Dr. Schiller: AP History of Art

1. Dr. Schiller: AP History of Art Etruscan Art: Italy Before the Romans

2. Who were the Etruscans? • people who occupied the middle of Italy (modern-day Tuscany) • wiped out by the Romans • influenced by, but different from, Greek art

3. During 8th and 7th centuries: • Etruscans were sea-faring traders • By 6th c., numerous Etruscan cities, but they never united, so no real Etruscan “nation” or “kingdom” • Only semblance of unity was primarily: • --Common linguistic ties • --Religious beliefs and practices • the lack of unity left them easy prey for the Romans

4. Etruscan sculpture, painting, and architecture: --provided the models for early Roman art and architecture --had an impact on the art of the Greek colonies in Italy

5. Etruscan Art Started to like luxury items incorporating Eastern motifs Same period as Greek Orientalizing period Followed by the Archaic Period

6. Early Etruscan art: Orientalizing Art Great mineral wealth of Etruria transformed Etruscan society during 7th c. BCE Had iron, tin, copper, and silver Cities with rich mines (like Cerveteri) could import foreign goods

7. [Gardner plate 9-1] Fibula with Orientalizing lions, from the Regolini-Galasi Tomb, Cerveteri, Italy, ca. 650- 640 BCE. Gold, approx. 1’ ½“ high.

8. This is the most spectacular luxury item • fibula—a clasp or safety pin used to fasten a women’s gown at the shoulder • This one is a unique shape and giant size • the 5 lions that walk across the gold surface were borrowed from the Orient (Asia) • techniques also came from Asia— • --repoussé • --granulation

9. from a 7th c. BCE tomb of wealthy family at Cerveteri tomb had bronze cauldrons and gold jewelry of Etruscan manufacture and Orientalizing style

10. Jewelry in the tomb also included: • a golden pectoral that covered the deceased woman’s chest, and • 2 gold circlets that might be earrings, though large enough to be bracelets Ostentatious display is frequently the hallmark of newly-acquired wealth (certainly the case in 7th c. Etruria)

11. Archaic Art and Architecture • even while emulating Greek architecture, always a distinctive Etruscan temperament • most Archaic Etruscan art departs markedly from its prototypes, especially religious architecture • Etruscan temples superficially owe much to Greece but there are more differences than similarities • Usually only the foundations survived, because of the building materials they used • But the foundations reveal the plans of the building; the archeological record is supplemented by the Roman • architect Vitruvius’s account of Etruscan temple design in his treatise on classical architecture written near the end of the 1st c. BCE

12. Stokstad plate 6-3 Model of a typical. Etruscan temple of the 6th c. BCE, as described by Vitruvius.

13. Typical Archaic Etruscan temple • resembles Greek gable-roofed temples • but constructed not of stone but of wood and sun-dried brick with terracotta decoration • only one narrow staircase at the center of the temple • temple sat on a high podium • wide roof overhead

14. columns were only in the front, creating a deep porch that took up about ½ of the podium • clear which is the front • Greek temples’ front and rear were indistinguishable and there were steps and peripteral colonnades on all sides • Reason: • --Not meant to be seen as a sculptural mass from outside and all directions • --Instead, meant to • function primarily as • an ornate home for • grand statues of • Etruscan gods

15. Other temple differences: • Columns resembled Doric but- • were made of wood • unfluted • had bases • Because the superstructure was so light, Etruscan columns were much more widely spaced than Greek columns

16. Etruscan temples had 3 cellas—one for each of their chief gods: • --Tinia (Zeus/Jupiter) • --Uni (Hera/Juno) • --Menvra (Athena/Minerva) • rare to find pedimental statuary • but narrative statuary (terracotta instead of stone) was placed on the peaks of Etruscan temple roofs

17. Stokstad plate 6-5 Sculptor: maybe Vulca of Veii, Apulu (Apollo), from the roof of the Portonaccio Temple, Veii, Italy, ca. 510-500 BCE. Painted terracotta, approx. 5’ 11” high Life-size image of Apulu (Apollo)

18. One of the finest surviving rooftop statues • brilliant example of the energy and excitement that characterizes Archaic Etruscan art in general • statue came from a temple at Veii • just one of a group of at least four painted terracotta figures that adorned the roof of the temple • story—the god confronts Hercle (Herakles or Hercules) for possession of a hind (female deer) who was a wondrous beast with golden horns that was sacred to Apulu’s sister Artumes (Artemis/Diana)

