Etruscan Art

800BC-100BCThe Etruscan civilization lasted from the 8th century BC to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. In the 6th century the Etruscans expanded their influence over a wide area of Italy. They founded city-states in northern Italy.

WHO WERE THE ETRUSCANS? “The Etruscans, as everyone knows, were the people who occupied the middle of Italy in early Roman days, and whom the Romans, in their usual neighborly fashion, wiped out entirely.” – D.H. Lawrence, Etruscan Places (1929)

Deeply influenced by, yet different from, Greek art, Etruscan sculpture, painting, and architecture not only provided the models for early Roman art and architecture The heartland of the Etruscans was the territory between the Arno and Tiber Rivers of central Italy. Known today as Tuscany, the land of the people the Romans called Tusci The origin of the Tusci people is not clear at all. Their language, although written in a Greek-derived is still in large part obscure. Their lack of political cohesion eventually made the Etruscans relatively easy prey for Roman aggressors.

Etruscan Temple Type6th century BC

• Resembles Greek temples but constructed not of stone but of wood

• Columns were restricted to the building’s front- indicating a main side of the building

• Was intended to function primarily as an ornate home for grand statues of Etruscan gods

• It was a place of shelter, protected by its roof’s wide overhang

• Pedimental statuary was rare• Narrative statuary- in terracotta

was placed on the peaks of Etruscan temple roofs

• Entrance was possible only via a narrow staircase

• Columns resemble Greek Doric- but made of wood, were unfluted, and had bases

• Columns more widely spaced• Etruscan temples frequently had

three cellas- one for each of their chief gods, Tinia, Uni and Menserva.

ApuluArchaic Etruscan terracotta 510-500 BCCharacteristics of Etruscan Sculptures• Extraordinary force• huge swelling contours• plunging motion• gesticulating arms• fan-life calf muscles • and animated face are distinctly

Etruscan

Sarcophagus with Reclining CoupleCerveteri, Italy 520BC Although life-size terracotta statuary

was known in Greece, this medium was especially favored by the Etruscans.

An example is the sarcophagus in the form of a husband & wife reclining on a banqueting couch from a tomb in the Cerveteri necropolis

The work was created in 4 sections then joined

It had no parallel in Greece The couple is highly animated as the

Apulu of Veii Unlike Greek importance on proportions

here the Etruscans have focused on the upper half of the figures, especially on the vibrant faces and gesticulating arms

They are the antithesis of the stiff and formal figures

encountered in Egyptian tomb sculptures.

Houses for the Dead

• Typical tombs in Etruscan cemeteries took the form of a mound or tumulus

• Each Etruscan tumulus covered one or more subterranean multi-chambered tombs cut out of the dark local limestone called tufa

• These burial mounds sometimes reached colossal size in excess of 130 ft in diameter.

• • Necropolis- city of the dead

TUMULI

The underground tomb chambers cut into the rock resembled the houses of the living!

Even though we do not have any remnants of their actual homes we can see how they’ve might’ve lived by examining their tombs.

Cut out of the bedrock: series of beds, armchairs with curved backs, ceiling beams, framed doorways + windows!

Think about: temples made out of wood/ mudbrick vs tombs are of permanent bedrock*

TOMB OF THE RELIEFSCERVETERI, ITALY 3RD

CENTURY BC

• It accommodated several generations of a single family

• Carved out of tufa bedrock

• Brightly painted stucco reliefs covered the stone

• The stools, mirrors, drinking cups, pitchers, and knives suggest a domestic context

TOMB OF THE LEOPARDSTARQUINIA, ITALY480-470 BC

• Banqueting couples (the men with dark sin, the women in light skin) adorn the walls (similar to the sarcophagus from Cerveteri)

• People serve them, musicians play double pipes and a seven-stringed lyre entertain them

• In Etruscan fashion the banqueters, servants and entertainers all make exaggerated gestures with unnaturally large hands.

• The tone is joyful, a celebration of life, food, wine, music, and dance, rather than a somber contemplation of death.

TOMB OF HUNTING & FISHINGTARQUINIA, ITALY

530-520BC

Scenes of Etruscans enjoying the pleasures of nature decorate all the walls of the main chamber of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing

The last Etruscan king: Tarquinius Superbus

As a result, the number of Etruscan tombs decreased sharply, the quality of the furnishings declined markedly.No longer were tumuli filled with golden jewelry and imported Greek vases or mural paintings.But Etruscan art did not cease. Etruscan artists continued to excel in bronze & terracotta works

CAPITOLINE WOLF500-480 BC

ROME

• Mythical Etruscan Animal• Larger-than-life hollow-cast bronze

portrayal of the she-wolf that, according to ancient legend, nursed Romulus and Remus after they were abandoned as infants.

• When the brothers grew they quarreled and Romulus killed his brother.

• Romulus founded Rome on April 21, 753 BC on the Palatine Hill and became the city’s king.

• The statue of the she-wolf seems to have been made for the new Roman Republic after the expulsion of Tarquinius Sperbus.

• Product of a Etruscan workshop• Protective beast + psychic intensity

CAPITOLINE WOLF

• According to legend, Rome traced its roots back to Aeneas, a Trojan prince who fled from Troy’s destruction.

• Romulus & Remus were said to be descendants of Aeneas

• The city of Rome allegedly was founded in 753 BC and Romulus was the first of seven Etruscan Kings.

• Remains the image of Rome to this day.

CHIMERA OF AREZZOAREZZO, ITALY

4TH CENTURY BC

• Chimera is a monster of Greek invention with a lion’s head and body and a serpent’s tail.

• A second head, that of a goat, grows out of the lion’s left side

• As rendered by the Etruscan sculptor, the chimera is injured and bleeding but is nowhere near defeated.

• The chimera’s muscles re stretched tightly over its rib cage

• Prepared to attack• In tradition, also the guardian nurse

of Romulus and Remus

Rome Overwhelms Etruria

At about the time of the Chimera of Arrezo, Rome began to appropriate Etruscan territory.

Veii fell to the Romans in 396 BC In 251 BC Tarquinia and 273 BC Cerveteri was

conquered

PORTA MARZIA(GATE OF MARS)PERUGIA, ITALY2ND CENTURY BC

The Porta Marzia was one of the gates in Perugia’s walls.

The use of engaged columns to frame arches typifies Etruscan builders’ adaptation of Greek architectural

motifs. The arch has a long history in ancient

architecture, but it was commonly used in Etruscan and later Roman buildings.

Engaged Column

Similar heads- realistic but generic types, not true portraits, are found on all later Etruscan sarcophagi and in tomb paintings.

They are symptomatic of the economic and political decline of the once-mighty Etruscan city-states.

Sarcophagus of Lars Pulena, from Tarquinia, Italy. Early 2nd century BC. Tufa. 6’6” long.

AULE METELESANGUINETO, ITALY1ST CENTURY BC5’7” HIGH It is a Romano-Etruscan in the Roman style and depicts an Etruscan man, Aule Metele, wearing a short Roman toga and footwear. His right arm is raised to indicate that he is an orator addressing the public.

Etruscan bronze statue

Roman style short toga