Chapter 6 The Etruscans

necropolis

Greek, "city of the dead"; a large burial area or cemetery.

Porta Marzia

2nd Century BCE Stone Perugia, Italy (Etruscan) One of the gates in Perugia's walls. The use of fluted pilaster or engaged columns to frame arches typifies Etruscan builders' adaptation of Greek architectural motifs.

Apulu (Apollo of Veii)

510 - 500 BCE, Veii, Ital Painting terracotta The statue of Apulu was part of a group depicting a Greek Myth. Distinctly Etruscan, however, are the god's vigorous motion and gesticulation arms and the placement of the statue on a temple roof.

Sarcophagus with reclining couple

520 BC Painting terracotta Etruscan art, Archaic perio Early Etruscan.couple presumably at a banquet. animated faces and gesturing arms. relaxed pose. completed in parts. interesting subject matter of a woman in an honored position-something unheard of in Greek culture.

Diving and fishing, detail of the left wall of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing

530-520 BCE Fresco Scenes of young men enjoying the pleasures of nature cover the walls of this Tarquinian tomb. The Etruscan diving scene predates a similar landscape painting in a Greek tomb at Paestum.

Fibula with Orientalizing lions

650-640 BCE Gold This huge gold pin found with other Orientalizing jewelry in a Cerveteri tomb combines repose and granulation and is the work of an Etruscan artist, but the lions are Egyptian and Mesopotamian motifs.

fibula

A decorative pin, usually used to fasten garments.

granulation

A decorative technique in which tiny metal balls (granules) are fused to a metal surface.

pilaster

A flat, rectangular, vertical member projecting from a wall of which it forms a part. It usually has a base and a capital and is often fluted.

chimera

A monster of Greek invention with the head and body of a lion and the tail of a serpent. A second head, that of a goat, grows out of one side of the body.

voussoir(vuø-¢swar)

A wedge-shaped block used in the construction of a true arch. The central voussoir, which sets the arch, is the keystone.

cista (pl. cistae)

An Etruscan cylindrical container made of sheet bronze with cast handles and feet, often with elaborately engraved bodies, used for women's toilet articles.

Charun

An Etruscan death demon.

pectoral

An ornament worn on the chest.

Silentiary

An usher responsible for maintaining silence in the Byzantine imperial palace in Constantinople

arcuated

Arch shaped.

Novios Plautios

Bronze Artist - Ficoroni Cista Late 4th century BCE Novios Plautios made this container for a woman's toiletry articles in Rome and engraved it with the Greek myth of the Argonauts. The composition is probably an adaptation of a Greek painting.

Capitoline Wolf

Capitoline Wolf Bronze, c. 500-480 BCE, Palazzo dei Conservatori, Capitoline Museums, Rome Story of infants Romulus and Remus suckled by the She-Wolf; later became founders of Rome; children added later in the Renaissance

tumulus (pl. tumuli)

Burial mound; in Etruscan architecture, tumuli cover one or more subterranean multichambered tombs cut out of the local tufa (limestone). Also characteristic of Neolithic funerary architecture and the Japanese Kofun period of the third and fourth centuries.

Aule Metele (Arringatore)

Early Rome, 1st century BCE. Bronze statue called the Orator because of hand gesture

Chimera of Arezzo

Etruscan. 400-350 BCE. first half of the 4th century Bronze. Florence. Composite monster which the Greek hero Bellerophon slew lion head and body, goat head, snake for tail. Depicted to attack/flee. VERY Emotional: angry snarling. Anatomy was very precise almost accurate.

Interior of the Tomb of the Leopards

Etruscans 480-470 BCE Named after the guardian beasts in the rear pediment, depict banqueting couples, servants, and musicians. The men have dark skin, the women fair skin.

Interior of the Tomb of the Shields and Chairs

Etruscans 550-500 BCE Terracotta statues of the deceased probably "sat" in the chairs cut out of the bedrock of this subterranean tomb chamber. The tomb's plan follows that of a typical Etruscan house.

Tumuli in the Banditaccia necropolis

Etruscans 7th to 2nd centuries BCE In the Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri, the Etruscans buried several generations of families in multi-chambered rock-cut underground tombs covered by great earthen mounds (tumuli).

Sarcophagus of Lars Pulena

Etruscans Late 3rd or early 2nd century BCE Tufa Images of the deceased on late Etruscans sarcophagi are more somber than those on Archaic examples, but Lars Pulena proudly displays a list of his life's achievements on an open scroll.

Interior of the Tomb of the Reliefs

Etruscans Late 4th or early 3rd century BCE Named from the painted stucco reliefs covering its its walls and piers. The stools, mirrors, drinking cup, and other items are reminders of the houses of the living.

Tomb of the Augurs

Tarquinia: 520 BC. Frescoes Painted door representing the threshold to Heaven. Cruel game of Phersu. The main subject of the painting is the funerary games held for important persons, which had ritual bloodshed. One of the oldest tombs at Tarquinia to have frescoes on all four walls. Dominating the rear wall is a large door, probably the symbolic entrance to the Underworld.

Tuscan column

The standard type of Etruscan column. It resembles ancient Greek Doric columns, but is made of wood, is unfluted, and has a base.

Classical and Hellenistic Art

ca. 480-89 BCE The Greek Victory over the Etruscan fleet off Cumae in 474 BCE ended Etruscan domination of the sea and marked the beginning of the decline of Etruria. Rome destroyed Veii in 396 BCE and conquered Cerveteri in 273 BCE. All of Italy became Romanized be 89 BCE. A very different, more somber mood pervades Etruscan are during the fifth through first centuries BCE, as seen, for example, in the sarcophagus of Lars Pulena. Later Etruscan architecture is noteworthy for the widespread use of the stone arch, often framed with Greek pilasters or engaged columns, as on the Porta Marzia at Perugia.

Archaic Art

ca. 600-480 BCE The 6th century BCE was the apex of Etruscan power in Italy. Etruscan kings even ruled Rome until 509 BCE. The Etruscan admired Greek art and architecture but did not copy Greek works. They constructed their temples of wood and mud brick instead of stone and placed the columns and stairs only at the front. Terracotta statuary decorated the roof. Most surviving Etruscan artworks come from underground tomb cambers. At Cerveteri, great earthen mounds (tumuli) covered tombs with interiors sculpted to imitate the houses of the living. At Tarquinia, painters covered the tomb walls with monumental frescoes, often depicting funerary games, as in the Tomb of the Augurs, or banquets attended by both men and women.

Orientalizing Art

ca. 700-600 BCE During the Villanovan period of the early millennium BCE, the Etruscans emerged as a people with a culture distinct from those of other Italic peoples and the Greeks. Their language, although written in a Greek-derived script, is unrelated to the Indo-European linguistic family. In the seventh century BCE, the Etruscans traded metals from their mines for foreign goods and began to produce jewelry and other luxury objects decorated with motifs model on those found on imports form Mesopotamia. The Regaling-Galassi Tomb at Cerveteri contained a treasure trove of Orientalizing Etruscan jewelry.

Etruscan temple

created their own order, the Tuscan, which had many characteristics of the Doric order, but with brick and unfluted columns of wood, and sculpture on the roof instead of a frieze (usually terracotta, reddish brown Model Etruscan temple. Platform raises the structure off the ground, which Romans would later adopt. Stairs require entrance in only one way. Would be made of wood. Statues on roof, not inside.