19. Gardner plate 9-3 Sculptor: maybe Vulca of Veii, Apulu (Apollo), from the roof of the Portonaccio Temple, Veii, Italy, ca. 510-500 BCE. Painted terracotta, approx. 5’ 11” high The bright paint and the rippling folds of Apulu’s garment call to mind the Greek korai [Gardner plate 5-12] Kore, from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca.510 BCE marble, approx. 1’ 9 ½ “ high

20. but this Apulu is distinctively Etruscan: • a vital figure with extraordinary force • huge swelling contours • plunging motion • gesticulating arms • fan-like calf muscles • animated face • sculptor may have been Vulca of Veii, the most famous Etruscan sculptor of the time • the statue’s discovery in 1916 was instrumental in prompting a reevaluation of the originality of Etruscan art!

21. Etruscan Artists in Rome • Tarquinius Superbus (the Arrogant”) was Rome’s last king, driven out in 509 BCE • but before his expulsion, TS started a most ambitious undertaking—erecting a magnificent temple on the Capitoline Hill for joint worship of the 3 main Etruscan gods • he summoned architects, sculptors, and workers from all over Etruria • so Rome’s 1st great religious shrine was Etruscan in patronage, manufacture, and form

22. We know the following from several sources, including Pliny the Elder: • Vulca of Veii sculpted the statue of Jupiter in a 4-horse chariot • placed at the highest point of the roof, directly over the façade’s center • His red-faced (painted terracotta) Jupiter was so great that Roman generals would paint their faces red in emulation of his Jupiter when they paraded in triumph through Rome after a battlefield victory

23. A story about Vulca’s chariot group underscored both its tremendous size and the reverent awe later generations held for it: --Normally, terracotta statuary condenses and contracts in the furnace as the clay’s moisture evaporates in the heating process --But Vulca’s statue swelled instead and could only be removed form the furnace by dismantling the furnace!

24. Sculptor: Novios Plautios, “Ficoroni Cista” from Palestrina, Italy, late 4th c. BCE. Bronze, approx. 2’6” high

25. Vulca is the only Etruscan artist named by any ancient writer, but we have signatures of other Etruscan artists on surviving artworks E.g. Novios Plautios-worked in Rome, a few centuries later, like this cista (cylindrical container for a woman’s toilet articles)

26. Stokstad plate 6-8 Sarcophagus with reclining couples, from Cerveteri, Italy, ca. 520 BCE. Painted terracotta, approx. 3’ 9 ½ “ high

27. life-size terracotta statuary was known in Greece but especially favored in Etruria • This is a magnificent example of Archaic Etruscan terracotta sculpture • Sarcophagus in the form of a husband and wife reclining on a banqueting couch, from a tomb in the Cerveteri necropolis • It was cast in 4 • sections, then joined

28. No parallel in Greece—at this date, Greece had no monumental tombs to house such sarcophagi, because the Greeks buried their dead in simple graves marked by a stele or a statue • Though banquets were commonly depicted on Greek vases, only men dined at Greek meals

29. The image of a husband and wife sharing the same banqueting couch is uniquely Etruscan These figures are animated like the Apulu of Veii, even though they are at rest

30. They are the antithesis of the stiff and formal figured encountered in Egyptian tomb sculpture Statue of Menkaure and Khamerernebty Stokstad plate 3-12

31. Peplos Kore, from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 530 BCE, Marble, approx. 4’ high. Stokstad plate 5-20. Kroisos, from Anavysos, Greece, ca. 530 BCE. Marble, approx. 6’ 4” high. Stokstaad plate 5-18 They are also in striking contrast to contemporary Greek statues with their emphasis on proportion and balance

32. notice how the Cerveteri sculptor rendered the upper and lower parts of each body: • --the legs are only summarily modeled • --the transition to the torso at the waist is unnatural • --this artist’s interest is focused on the upper half of the figures, especially the vibrant faces and gesticulating arms • The Greek statues have closed contours and calm demeanor

33. Gestures are still an important ingredient of Italian conversation today

34. The “Audacity” of Etruscan Women • at the end of the 1st c. BCE, Emperor Augustus had Livy write a history of Rome from its legendary founding in 753 BCE to his own day • in the first book, Livy recounted the tale of Tullia, daughter of Servius Tullius, an Etruscan king of Rome in the 6th c.: • --the princess had married the less ambitious of 2 brothers of the royal Tarquinius family, while her sister had married the bolder one • --together, Tullia and her brother-in-law, Tarquinius Superbus, arranged for the murder of their spouses • --then they married each other and plotted the overthrow and death of Tullia’s father

35. Ostentatiously, Tullia drove her carriage over her father’s corpse, spraying herself with his blood that street is still called the “Street of Infamy’!

