Arts of Ancient Apulia in Dialogue

Apulia’s artistic landscape is among the richest of the ancient Italic peninsula. Partly as a reflection of the region’s own cultural and ethnic diversity, its numerous centers developed distinctive artisanal traditions and aesthetic trends, some of which lasted for centuries. These are immediately recognizable in the corpus of artifacts known to us today, from the Daunian stelae to the various shapes and decorative patterns of locally made ceramics. At the same time, the peoples of Apulia were enthusiastic and discerning consumers of non-native—especially Greek—artistic products, as is evident through the wide range of objects found in funerary and sacred contexts, from bronze sculpture to painted vases. In several cases, they creatively responded to the stimuli of imported forms by adopting and incorporating them into new kinds of artifacts that consciously and unconsciously combined different traditions.

The 2025 Larissa Bonfante Workshop on Etruscan and Italic Arts will address these phenomena and discuss their causes and implications through a number of case studies. In addition to presenting previously unpublished objects, the workshop aims to raise awareness and promote several of the exciting scholarly trends and approaches that have emerged in recent years. Going beyond the limits of conventional taxonomies, Apulia’s artistic traditions will be discussed not in isolation from each other, but with an emphasis on their interaction and reciprocal entanglement. Among the issues addressed will be: the definitions of “native,” “local,” “migrant,” and “foreign” in the Apulian context; the relationship between artistic forms and cultural identity; the hybridization of traditions; the role of Taranto (the only Greek colony founded in the region) vis-à-vis the Messapian, Peucetian, and Daunian centers; itinerant artists, itinerant artifacts, and itinerant shapes; and the presentation of objects from Apulia in museums.