Sarcophagus. Tuscania, necropolis of Carcarello, Vipinanatomb. 310 - 300 B.C., tufa. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“The deceased is depicted reclining, wearing a convivial crown, and with a phial (a cup for libations) on the right. The scene on the front of the casket is set in a natural environment, as indicated by the stony ground. Artemis and Apollo are seated at the extremities, winged and armed with bows; apparently calm, they are massacring the twelve children of Niobe, here represented by just three boys and three young girls, alongside the mother and the elderly teacher, depicted in attitudes of desperation. On the short side on the right there is the destruction of the body of Hector, dragged by Achilles’ chariot; on the left, there is instead the duel between a centaur and two Lapiths.
The lid offers a beautiful example of a typological portrait, adhering to the mid-Italic concept of portraiture, expressing the encounter between late-Classical models and the search for individualisation, introduced by Lysippos. The choice of mythical subjects for the case is clearly studied, with emphasis on the patrimony of ethical values, indicating that lack of respect for the latter incurs divine retribution. On account of these aspects of intellectual refinement, as well as for its stylistic characteristics, the sarcophagus may be ascribed to a high-level workshop in Tuscania or Tarquinia, where it would have been commissioned by a cultured patron; the Sarcophagus of the Poet may be attributed to the same workshop. (x)”
[id: photo of the sarcophagus described above, which has a portrait of the deceased reclining and holding a phial. the side of the sarcophagus visible in the image depicts the massacre of the children of Niobe by Artemis and Apollo. end id.]
Applique with the head of Medusa. Vulci. Late 3rd - first half of 2nd century B.C.; gold. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
[id: photo of a small gold plaque in the form of the head of Medusa in relief. she looks up and to her left, with lips slightly parted. a pair of small wings sit atop her head among her hair. serpents intertwine in her hair and under her chin. end id.]
Sarcophagus with polychrome relief. Cerveteri, Banditacci Necropolis, Tomb of the Sarcophagi. 400 - 375 B.C.; marble. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“On the lid the deceased is depicted reclining, cloaked, crowned, adorned with jewels and with a patera for libations; next to the head there is a folded liber linteus, a book written on a linen cloth, perhaps a sacred text. The seahorses on the tympanumallude to the journey into the Underworld by sea, while the two semi-reclining figures with a krater recall a symposium transposed into the hereafter. On the casket there is a funeral procession with the deceased depicted on a chariot with his wife, accompanied by musicians (playing the tibia, the lyre and the horn) and dancers, with a cloaked figure and a priest with a lituus (stick curved like a staff). It is one of the most ancient specimens in the Etruscan series. The iconography combines the novelty of the procession with themes of archaic tradition: the banquet, musicians, dance and the married couple in attendance.” (x)
[id: photo of the marble sarcophagus described above. on the lid, the deceased, a bearded man, lies with a book next to his head. the side of the sarcophagus is decorated with a depiction of a funeral procession. traces of brown pigment can be seen on the faces and arms of the figures in the procession. end id.]
Graziani Putto. Sanguineto, near Lake Trasimeno. Early 2nd century B.C., bronze. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“The statue represents a naked youth seated on the ground, with his body tipped backwards and his left leg bent under his right one. On the latter is an Etruscan inscription “to the god Tec Sans as a gift”. His arms are outstretched and he holds a bird in the right hand and a ball in the left. From his neck hangs a large seal, while he has two rings around his ankle and right wrist and a spiral armilla on his left wrist. His face, smiling and chubby, and the vivacity of his movements refer the bronze to a Hellenistic matrix, a period that saw in Etruria a great diffusion of ex votos of this type, both clay and bronze [cf. Carrara putto]. The “Graziani putto”, destined for the divinity Tec Sans, protectress of children, is one of the various attestations of indigenous cults in the area north-east of Lake Trasimeno.” (x)
[id: photo of the bronze statue described above, which depicts a smiling, seated child holding a bird in one hand and a ball in the other. end id.]
