Chapter 9 Italy Before the Romans: The Art of the Etruscans - Notes Early Etruscan Art - Orientalizing fibula, granulation

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1 Chapter 9 Italy Before the Romans: The Art of the Etruscans - Notes The Etruscans, as everyone knows, were a people who occupied the middle of Italy in the early Roman days, and whom the Romans, in their usually neighborly fashion, wiped out entirely So writes D. H. Lawrence in Etruscan Places (1929), one of the earliest modern essays that treated Etruscan art as more than a debased form of Greek art. Lawrence goes on to say Most people despise everything BC that isn t Greek, for the good reason that it ought to be Greek if it isn t. Deeply influenced by, yet different from, Greek art, Etruscan sculpture, painting, and architecture not only provided the models for early Roman art and architecture but also had an immediate impact on the art of the Greek colonies in Italy. The origins of the Etruscan peoples are somewhat of a mystery. Yet they were very likely the result of a gradual fusion of native and immigrant populations. This mixing of peoples corresponded with the Geometric period in Greece. During the eighth and seventh centuries BC, the Etruscans, as highly skilled seafarers, enriched themselves thought trade abroad. By the sixth century BC, they controlled most of northern and central Italy from such strongholds as Tarquinia, Cerveteri, Vulci, and Veii. But these cities never united to form a state, so it is improper to speak of an Etruscan nation or kingdom, only of Etruria, the area occupied by the Etruscans. The cities coexisted, flourishing or fading on their own. Any semblance of unity among them was based primarily on common linguistic ties, religious beliefs and practices. This lack of political cohesion eventually made the Etruscans easy prey for the Romans. Early Etruscan Art - Orientalizing The Etruscans gained great wealth from the iron, tin, copper, and silver that was successfully mined in their territory. This great mineral wealth transformed Etruscan society in the seventh century BC, turning modest villages into prosperous cities engaged in international commerce. Etruscan autocrats quickly developed a taste for luxury objects with Eastern motifs. This was the orientalizing period of Etruscan art. One fine example of the oriental influence on Etruscan art is this gold fibula, from the so called Regolini - Galassi Tomb (named for the excavators) at Cerveteri. This unique shape would fasten to a woman s gown at the shoulder. The form is of Italic tradition, but the five lions that walk across the the gold surface were borrowed from the Orient. The technique of emulating Eastern imports is masterful, combining hammered relief and granulation (the fusing of tiny metal balls or granules to a metal surface). Archaic Art and Architecture Though influenced by Greece, Etruscan artworks depart markedly from their prototypes. Though their are superficial similarities with Greek temples, the differences far outweigh them. Because of the materials Etruscan architects used, only the foundations of temples exist today, providing sufficient information as to the plan of the edifices. The Roman

2 architect Vitruvious wrote a treatise on architecture near the end of the first century BC. His information on Etruscan temple design greatly supplements our understanding. Our example of an Etruscan temple is a model constructed by archeologists based upon Vitruvious account. The structure resembled contemporary Greek stone gable - roofed temples, but was made of wooden columns and wooden roof, with walls made of sun-dried bricks. Entrance was possible only through a narrow staircase at the center of the front of the temple, which sat on a high podium that was the only part of the building made of stone. Columns were restricted to the front of the building creating a deep porch that occupied roughly one half the podium setting of one side of the structure as the main side. In contrast Greek temples were the same in the front and back and had columns and stairs on all sides. The Etruscan temple was not meant to be seen as a sculptural mass from the outside and all directions, as were Greek temples. Instead it functioned primarily as an ornate home for the grand statues of Etruscan gods. It was a place of shelter, protected by a wide overhang of its roof. Etruscan columns resembled Greek Doric columns, but were made of wood, were unfluted and had bases. Because of the lightness of the superstructure they had to support, Etruscan columns were, as a rule, much more widely spaced than Greek columns. Unlike their Greek counterparts, Etruscan temples frequently had three cellas - one for each of their three main gods, Tinia, Uni, and Minrva. Pedimental statuary was exceedingly rare in Etruria. The Etruscans normally placed narrative statuary - made of terra-cotta rather than stone - on the peaks of their temple roofs. Apulu (Apollo) The finest of these roof top statues to survive today is a life sized image of Apulu which displays the energy and excitement that characterize Etruscan Archaic art in general. It is one of a group of at least four painted terra-cotta sculptures that adorned the top of the temple roof at Veii. The bright paint and rippling folds of Apulu s garment remind one of the Ionian korai of the Acropolis. The huge swelling contours, plunging motion, gesticulating arms, fan like calf muscles, and animated face are distinctly Etruscan. The statue was discovered in Etruscan Sarcophagi Another Etruscan terra-cotta masterpiece is the sarcophagus in the form of a husband and wife reclining on a banqueting couch from a tomb in the Cerveteri narcropolis. The sarcophagus was cast in four sections and is of monumental size, but contained only the ashes of the deceased. Cremation was the most common means of disposing of the dead in Italy at this time. This kind of funerary monument had no parallel at this date in Greece, where there were no monumental tombs that could house such sarcophagi. The Greeks buried their dead in simple graves marked by a stele or statue. The image of a husband and wife sharing the same banqueting couch is uniquely Etruscan. While Greeks commonly depicted banqueting scenes on their vases, only the

