archaic art. The curved points of these
tracing tools are not sharp, but slightly dentate.