Mirror with engraving of Calchas. Vulci. Late 5th century B.C., bronze. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“This famous mirror shows an elderly haruspex intent on examining the liver of a sacrificed animal for drawing auspices from it. The Etruscan inscription describes him as Kalkhas, that is the mythical Greek soothsayer Calchas represented here in the Etruscan iconographic version with the attribute of wings, a clear characteristic that underlines his function of go-between between earthly and transcendent reality. The foot placed on a rock is to be noted. This is a fundamental action in the divining process by the haruspex who in doing this establishes contact with the earth as the site of the natural sphere and of the underworld.” (x)
[id: photo of circular bronze mirror described above, which is engraved with an image of the soothsayer Kalkhas examining a liver. end id]
Statue of a youth. Tarquinia. Late 4th - 3rd century B.C., bronze. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“The statue, originally fixed on a stone base, is missing the left arm and two fingers of the right hand; these latter were broken in ancient times. On the arm there is an incomplete Etruscan inscription mentioning a votive offering to Selvans and to Śuri, etymologically the “black”, a sort of underworld Apollo for the Etruscans. Votive offerings depicting seated children have been found in the ancient Etruscan shrines of Lake Trasimeno [cf. Graziani Putto], Vulci, and Cerveteri. On account of the mature appearance of the face, this bronze work has hypothetically been identified with the mythical Tagetes, the prophet-child with the wisdom of an elder, who prodigiously appeared from ground ploughed too deeply by a farmer in Tarquinia and who was the first to dictate to the principes Etruriaethedisciplina etrusca, or rather the foundations of the Etruscan religion, subsequently codified in sacred books.
Considering the high quality of the statue and the fact that the bulla or amulet it wears was an attribute of high-ranking youths during puberty, it would in any case have been dedicated by an eminent personage to an urban shrine in ancient Tarquinia.” (x)
[id: photo of statue described above, which depicts a seated youth wearing an amulet and turning to look behind themselves. end id]
Figurine of haruspex. From the right bank of the Tiber. 4th century B.C., bronze. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
[id: photo of figurine described above, which depicts a haruspex, wearing a characteristic high, pointed headdress, standing and looking downwards. end id]
Mars of Todi. Todi, Monte Santo area. End of 5th century B.C., bronze. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“This extremely rare example of ancient bronze statuary depicts a warrior dressed in a breastplate and leaning against an iron lance, in the act of performing a propitiatory libation with a patera before battle (the patera and the remains of the lance are currently on display in a cabinet). It is made up of parts cast separately using the lost wax technique and then soldered together, with multi-material insertions to enhance its naturalistic effect. The dedicatory inscription, in the language of the ancient Umbrians but in the southern Etruscan alphabet (ahal trutitis dunum dede) recalls that the statue was given as a gift (dunum dede) by a certain Ahal Trutitis, possibly an individual of Celtic origin. Probably produced in a workshop in Orvieto (Volsinii), it displays references to Attican models from around the third quarter of the fifth century B.C., especially in the circle of Phidias, although with generic aspects of Polycletian form. It was discovered in Todi in 1835, buried between slabs of travertine, possibly after having been struck by lightning. It was acquired by the Papal Government in 1836.” (x)
[id: photo of the bronze statue described above, which depicts a warrior in a breastplate leaning against a lance, which is not shown in the photo, with his right hand outstretched. end id]
Acroterion with winged horse. Cerveteri, 500 - 475 B.C., polychrome terracotta. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“At the right end of the triangular pediment of a temple, against the background of the final slab covering the lateral beam of the tympanum, the animal emerges in clear relief, in the act of taking flight, with its front hooves worked in the round and silhouetted against the sky. A sober polychrome decoration, expertly alternated with unembellished areas, defines the details of the figure and qualifies the surface, decorated with scales. The horse would originally have been harnessed with a bit, possibly made of bronze.” (x)
[id: photo of the acroterion described above, which depicts the head, neck, and wing of a winged horse.]
