Outside classical Antiquity : mystery and creativity in native apulian pottery, first millenium B.C. : collection Denise Elfen-Laniado

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.