The Etruscans

Etruscans

• territory between the Arno and Tiber rivers .
• green hills still bear their name — Tuscany
• land of the people the Romans called Tusci
• center was Florence, birthplace of Renaissance art.

Assumed to have emigrated from the east.

• May have been native Italians.
• Likely the result of a gradual fusion of native and immigrant populations.

During the eighth and seventh centuries BCE

• Etruscans were highly skilled on the ocean
• thrived off trade

By the sixth century

• controlled most of northern and central Italy.
• Cities never united to form a state
• Etruscans never formed a “nation” or “kingdom,”
• Cities coexisted, thriving or failing independently.
• Common languages, religious beliefs and practices.
• No political unity made the Etruscans easy prey for the Romans.

SmartHistory – The Etruscans

The Etruscans were the people who occupied the middle of Italy in early Roman days, and whom the Romans wiped out entirely.Deeply influenced by Greek art, Etruscan sculpture, painting, and architecture provided the models for early Roman art and architecture and also had an impact on the art of the Greek colonies in Italy.

ORIENTALIZING ART, ca. 700– 600 BCE

During the early first millennium BCE, the Etruscans emerged as a people with a culture distinct from those of other Italic peoples and the Greeks.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 modeled on those found on imports from the Near East.

ARCHAIC ART, ca. 600– 480 BCE

The sixth century BCE was the apex of Etruscan power in Italy. Etruscan kings even ruled Rome until 509 BCE.The Etruscans admired Greek art and architecture but did not copy Greek works. Etruscan temples were made of wood and mud brick instead of stone and had columns and stairs only at the front. Terracotta statuary decorated the roof.

Most surviving Etruscan artworks come from underground tomb chambers. At Cerveteri, great earthen mounds ( tumuli) covered tombs with interiors sculptured to imitate the houses of the living.At Tarquinia, painters covered the tomb walls with monumental frescoes, usually depicting funerary banquets attended by both men and women.

CLASSICAL AND HELLENISTIC ART, ca. 480– 489 BCE 

The Greek defeat of the Etruscan fleet off Cumae in 474 BCE ended Etruscan domination of the sea and marked the beginning of Etruria’s decline. Rome destroyed Veii in 396 BCE and conquered Cerveteri in 273 BCE. All of Italy became Romanized by 89 BCE.

A very different, more somber, mood pervades Etruscan art 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 columns, as on the Porta Marzia at Perugia.

EARLY ETRUSCAN ART 

• Historians divided the history of Etruscan art into periods similar to those of Greek art.
• The seventh century BCE is the Orientalizing period of Etruscan art (followed by Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods).

Orientalizing Art 

Seventh century BCE

• Etruscans mine iron, tin, copper, and silver
• Mineral wealth transformed Etruscan society.

Villages with agricultural based economies gave way to wealthy cities invested in international commerce.

Elite families bought foreign goods

• Etruscan aristocrats wanted luxury objects that used Eastern designs.
• Local artists were inspired by the imported art
• produced their own works for homes and tombs.

REGOLINI-GALASSI TOMB (named for the people who found it)

• 650– 640 BCE
• wealthy Etruscan family
• stocked the Tomb with large bronze pots and gold jewelry
• Orientalizing style.

Interior hallway

The most amazing finds in the tomb is a golden fibula (clasp or safety pin)

• Used to fasten a woman’s gown at the shoulder.
• The five walking lions are Asian inspired.
• Repoussé (hammered relief)
• Granulation (the fusing of tiny metal balls, or granules, to a metal surface).

Also found a gold pectoral

• covered a deceased woman’s chest

Two gold circles that may be earrings

• are large enough to be bracelets.
• Symbolizes newly acquired wealth

Pectoral plate made from hammered gold.

Archaic Art and Architecture 

• Inspired by artwork of the East and also the art and architecture of Greece.
• Had a style all their own

ETRUSCAN TEMPLES 

The design of Etruscan temples

• owes some to Greece
• but still very different
• Widely spaced unfluted wooden columns only at the front
• walls made from mud bricks
• narrow staircase on the front

Usually only the foundations of Etruscan temples have survived.

• Vitruvius wrote about the designs of the Etruscan temples.
• Archaeologists constructed a model based on Vitruvius’s account.
• Stairs were the only part of the building made of stone.

Columns

• 18 feet tall or more
• only on the front of the building.
• The front and back of Greek temples were the same
• Greek builders placed steps and columns on all sides.

Etruscan temples were not meant to be scene as a sculptural building.

• Mostly meant to house statues of Etruscan gods.
• Was a place of shelter, protected by the large roof.
• Etruscan columns resembled Greek Doric columns
• Tuscan columns were made of wood, were unfluted, and had bases.
• The roof was not as heavy
• columns could be spaced further apart.

Etruscan temples usually had three cellas

• one for each of their major gods, Tinia, Uni, and Menrva.

Also placed life-size sculptures on the peaks of their roofs.