Antefixes with the heads of a maenad and of Silenus. Cerveteri, Jacobini excavations, 1870. 4th century B.C., terracotta. Gregorian Etrusan Museum. (x)
[id: two photos of the antefixes described above. both antefixes have wide nimbuses decorated with alternating lotus flower palmettes on different color backgrounds: black for the maenad and red for silenus. the maenad is a pale woman wearing a diadem with rosettes and two large cluster-shaped earrings. silenus, wearing an ivy crown, has red skin, a long beard, wide-set eyes, furrowed brow, bared teeth, and large ears. end id]
Bust of a woman. Cerveteri, 300 - 250 B.C., terracotta. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“The bust is not among the votive terracottas produced in series using moulds, but instead constitutes an original work modelled directly by a capable artist for a high-ranking commission. It depicts a relatively young women with well defined features and is clearly intended as a portrait. The surface of the face and neck is very smooth in order to render the luminosity of the complexion. The lines defined on the neck and below the chin indicate the passing of time on a face that appears to be lost in thought rather than ideally detached. The lion’s-head earrings, which reproduce exemplars in gold found throughout the Etruscan area and in Magna Graecia (around 325 – 200 B.C.) along with the voluminous hair inspired by portraits of Alexander the Great would enable it to be dated from the early Hellenistic period. Mid-Italic portraiture is in part indebted to the formal conquests of Greek art, which during the height of the Hellenistic age developed the first dynastic portraits. Portraiture is a genre that is well attested to in Italic culture, adopted both in the votive and funerary areas, and was subsequently taken up by the Roman aristocracies due to the importance attached to the individual image. The genre passed via Roman art into western figurative culture.” (x)
[id: photo of the terracotta bust described above, which depicts a woman gazing into the distance. end id]
Antefix in the form of a woman’s head. Cerveteri, 525 - 500 B.C., polychrome terracotta. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“The antefix, of the type without a nimbus, decorated the tiles at the ends of the eaves of the roof, constituting a serial decoration. It has the form of a female head, the details of which are defined through finely detailed polychrome painting, rather than in relief. The head is crowned with a diadem, decorated with a double row of leaves and small spears. She wears a pair of disc-shaped earrings with a rosette painted in the centre.” (x)
[id: photo of the terracotta antefix described above, which depicts the head of a woman who is smiling slightly. end id]
Tomb-painting with sphinxes and groups of figures, with guilloche pattern above and crimson and cream stripes below. From Cerveteri, c. 560 - 550 B.C.; baked clay and pigment. The British Museum. (x)
Mirror with Lasa, Hamphiare, and Aivas. First half of the 4th c. B.C.; bronze. The British Museum. (mirror/drawing)
“Dressed in a chiton and unrolling a scroll, she [Lasa] stands between two seated young warriors, whose attitudes express despondency. The names Hamphiare (Amphiaraos) and Aivas (Ajax) are written next to them and also inscribed on the scroll beneath the name of Lasa. Both heroes suffered an untimely death, and the suggestion that the Lasa on the mirror is meant to have announced their fate to them does not seem unjustified.” (Sybille Haynes, Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History)
Statuette of a young woman. Late 6th century B.C.; bronze. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The artist was clearly inspired by archaic Greek korai, votive statues of young women, a connection especially noticeable in the typical frontal pose with right hand extended and left hand holding the garment. However, the sculptor was not especially concerned about the accurate depiction of costume. The Greek himation (cloak), for example, is misrepresented. The folds so prominently visible from the front are absent on the back of the statue, perhaps an indication that the artist was looking at a two-dimensional source such as a relief sculpture or vase painting rather than a sculpture in the round. In any case, he clearly was more interested in rich surface embellishment than in realistic rendering of drapery and produced a wealth of engraved details in the hair, jewelry, sewn seams, decorated hems, and drapery folds. The pointed shoes (calcei repandi), here elaborately rendered with meticulously detailed laces and floral ornament, are distinctively Etruscan. The figure’s left foot is a modern restoration. (x)
The oh-so-aged Capitoline She-Wolf, the fosterer of Romulus and Remus, a fifth-century BCE masterpiece, right? Wrong!! Although the illustrious Johann Joachim Winckelmann saw the austere lines of archaic Etruscan art in the Lupa Capitolina, he was wrong, like many eighteenth-century archaeologists.
