Outside classical Antiquity : mystery and creativity in native apulian pottery, first millenium B.C.

In ancient Apulia (Puglia in Italian), the Iapygians, the indigenous people who lived on the fringes of the Greek cities, produced a rich pottery that stood apart from that of the colonists.

Still relatively little studied and almost unknown outside a narrow circle of specialists, this pottery is astonishingly original. It is characterized by specific shapes of enigmatic purpose - horned handles, zoomorphic heads with hallucinatory stares, solitary hands, spindly figures and polychromy - which plunge us into an unknown world, without savagery, yet very close to nature. Intended to accompany the dead in their tombs, the vases and figurines express a surprising vitality that testifies to a faith in the afterlife.

Although rigorous from an archaeological point of view, this book calls for a preface highlighting the unexpected modernity of this ancient art. The task was undertaken by a member of Picasso's inner circle.

The objects presented here form part of a private collection, undoubtedly the most diverse of its kind and most complete on the subject.