Chapter 9: Etruscan Art
Gardner pp. 223-235
Etruscans: mid-8th century - 89 BC: First great civilization to emerge in Italy:
never formed a single nation but coexisted as separate city-states with their own
rulers
Language like none other known – origin uncertain
Debated origins: everything we know comes from Greek or Roman historians
Herodotos: originated in Asia Minor, emigrated to Italy to escape famine
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (c. 20 BC): Etruscans originated in Italy and
were then influenced by eastern cultures (ie. indigenous)
Shared much with Eastern civilizations
Importance of underworld gods
Fertility cults
High status of women
Active role in public life
Deeply influenced by, yet different from, Greeks
Religion:
Complex belief that the destiny of man was controlled by the gods
Belief in predestination
Heaven and earth divided in quarters by an invisible cross
Highly educated and trained priests would decipher the signs
Town planning evolved from religious concepts
Towns laid out according to sacred rules, mirror of cosmos
(many cultures and periods linked city and architectural planning/design to the
plan of the cosmos – reason for alignment to cardinal points, for height of sacred
buildings….belief in power to control the unknown.)s
By end of the 7th century Etruscan federation expanded throughout central Italy
Kingships gave way to oligarchic governments: aristocratic assemblies
Foundation for later Roman republican government
Society divided into two classes: lords and servants
Aristocrats: aggressive landowners
Hydraulic systems for draining marshes
Expert diviners who could find subterranean water, wells
Wine: grapes introduced
Mining of metals
Cities the center of society
Massive walls (ashlar work and polygonal walls)
Mostly of wood and brick
Houses built around atrium, focus of family life
Grid plan of cities >> influenced Romans
Extensive cemeteries built at distance from cities: cities of the dead
(Necropolis)
Family tombs reflect homes of the living
Tumulus = round structure containing one or more tomb chambers
ashlar masonry
Temple: resembles Greek prostyle but rests on high base (podium)
steps at one end only – focus on entrance/ axial organization
wide pronaus (porch in front of cella)
interior space to house cult god: cella divided into 3
wide space between columns, architrave of wood
Maritime power: controlled Mediterranean sea trade
Middle of 6th century: peak of military and commercial strength
Power spread too thin – in conflict with Greeks and Rome which began to acquire
commercial, political and military expertise
5th century: Rome gained independence and began to attack Etruscans:
one by one the Etruscan cities fell to the Romans.
Romans owed much to Etruscans
Drainage of marshes of Rome, creation and paving of forum
Stone work for building walls
Temple design
Fibula with orientalizing lions, from the Regolini-Galassi Tomb, Cerveteri, c.
650-640 BC, Vatican
Golden clasp to fasten gown at shoulder
Near eastern decorative motifs: 5 lions, cut out and applied to the ground
6th century BC Etruscan Temple
Vitruvius: detailed description of Etruscan temple design
Wood and sun-dried brick with terracotta decoration
High podium
Entrance staircase at front
Columned façade porch
Cella divided into 3 compartments for different cult figures
Axial (unlike Greek which were meant to be seen from all angles)
Highly decorated
Function = ornate home for the cult image
Human headed cinerary urn, 7th century, terracotta, Chiusi
Pottery urns took on human shape with head growing out of lid
Apollo, from roof of the Portonaccio Temple, Veii, c. 510-500 BC, Villa Giulia
Life-size, molded terracotta
Influence of Greek kore but without elegance
Brightly painted
Rippling folds
Animated and yet heavy, lumbering gait
Heroic idealization of the Greeks has been brought down to earth
More descriptive, more factual
Some organic form but mostly curvilinear stylizations/patterns
Sarcophagus with reclining couple, from Cerveteri, c. 520 BC, painted
terracotta, Villa Giula, Rome
Form of rectangular dining couch
Influence of archaic Greece
No sense of skeletal structure
Focus on upper parts of the body
Animation of figures at banquet >> gesture
Aristotle comments on strange fact that Etruscan men ate with their wives
Freedom of Etruscan women >> could own property
Importance of family unit
Sarcophagus of Ramtha Visnai, from Vulci, c. 300-280 BC, limestone, MFA
Married couple in bed >> ancient association of sleep with death
Loving relationship
Nudity signifies their continuing sexual union even in death
Etruscan cemeteries: most of what we know about the Etruscans comes from
their necropolis
Cities of the dead
Subterranean multi-chambered tombs cut out of local tufa
Tumuli: not unlike the Mycenaean Treasury of Atreus
Resembled domestic houses
Tomb of the Reliefs, Cerveteri, 3rd century BC
Meant to accommodate several generations of a single family
Stucco reliefs, brightly painted
Mourners at the Door of the Other World, Tomb of the Augurs, Tarquinia, c.
510 BC
Representation of mourners facing door leading to next life
On right, wrestlers competing for gold and bronze bowls
Figures stand on horizontal ground
Little indication of spatial depth
Tomb of the Leopards, banqueting scene, detail of mural paintings, Tarquinia, c.
480-470 BC
Exaggerated gestures (like Italians today)
Joyful, celebratory
Stylistically like archaic Greek vase painting
Landscape elements
Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, mural painting of diving and fishing, c. 530-20 BC
Etruscan interest in representing nature
Reminiscent of Tomb of Ti and Tomb of Nebamun
Possible knowledge of Egyptian funerary traditions
Think about rise of landscape:
Egyptian: Tombs of Ti and Nebamun
Minoan: Akrotiri frescoes
Paestum: Tomb of Diver
Etruscan: Tomb of Hunting and Fishing
Rome: Boscotrecase, Agrippa’s villa, c. 11 AD
China: Fan Kuan, Travelers among Mountains and Streams, N. Song, 11c
Italy: Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Good Government, Palazzo Pubblico, 1338
Capitoline Wolf, c. 500-480 BC, bronze, Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome
Legend of Romulus and Remus
Made for the Roman Republic after the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus
Emblem of the city of Rome
Expressive animation combined with a sense of realism
Warrior (Mars of Todi), bronze, early 4th century BC, Vatican
Buried in a sarcophagus in ruins of Temple of Todi
Etruscan interpretation of Polykleitos canon
contrapposto
Animated pose
Cuirass over gathered skirt
Aule Metele (Arringatore, orator), from Sanguineto, near Lake Trasimeno, early
1st century BC, bronze, Florence (name inscribed on hem)
Discovered in 1566
Short toga and high laced boots of Roman magistrate
(already a Roman citizen)
Portrait
Self-confidence
Arm raised in gesture of address
VOCABULARY:
Podium
Axial
Ashlar masonry
Necropolis
tumulus