3 men dined at the symposia. The independent spirit and relative freedom women enjoyed in Etruscan society horrified and threatened Greek and Roman authors at the time. The idea of women attending banquets with their husbands and reclining on common couches was also shocking and frightening to Aristotle. Only men, boys, slave girls, and prostitutes attended Greek symposia. The wives remained at home, excluded from most aspects of public life. Etruscan women also attended sporting events which was not allowed for Greek women. Etruscan women were also mentioned in inscriptions commemorating someone. The mother and father were both mentioned father than just the father. The man and woman on the sarcophagus are as animated as was Apulu, even though they are at rest. They are the antithesis of the stiff and formal Egyptian figures and are a striking contrast to the contemporary Greek statues with their emphasis on proportion and balance. Typically Etruscan is the manner in which the sculptor rendered the upper and lower parts of each body. The legs were only summarily modeled, and the transition to the torso at the waist is unnatural. The Etruscan artist focused on the upper half of the figures creating vibrant faces and gesticulating arms. This gesturing is still an important ingredient in Italian conversation today. The Etruscan figures speak to viewers in away that the cerebral aesthetic of the Greek statues could never do. The Houses of the Dead at Cerveteri The Etruscan tombs at Cerveteri are in the form of a mound called a tumulus. Etruscan tumulus covered one or more subterranean multi chambered tombs cut out of dark local limestone called tufa. These burial tombs sometimes reached colossal size, with diameters in excess of 130 feet. They were arranged in cemeteries in an orderly manner along a network of streets, prodding the effect of veritable cities of the dead called necropolis in Greek, and were always located some distance from the cities of the living. The underground chambers cut into the rock resembled the houses of the living. One cannot help but notice the differences in values between the Greeks and the Etruscans. The Etruscan temples no longer stand because of the materials they were made of, but their grand subterranean tombs are as permanent as the bedrock itself. The Greeks employed stone for shrines of their gods but only rarely built monumental tombs for their dead. The most elaborate of the underground tombs in decoration and plan is the so called Tomb of the Reliefs. It accommodated several generations of a single family as other Etruscan tombs. The wall and piers were as usual, gouged out of the tufa bedrock, but in this instance brightly colored stucco reliefs depicting stool, mirrors, drinking cups, pitchers, and knives cover the walls. These motifs suggest a domestic context and underscore the connection between the houses of the dead and those of the living.