• Made from terracotta instead of stone

In 616 BCE, Tarquinius Priscus of Tarquinia became Rome’s first Etruscan king. He ruled for almost 40 years. His grandson, Tarquinius Superbus (“the Arrogant”), was Rome’s last king. Outraged by his behavior, the Romans drove him out in 509 BCE. Before his expulsion, Tarquinius Superbus embarked on a program to embellish the city he ruled. The king’s most ambitious undertaking was building the temple on the Capitoline Hill for the worship of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. For this commission, he called on architects, sculptors, and workers from all over Etruria. The architect’s name is unknown, but several sources identify of the Etruscan sculptor who was brought in to create works for the temple. His name was Vulca of Veii.APULU OF VEII 

• Rooftop statues
• Part of a group of statues depicting a Greek myth.
• The movement and placement on the roof makes it very Etruscan
• Full of energy and excitement.
• The statue comes from a temple in the Portonaccio sanctuary at Veii.
• One of four painted terracotta figures that were on the top of the roof
• Depicted one of the 12 labors of Herakles/Hercles.

The god confronts Hercle for having the Ceryneian (lions) skin

• Was considered and amazing animal with golden horns
• was sacred to Apulu’s sister Artumes.

Looks like he’s walking

• moving arms, fan-like calf muscles, and animated face.
• Believed to have been made by Vulca of Veii, most famous Etruscan sculptor of the time.

CERVETERI SARCOPHAGUS 

• Life-size terracotta sculpture was known in Greece
• Was used a lot in Etruria.

Sarcophagi 

• in the form of a husband and wife on a dining couch
• Nothing like this in Greece.
• Focus is on the upper half of the figures
• Hand gestures are key to Etruscan works
• Italians talk with their hands
• Was once brightly painted
• Cast in four sections
• is very large
• contained only the ashes of the dead.
• Cremation was the most common means of disposing of the dead in Italy at this time.
• Was not done in Greece

The Greeks buried their dead in simple graves marked by a stele or a statue.

• Only men ate at Greek banquets.
• A husband and wife sharing the same couch for eating on is only found in Eutria.
• Transition to the torso at the waist is unnatural.

The “Audacity” of Etruscan Women

• Titus Livy recorded a history of Rome.
• In the first book of his great work, Livy wrote about the story of Tullia
• daughter of Servius Tullius
• Etruscan king of Rome in the sixth century BCE.
• The princess got married.
• Tullia and her brother-in-law, Tarquinius Superbus, arranged for the murder of their spouses.
• They then married each other and plotted tp overthrow and kill Tullia’s father.
• After the king’s murder
• Tullia drove her carriage over her father’s corpse, spraying herself with his blood.
• The Roman road where the murder happened is still called the Street of Infamy.

Women were independent and had much more freedom than Greek and Roman women

• Horrified (and threatened) the Greeks and Romans.

Greek historian Theopompus heard about the debauchery of Etruscan women

• It appalled him.
• They epitomized immorality for Theopompus
• Much of what he reported is untrue.

Etruscan women went to banquets and reclined with their husbands on a common couch.

• Aristotle once remarked on this custom.

Was so foreign to the Greeks that it shocked and frightened them.

• Only men, boys, slave girls, and prostitutes attended Greek meetings.
• The wives stayed at home
• Did not take part in everyday affairs.

Etruscan women attended sporting events with men.

Had a higher status then women in Greece.

Etruscan women retained their own names when married

Could legally own property independently of their husbands. 

• Numerous inscriptions on mirrors and other toiletry items
• Seems to show how well off these women were.
• They could also read.

BANDITACCIA NECROPOLIS (City of the Dead)

• Etruscans buried several generations of families in multi-chambered rock-cut underground tombs
• Were covered by earth mounds (tumuli).
• Each tumulus, earth mound, covered one or more undergound multi-chambered tombs
• Cut out of the dark local limestone called tufa.
• Diameters sometimes as large as 130 feet.
• Arranged in cemeteries along a network of streets

• producing literal “cities of the dead”
• were located away from the cities of the living.

The tombs look like the houses of the living.

• Sculptors carved out beds, chairs, doors, and ceiling beams out of the rock.
• The central entrance and the smaller chambers opening onto a large central space mirror the Etruscan dwellings of the time.
• Similar to some of the things the Egyptians did
• Etruscans’ temples no longer stand because they made them from wood and mud brick
• Tombs are permanent

TOMB OF THE RELIEFS 

• Most elaborate of the Cerveteri tombs
• called the Tomb of the Reliefs.
• Takes its name from the painted reliefs covering its walls and columns.
• Stools, mirrors, drinking cups
• Looks like the inside of a home.
• Several generations of a single family were buried here.
• Connection between houses of the dead and those of the living.
• Helmet and shields over the main couch (pillows are shallow reliefs), are signs of the elite status of this Cerveteri family.

The three-headed dog Cerberus (a little lower than center in the image)

• guardian of the gate to the Underworld,
• reference to the passage from this life to the next.

Tombs and Funerary ArtTARQUINIA 

• Large underground burial chambers
• Carved out of natural rock.
• Most of the tombs are covered in murals

Couples dining together, servants, and musicians celebrate the joy of a good life.