Fine, so Cicero talks about this statue, whatever. So what if the story is as old as Rome itself, so what if Livy offers it up as an explanation of Rome’s origin. It doesn’t matter. The fact remains that this sculpture is from the thirteenth century. See, when Rome fell in the west and all the Romans packed up and headed to Constantinople, the westerners forgot how to do stuff like cast bronze.
Don’t blame them. Seriously, imagine this: you are holed up on the top of the Esquiline hill while raging Gauls destroy everything between the hills, including the sewer system, so the swamps that have been empty for a thousand years are all full of mosquitos, and then the Gauls are getting malaria so even they have to leave, and now everyone has malaria and cholera and dysentery….are you really that worried about the ancient art of bronze casting?
No, you are not. So when the medievals picked it up again in the west they did it differently, and if you really, really looked closely at the Lupa Capitolina you would be able to tell. Uh oh, well it’s supposed to be nearly 3000 years old.
Well, it’s 700 years old. I guess that’s old too? What is the difference?
@c9-smoothie the saga continues. I’m pretty sure there’s an etruscan fresco of some people having a threesome with a bull out there too but there are things even I won’t google.
OH HI YOU HIT THE “GET ELZE TO RAMBLE ABOUT THE ETRUSCANS” BUTTON!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! Your prize is me rambling about the Etruscans!!!!!!!!!!
You are, I believe, thinking of The Tomb of the Bulls in Tarquinia. The full frescoed wall in question:
And what’s above Door #1?
Difficult to make out, but we have a bull lying in a field, while next to him, three people are boning! Hooray threesomes! A lovely day for it.
But what’s above Door #2?
Two dudes boning in the field while a bull with a human face and a beard charges at them! Judging by this bull’s rampant erection, he wants in. Or maybe he just gets excited by the idea of trampling people. I’m not here to kinkshame ancient human-faced bulls.
The Etruscans are, hands down, my favorite ancient civilization. Because if you’re going to be dead, you might as well get to look at porn for all eternity.
Etruscans believed eroticism drove off evil.
That’s one theory, yeah. But tbh western archeologists have a looong history of calling anything they don’t immediately understand/see a use for/want to think about apotropaic. Personally I just think Etruscans knew what they liked and wanted to have what they liked in their afterlife. Namely parties, food, fucking, booze, music, dancing, sports, and having a Good Time.
@c9-smoothie the saga continues. I’m pretty sure there’s an etruscan fresco of some people having a threesome with a bull out there too but there are things even I won’t google.
OH HI YOU HIT THE “GET ELZE TO RAMBLE ABOUT THE ETRUSCANS” BUTTON!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! Your prize is me rambling about the Etruscans!!!!!!!!!!
You are, I believe, thinking of The Tomb of the Bulls in Tarquinia. The full frescoed wall in question:
And what’s above Door #1?
Difficult to make out, but we have a bull lying in a field, while next to him, three people are boning! Hooray threesomes! A lovely day for it.
But what’s above Door #2?
Two dudes boning in the field while a bull with a human face and a beard charges at them! Judging by this bull’s rampant erection, he wants in. Or maybe he just gets excited by the idea of trampling people. I’m not here to kinkshame ancient human-faced bulls.
The Etruscans are, hands down, my favorite ancient civilization. Because if you’re going to be dead, you might as well get to look at porn for all eternity.