4 Painted Tombs at Tarquinia Large underground burial chambers hewn out of natural rock were the norm at Tarquinia. The tombs however were not covered with tumuli and the interiors were not relief carvings giving the appearance of an Etruscan house. Some did however have paintings that decorated the chamber walls. Statistically rare, paintings were the privilege of only the wealthiest Etruscan families. A characteristic example of a tomb painting is from the fifth century BC and has been called the Tomb of the Leopards, named for the beasts that guard the interior of the painted chamber from their perch within the rear wall pediment. Mythological figures were uncommon in Tarquinian murals. Banqueting figures, male and female, adorn the walls - painted versions of the terra-cotta sarcophagus from Cerveteri. Pitcher and cup bearers serve them, and musicians entertain them. In characteristic Etruscan fashion, the figures all make exaggerated gestures with unnaturally large hands. The man on the couch at the far right on the rear wall holds up an egg as a symbol of regeneration. The tone is joyful. The painting is a celebration of life, food, wine, music, and dance rather than a somber contemplation of death. Later Etruscan Art The fifth century BC was the golden age in Greece but not in Etruria. In 509 BC, the Romans expelled the last of their Etruscan kings, replacing the monarchy with a republican form of government. In 474 BC, the Cumaean Greeks and the Sicilians defeated the Etruscan fleet ending their dominance at sea and with it their prosperity. With this decline, Etruscan culture declined and grew smaller. The quantity of tombs and the quality of work grew lesser. Etruscan art did not cease, but grew less productive, even though terra-cotta and bronze works were still impressive. Classical Art The best known of these later Etruscan statues - one of the most memorable portrayals of an animal in the history of world art - is the Capitoline Wolf. The statue is a somewhat larger than life-size hollow-cast bronze portrayal of the she wolf that, according to legend, nursed Remus and Romulus after they were abandoned by infants. When the twins grew to adulthood, they quarreled, and Romulus killed his brother. On April 21, 753 BC, Romulus founded Rome on the Palatine Hill and became the cities king. The statue of the she-wolf seems to have been made, however, for the new Roman Republic. It became the new government s totem. The defiant image has remained the emblem of Rome to this day. The Capitoline Wolf is not a Roman work of art but the product of an Etruscan work shop. The suckling infants are additions by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Antonio Pollaiuolo. The ferocity and tenseness of the animal is among the greatest rendering of animal temperament and matches if not surpasses the Assyrian reliefs.

5 Arezzo s Bronze Chimera Another masterpiece of Etruscan bronze casting found in 1553 and greatly admired during the Renaissance, is the Chimera of Arezzo, which dates a century later than the Capitoline Wolf. The 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. The goat s neck bears the wound the Greek hero Beller-ophon inflicted when he hunted and slew the composite beast. As rendered by the Etruscan sculptor, the creature is nowhere near defeated. Defiant till the end Etruscan Art and the Rise of Rome At about the time the Chimera of Arezzo was fashioned, Rome began to take over Etruscan territory through siege, negotiation, and annexation. This growing power is indirectly referenced on the Ficoroni Cista. Etruscan artists produced such cistae, made of sheet bronze with cast handles and feet and elaborately engraved bodies, in large numbers from the fourth century BC forward. Along with engraved bronze mirrors, they were popular gifts for both the living and the dead. The Etruscan bronze cista industry was centered in Palestrina where our piece was found. The inscription on the cista s handle states that Dindia Macolnia, a local noblewoman, gave the bronze container to her daughter and that the artist was one NOVIOUS PLAUTIOS. According to the inscription, his workshop was not in Palestrina but in Rome, which by this date was becoming an important Italian cultural and political center. The engraved frieze on the Ficoroni Cista depicts an episode from the Greek story of the expedition of the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. Scholars agree that the composition is an adaptation of a lost Greek panel painting, perhaps one on display in Rome. This testifies to the growing wealth and power of Rome. The Greek source for the engraving is evident in the figures seen entirely from behind or in three-quarter view, and in their placement on several levels in the Polygnotan manner. Torment in the Underworld Descendants of the terra cotta sarcophagus from Cerveteri were made of local stone. The sarcophagus of Lars Pulena was fashioned in the early second century BC and placed in his family s tomb. The deceased is shown in a reclining position, but not at a festive banquet, and his wife is not present. His expression is somber; a far cry from the smiling confident faces of the Archaic period when Etruria enjoyed its greatest prosperity. 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. Also attesting to the gloomy assessment of the future is the theme chosen for the coffin proper. The deceased is shown in the underworld, attacked by two Charuns (Etruscan death demons) swinging lethal hammers. Above on the lid, Lars Pulena exhibits a partially unfurled scroll inscribed with his life s accomplishments. Lacking confidence in a happy afterlife, he dwells instead on the past.

6 Etruscan or Roman The portrait of Aule Metele, is supremely self - confident. He is portrayed as a magistrate raising his arm to address the assembly - hence the modern nickname Arringatore (Orator). This life-size bronze statue was discovered in 1566, near Lake Tranimeno, and is another Etruscan masterpiece known to Italian Renaissance sculptors. The statue of the Orator proves that Etruscan artists continued to be experts of bronze casting long after the heyday of Etruscan prosperity. The orator is Etruscan in name only, for by this time all Italy became Roman with the conferring citizenship on all of Italy s inhabitants at the end of the so called Social War which ended in 89 BC. The portrait of Aule Metele is indistinguishable from contemporary Roman portraits.