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English Pages [332] Year 2006
Stephan Steingräber
Abundance of Life
A A Stephan Steingräber is an archaeologist and a professor of Etruscology and Italic Antiquity at Roma Tre University. He has written or contributed to nearly ninety works in his field, including, most recently, Investing in the Afterlife: Royal and Aristocratic Tombs in Ancient Etruria, Southern Italy, Macedonia and Thrace, an exhibition catalogue for the University of Tokyo Museum, and Volterra; Etruskisches und mittelalterliches Juwel im Herzen der Toscana.
B R I F G P Domus Wall Painting in the Roman House Donatella Mazzoleni and Umberto Pappalardo pages color illustrations Etruscan Civilization A Cultural History Sybille Haynes pages color and b/w illustrations
Abundance of Life Etruscan Wall Painting
The striking paintings in these “underground museums” make it clear why the Etruscans have excited the imaginations of scholars and poets for centuries. The Etruscan elite and its love of luxury are on display in the earlier tombs, where beautifully dressed couples recline on couches at lavish banquets, waited on by handsome slaves and entertained by musicians, swirling dancers, and athletic games. The mood changes in the later tombs, where we see Hades and Persephone enthroned and demons escorting the dead on their long and perilous journey to the underworld. Steingräber traces this stylistic and iconographic evolution over the span of five hundred years, from the first half of the eighth century to the first half of the second century B.C., including an analysis of the most recent discoveries, such as the Tomba dei demoni azzurri (Tomb of the Blue Demons) at Tarquinia. He discusses what these paintings reveal about Etruscan daily life, religion, and funerary rites and compares them with works of art from southern Italy, Macedonia, and Asia Minor to discover how they fit into the more general picture of ancient painting.
Etruscan Wall Painting
The Etruscans Outside Etruria Edited by Giovannangelo Camporeale pages color illustrations
The frescoes in Etruscan tombs offer the earliest examples of ancient monumental painting known in the West before the Romans, and the only continuous cycle that allows us to follow the changing fashions and styles of the art of the Etruscans. In sheer quantity, only the paintings of Pompeii are comparable. And as at Pompeii, we can still see many of these paintings in situ in the house-shaped tombs of the rich elite when we visit the necropolises, or cities of the dead, at Tarquinia and other Etruscan cities, such as Cerveteri, Vulci, and Orvieto, northwest of Rome.
color illustrations
Getty Publications Getty Center Drive, Suite Los Angeles, California - www.getty.edu -: ---
On the back cover: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Augurs: detail of the left wall with escaping masked Phersu, ca. ..
Printed in Italy
Stephan Steingräber
On the front cover: Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back wall of the back chamber: detail of the seascape with boat, fishermen, and water birds, ca. ..
Stephan Steingräber
Abundance of Life
A A Stephan Steingräber is an archaeologist and a professor of Etruscology and Italic Antiquity at Roma Tre University. He has written or contributed to nearly ninety works in his field, including, most recently, Investing in the Afterlife: Royal and Aristocratic Tombs in Ancient Etruria, Southern Italy, Macedonia and Thrace, an exhibition catalogue for the University of Tokyo Museum, and Volterra; Etruskisches und mittelalterliches Juwel im Herzen der Toscana.
B R I F G P Domus Wall Painting in the Roman House Donatella Mazzoleni and Umberto Pappalardo pages color illustrations Etruscan Civilization A Cultural History Sybille Haynes pages color and b/w illustrations
Abundance of Life Etruscan Wall Painting
The striking paintings in these “underground museums” make it clear why the Etruscans have excited the imaginations of scholars and poets for centuries. The Etruscan elite and its love of luxury are on display in the earlier tombs, where beautifully dressed couples recline on couches at lavish banquets, waited on by handsome slaves and entertained by musicians, swirling dancers, and athletic games. The mood changes in the later tombs, where we see Hades and Persephone enthroned and demons escorting the dead on their long and perilous journey to the underworld. Steingräber traces this stylistic and iconographic evolution over the span of five hundred years, from the first half of the eighth century to the first half of the second century B.C., including an analysis of the most recent discoveries, such as the Tomba dei demoni azzurri (Tomb of the Blue Demons) at Tarquinia. He discusses what these paintings reveal about Etruscan daily life, religion, and funerary rites and compares them with works of art from southern Italy, Macedonia, and Asia Minor to discover how they fit into the more general picture of ancient painting.
