The locally made bronze lion on the rim of the Hochdorf cauldron is sleek, streamlined, stylized, and expressive of dynamic tension. The forms are cleanly sculptural, while the surface ornamentation is spare and linear. The workmanship is unquestionably superior to that of the two imported (probably South Italian) lions on the same cauldron, one of which is unfinished. However much emphasis scholars may wish to give to the "influence" of the imported pieces, what is most immediately striking is the astonishing difference between the "Greek" and Celtic images of the lion. The superb technique gives the lie to any suggestion that the local craftsman could not have imitated the imports faithfully, if he/she had wanted to do so. That was obviously not an issue; the third lion is a proud and handsome original creation in a highly distinctive and fully assured, mature visual idiom.
Had the Hochdorf tumulus been excavated in the time of Jacobsthal, he would undoubtedly have cried out upon seeing the cauldron lion: "again and again we hit on the same enigma: Early Celtic art has no genesis" (Jacobsthal 1944/69, 158). In other words, there is no period of apprenticeship, of imitation and gradual separation into a distinct style. Jacobsthal's judgment can today be expanded to include the Hallstatt period, which he explicitly excluded (157). The lion exemplifies at an early date (within the Hallstatt period, ca. mid-6th century B.C.E.) many of the stylistic features that found their fullest development in the ensuing La Tène era.
Many other Hallstatt works foreshadow La Tène style, of course, but few were found in intimate proximity to works imported from the "Greek" Mediterranean, from which individual motifs and stylistic trends are supposed, according to the "Hellenization" model, to have been adapted or assimilated. Many of the art-historical studies that have made these claims of various degrees of "influence" have assumed that Celtic craftsmen had access to Italian and Greek objects, without being able to prove that the specific motifs or styles ever made their way onto Celtic soil (Frey and Schwappach 1973, Megaw and Megaw 1989, Castriota 1981). In the case of Hochdorf, we have a laboratory case of absolute proof that the Celtic craftsman was intimately familiar with the "Greek original," and our stylistic analysis of what he/she made of it can be correspondingly, and uniquely, certain.
An additional advantage is that, in the case of the Hochdorf lions, like can be compared with like. Too often line drawings of objects in wildly disparate materials and genres, of differing dimensions and dates, are placed side by side as visual "proof" of some kind of dependency or influence. Awareness of and sensitivity to the actual material composition, size, sculptural qualities, and function of each object are fundamental to this study.
A very early La Tène burial, at Kleinaspergle, contains two Attic red-figure kylikes (drinking cups) that were provided with Celtic gold foil ornaments, again a situation in which the craftsman had to be intimately familiar with the import. Analysis of the foil pieces, abstract teardrop shapes and circles, reveals that the floral ornaments and figural scene were neither adapted nor transformed in any way; indeed, they were entirely ignored in favor of a local style and local abstraction that would have been entirely foreign to the Athenians who made the cups. The incised ornaments on the imported Etruscan Besançon flagon include a palmette motif that echoes the handle attachment in an entirely new fashion, while the rest of the vessel is covered with swirling yin-yang circles, teardrop commas and other purely local motifs that contrast jarringly with the simple, rigid Etruscan palmette. Comparison with the gold cup from Schwarzenbach and the drinking-horn ornament from Eigenbilzen clarifies developments in floral/abstract openwork design within the early La Tène period; thus, the Kleinaspergle foils can be placed within the local stylistic continuum. The bronze flagon found in the same tomb has often been cited as evidence of Etruscan influence; here it will be placed within the same stylistic context as the gold foils. An interesting conclusion emerges: although the local craftsmen handled, repaired and embellished the Mediterranean imports, their own style is in no way altered or diverted by any southern "influence." If anything, the local pieces may be read as an explicit rejection of Mediterranean illusionistic, narrative, figural style.
The most famous tomb including a "Greek" import of approximately the same period as Hochdorf is the female burial at Vix. The great Vix bronze cauldron and lid were accompanied by several Attic vases with figural scenes painted on them in the black-figure technique. The imported objects were not embellished; thus, the local craftsman's familiarity with Greek style is not as indisputable as in the case of Hochdorf and Kleinaspergle. It cannot be imagined, however, that such spectacular exotica were hidden from the public view entirely; indeed, various interpretations of their use by the local chieftainess in consolidating her power depend on their being seen and admired. A glance at the Celtic objects in the tomb, particularly the vessels, the gold torc, and the four-wheeled wagon, reveals adherence to local forms, styles and customs. Once again, local craftsmen, who must have had some degree ofacquaintance with the imports, significantly did not turn to them for new motifs or styles.
The bronze sword scabbard from the Hallstatt cemetery is an anomaly within the corpus of La Tène art. It is figural and, perhaps, narrative. Several rectangular fields of various dimensions contain human figures and horses. A triangular field at the tip of the scabbard is filled with an enigmatic scene in which a human figure appears juxtaposed with a curling Celtic ornament. The long scene, including mounted cavalry, foot-soldiers and a fallen warrior, has been much studied, as have the smaller fields in which two men hold a wheel between two circular motifs. The triangular field, the ornamental band, and the cast and incised figures at the tip, on the other hand, are rarely depicted or studied. In addition, although Celtic aspects of the clothing, the faces, and the extremely stylized horses are generally acknowledged, the overall compositional scheme, the relationship of the figures to the picture plane, the questions of illusionism and narrative remain to be analyzed. As the only extant early La Tène multi-figured composition, it deserves a more in-depth examination.
A tenet of the "Hellenization" model declares, as we have seen, that the importation of Greek/Mediterranean objects, motifs and styles was closely accompanied by the importation of Greek ideas. The archaeological discussion above has shown that Celtic burial and drinking practices were not in fact borrowed from the Greeks. The stylistic discussion shows that Celtic artisans also did not emulate Greek artistic practices in any essential way. Thus, the importation of certain Mediterranean luxury vessels and their burial in Celtic tombs can no longer be used as proof of any coupling of the importation of art and ideas, nor of any cultural colonization of Iron Age Europe by the "higher" civilizations to the south.
(V) Conclusion: Celtic Europe and the Mediterranean.