37. Livy placed Tullia’s actions in the context of the famous “audacity” of Etruscan women • Independent spirit and relative freedom women enjoyed in Etruscan society also horrified and threatened other Greco-Roman male authors • 4th c. BCE Greek historian Theopompus heard about the debauchery of Etruscan women; but much of what he reported is untrue. They did not exercise naked alongside Etruscan men • Aristotle also remarked on Etruscan women attending banquets and reclining with their husbands

38. This custom (of Etruscan women attending banquets) shocked and frightened the Greeks, because only men, boys, slave girls, and prostitute attended Greeksymposia (a convivial meeting, usually following a dinner, for drinking and intellectual conversation) • In Greece, women remained at home, excluded from most of public life, but in Etruria, women also regularly attended sporting events with men • Etruscan inscriptions also reflect the higher • status of women in Etruria than in Greece: they • often list both father and mother of the person • commemorated (unheard of in Greece—e.g. • “Hegeso, daughter of Proxenos”)

39. Etruscan women retained their own names and could legally own property independent of their husbands The frequent inscriptions on Etruscan mirrors and such buried with women seem to attest to a high degree of female literacy as well.

40. Aerial view of Banditaccia necropolis, Cerveteri, Italy. 7th-2nd c. Stokstad plate 6-6 Houses for the Dead: typical Etruscan tomb took the form of a mound (tumulus)

41. somewhat similar to Mycenaean Treasury of Atreus Mycenaean Etruscan

42. but instead of being constructed of masonry blocks and then covered by an earthen mound, each Etruscan tumulus covered one or more subterranean multi-chambered tombs cut of the dark local limestone called tufa • very large tumuli--diameters sometimes reached over 130 feet • arranged in cemeteries in an orderly manner along a network of streets • produced the effect of cities of the dead • always located some distance from the cities of the living

43. the underground tomb chambers cut into the rock resembled the houses of the living • e.g. the central entrance and smaller chambers open into a large central space • these mirror the axial sequence of rooms in actual Etruscan houses of the time (similar to that of early Roman houses) Plan of the Tomb of the Shields and Chairs, Cerveteri, Italy, 2nd half of 6th c. BCE. [Gardner plate 9-6]

44. Plan of a Roman House. Gardner p.255 Plan of an Etruscan tomb

45. Tomb of Shields and Chairs, interior of the central room this “house look” was enhanced by cutting out of the rock a series of beds and grand armchairs with curved backs and footstools, ceiling beams, framed doorways, even windows

46. Interior of the Tomb of the Reliefs, Cerveteri, Italy, 3rd c. BCE. Stokstad plate 6-7 this “house look” was enhanced by cutting out of the rock a series of beds and grand armchairs with curved backs and footstools, ceiling beams, framed doorways, even windows

47. Interior of the Tomb of the Reliefs, Cerveteri, Italy, 3rd c. BCE. Stokstad plate 3-19 Interior hall of the rock-cut tomb of Amenemhet, Beni Hasan, Egypt, Dynasty XII, ca. 1950-1900 BCE The Etruscan tomb houses are reminiscent of much earlier Egyptian rock-cut tombs

48. notice other different values of Etruscans— --Etruscans built houses to live in of wood and mud brick which didn’t last but Greeks built houses out of stone --Etruscans built stone huge monumental burial chambers, not Greeks

49. Tomb of Shields and chairs Tomb of the Reliefs • Tomb of the Reliefs is the most elaborately decorated tomb • like previous Tomb of Shields and Chairs, it accommodated several generations of single family • brightly painted stucco reliefs covered the stone • pictures of knives, mirrors, drinking cups, pitchers all suggest a domestic context

50. Banqueters and Musicians, detail of mural paintings in the Tomb of the Leopards, Tarquinia, Italy, ca. 480-470 BCE. [Gardner plate 9-8] This comes from a tomb in Tarquinia