Etruscan Wall Painting
The Etruscans Outside Etruria Edited by Giovannangelo Camporeale pages color illustrations
The frescoes in Etruscan tombs offer the earliest examples of ancient monumental painting known in the West before the Romans, and the only continuous cycle that allows us to follow the changing fashions and styles of the art of the Etruscans. In sheer quantity, only the paintings of Pompeii are comparable. And as at Pompeii, we can still see many of these paintings in situ in the house-shaped tombs of the rich elite when we visit the necropolises, or cities of the dead, at Tarquinia and other Etruscan cities, such as Cerveteri, Vulci, and Orvieto, northwest of Rome.
color illustrations
Getty Publications Getty Center Drive, Suite Los Angeles, California - www.getty.edu -: ---
On the back cover: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Augurs: detail of the left wall with escaping masked Phersu, ca. ..
Printed in Italy
Stephan Steingräber
On the front cover: Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back wall of the back chamber: detail of the seascape with boat, fishermen, and water birds, ca. ..
Abundance of Life Etruscan Wall Painting
Abundance of Life Etruscan Wall Painting Stephan Steingräber Translated by
Russell Stockman
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
To the memory of Marina and Uschi, who loved ancient art, and who to my mind ideally embodied the cultures of Italy and Germany.
Italian edition © 2006 Arsenale Editrice, Verona, Italy
Front endpapers: Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back wall of
English translation © 2006 J. Paul Getty Trust First published in the United States of America in
the back chamber: seascape with boat, fishermen, and water birds, ca. 510 ..
2006 by Getty Publications
Back endpapers:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Leopards, left wall: procession
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1682
of youths with instruments, drinking vessels, and
www.getty.edu
other objects, ca. 480 ..
Mark Greenberg, Editor in Chief Ann Lucke, Managing Editor Robin Ray, Copy Editor Mollie Holtman, Editor Pamela Heath, Production Coordinator Hespenheide Design, Composition and Design Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Steingräber, Stephan. [Pittura murale etrusca. English] Etruscan wall painting : from the geometric period to the Hellenistic period / Stephan Steingräber ; translated by Russell Stockman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN-13: 978-0-89236-865-5 (hardcover) ISBN-10: 0-89236-865-9 (hardcover) 1. Mural painting and decoration, Etruscan. 2. Tombs—Decoration—Etruria. I. Title. ND2565.S7413 2006 751.7'309375—dc22 2006008439 Printed in Italy
Table of Contents
6
Foreword
A
9
Introduction
306
Chronology
27
The History of Etruscan Wall Painting: Style, Workshops, Chronology, Iconography, and “Ideology”
308
Register of Painted Etruscan Tombs
312
Plans of Tombs
The Beginnings: The Etrusco-Geometric (or Early Orientalizing) Period (end of the eighth century–650 ..)
314
Glossary
316
Bibliography
322
Ancient Literary Sources
322
Prosopographic Index of Family Names from Hellenistic Tarquinia
323
Index
31
41
63
Asian and Corinthian Influences: The Orientalizing Period (650–575 ..) The First Major Flowering and the “Ionic Koine”: The Archaic Period (575–480 ..)
129
Between Traditionalism and Innovation: The Sub-Archaic and Classical Periods (480–400 ..)
185
The Great Changes: The Late Classical Period (400–330/320 ..)
245
Final Flowering and Conclusion: The Early and High Hellenistic Period (330/320–end of the third/beginning of the second century ..)