• The men have dark skin, the women light skin.
• May have been covered with dirt mounds, but they are no longer preserved

No carvings that look like beds like we saw earlier

• Paintings decorate the walls.
• Only the wealthiest Etruscan families had painted tombs
• Record of artworks found in this area

TOMB OF THE LEOPARDS 

• Named for the animals that guard the tomb.
• Pitcher-and cup-bearers serve the guests
• musicians entertain them.
• Banquet takes place in the open air
• Maybe in a tent set up for the occasion.
• Figures have exaggerated gestures with unnaturally large hands.
• The man on the couch at the far right holds up an egg

• Symbol of regeneration.

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

Few trees and bushes placed between the entertainers (and leopards) and behind the couches.

TOMB OF HUNTING AND FISHING 

• Scenes of Etruscans enjoying the pleasures of nature.
• Predates the Greek painting we say of the man diving into the afterlife.
• A youth dives off a rock
• Others fish from a boat
• Birds fill the sky all around.

On another wall

• Young hunters aim their slingshots at the brightly painted birds.

LATER ETRUSCAN ART 

• Fifth century BCE was a golden age in Greece but not in Etruria.
• In 509 BCE
• Romans expelled the last Etruscan kings, Tarquinius Superbus
• replaced the monarchy with a republican form of government.

In 474 BCE

• Alliance of Cumaean Greeks and Hieron I of Syracuse (Sicily) defeated the Etruscan fleet off Cumae
• ended Etruscan dominance at sea
• Ended Etruscan wealth.

The number of Etruscan tombs decreased

• Quality of the furniture inside them declined.
• Tombs were no longer filled with gold jewelry and Greek vases
• No more mural paintings

They continued to make impressive works in bronze and terra-cotta, just not as many

CAPITOLINE WOLF 

• Cast bronze statue
• Has a tense body
• Intense
• Lowered neck and head, alert ears, glaring eyes, and ferocious mouth capture the intensity of animal as danger approaches.
• She-wolf that nursed the infants Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.
• Romulus and Remus were abandoned as infants
• When the twins grew to adults, they fought, and Romulus killed his brother.
• On April 21, 753 BCE, Romulus founded Rome and became the city’s king.
• Became the emblem of Rome.

The Capitoline Wolf is not a work of Roman art

• Was made by an Etruscan workshop. (The infants were added much later, 15th c.)

CHIMERA OF AREZZO 

• Etruscan bronze-casting
• Made about 50 years after the Capitoline Wolf.
• Was a composite monster killed by the Greek hero Bellerophon.
• Shown here ready to attack
• Lion’s head and body and a snake’s tail (has been restored).
• A second head, a goat, grows out of the lion’s left side.

The goat’s neck is where Bellerophon struck the beast.

• The chimera is shown injured and bleeding, but still ready to fight
• Muscles stretched over its rib cage.

At about the time the Chimera was made, Rome began to take Etruscan territory.

• Veii fell to the Romans in 396 BCE, after a 10-year war.
• Peace came in 351 at Tarquinia
• By the beginning of the next century, Rome had annexed Tarquinia too
• In 273 BCE the Romans conquered Cerveteri.

Plautios made this container for a woman’s toiletry items in Rome

• Engraved it with the myth of the Argonauts.
• The composition is probably taken from a Greek painting.

FICORONI CISTA 

• Rome’s growing power in Italy is indicated by the engraved inscription on the Ficoroni Cista.
• Etruscan artists began to produce cistae (cylindrical containers for a woman’s toiletry articles)
• Made of sheet bronze with cast handles and feet
• Engraved bodies
• Made them in large numbers in the fourth century BCE.
• Also made engraved bronze mirrors
• Were popular gifts for both the living and the dead.
• The center of the Etruscan cista industry was Palestrina (ancient Praeneste), where the Ficoroni Cista was found.

The inscription on the handle says that Dindia Macolnia, a local noblewoman, gave the bronze container to her daughter and that the artist was Novios Plautios. 

• According to the inscription, his workshop was not in Palestrina but in Rome,
• By this time was becoming an important Italian cultural and political center. 

The frieze depicts the Greek story of the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece.

• The composition is probably copied from a lost Greek panel painting
• Perhaps one that was on display in Rome.

SARCOPHAGUS OF LARS PULENA 

• Hellenistic Etruria
• sarcophagus were made of local stone.
• Images of the deceased on late Etruscan sarcophagi are more somber than those on Archaic ones
• Pulena displays a list of what he accomplished in life on an open scroll.
• Leading production center was Tarquinia
• Shows the deceased in the Underworld
• between two charuns (Etruscan death demons) swinging hammers.
• Signifies that Pulena made the journey to the afterlife.
• Shown in a reclining position
• Not at a banquet
• His wife is not present.

Expresses the economic and political decline of Etruscan society

AULE METELE 

• Later Etruscan portrait
• Statue of the magistrate Aule Metele
• Raising his arm to address a crowd
• His modern nickname is Arringatore (Orator).
• Aule Metele wears the short toga and high boots of a Roman
• The style of the portrait is also Roman.

Etruscan artists continue to be experts at bronze-casting even in their decline.

Aule Metele and his compatriots became Romans, and Etruscan art became Roman art.