281
From Asia Minor to Magna Graecia, from Thrace to Alexandria: The “Koine” and the Place of Etruscan Painting in the Art of the Ancient Mediterranean
Foreword
It has now been two full decades since the “Anno degli Etruschi” in 1985, which was marked by a major international congress of Etruscologists in Florence and a series of interesting Etruscan exhibitions in various Tuscan cities. That year also saw the publication of the first compendium work on Etruscan tomb paintings, Etruscan Wall Painting, or the Catalogo regionato della pittura etrusca. The work was the fruit of an international, GermanItalian-Japanese collaboration, and was published in four languages (German, Italian, English, Japanese). Edited by S. Steingräber, it contained contributions by Steingräber, M. Pallottino, F. Roncalli, L. V. Borelli, C. Weber-Lehmann, and M. Aoyagi. The main feature of the book, which was published by Iwanami (Tokyo), Jacabook (Milan), Belser (Stuttgart), and Johnson Reprint (New York), was an extensive catalogue of Etruscan tomb paintings known up to that time, with emphasis on Tarquinia. The work has long been out of print, and to date it has not been supplanted by anything comparable. The publisher, any number of specialists, and devotees of Etruscan art and painting had hoped to see it reprinted in a revised and expanded new edition, but this proved an impossibility, in part for legal reasons. We must therefore be grateful to Verona’s
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FOREWORD
Arsenale Editrice for deciding to publish a wholly new, large-format, comprehensive book about Etruscan wall painting—naturally this means mainly tomb painting—in its new “Domus” series. The first volume of the series, Pittura e Architettura d’illusione nella casa romana, by D. Mazzoleni, U. Pappalardo, and L. Romano, appeared in 2004. Other volumes on different aspects of ancient painting are planned. Like that book, the new Etruscan Wall Painting features a wealth of high-quality, mainly color photographs produced by a number of different photographers. They include the author; Helmut Schwanke, the former photographer of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome; the master Japanese photographer Takashi Okamura (who contributed the majority of the color photos for the 1985 publication and went on to produce superb photographic documentation of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel); the Italian photographers Luciano Romano (who furnished almost all the color illustrations in the first volume in the “Domus” series) and Araldo di Luca (François Tomb after its restoration); and photographers from the Soprintendenze Archeologiche of southern Etruria (Rome, Villa Giulia), Tuscany (Florence), and Umbria (Perugia). One of the
features of Arsenale’s new “Domus” series is its generous use of so-called Tintoretto paper, made in France, which has a certain roughness to it; looking at reproductions of Etruscan wall paintings printed on it, one can almost feel their details. The text is also illustrated with early engravings, drawings, watercolors, and lucidi of certain tomb paintings that have been lost or are difficult to make out, as well as various plans. The text is composed of a lengthy introduction that addresses the fundamentals; a main section made up of six chapters, arranged chronologically, focusing on the styles, workshops, and iconography found in Etruscan painting and its development through the centuries; and a concluding chapter on the place of Etruscan painting in preRoman painting in the Mediterranean region. Footnotes have been deliberately omitted. The appendix includes an extensive bibliography, distribution maps, chronological tables, and indexes. The register of painted Etruscan tombs presents only the most crucial information and is not intended to take the place of a comprehensive catalogue. Such a catalogue, intended mainly for the use of specialists and students of archaeology and Etruscology, is planned for another publication.
I wish to thank Arsenale Editrice for its initiative in the preparation of this new publication on Etruscan painting, and Silvia Scamperle for her collaboration in the planning of the book, the selection of photographs, and her editorial suggestions. It is my hope that readers will think of this new publication as an homage to the many experts and connoisseurs of Etruscan painting who are now dwelling among the gods and heroes, above all Massimo Pallottino, the founder of modern Etruscology, whose works on Tarquinia (Monumenti Antichi 36, 1937) and Etruscan Painting (Geneva, 1952) still stand as milestones in the exploration and study of Etruscan art and painting. But a special dedication is due to two friends whose demise was greatly premature: Marina Mazzei (1955–2004), for many years the director of the Foggia branch of the Soprintendenza della Puglia and a brilliant scholar of Apulio-Daunian archaeology; and Uschi Hafner-Grimm (1951–2005), instructor in Latin and English at the glorious Melanchthon Gymnasium in Nuremberg, an institution that I once attended and one to which I never cease to feel connected.
FOREWORD
7
Introduction
Etruscan tomb paintings, especially the painted hypogea of the coastal metropolis Tarquinia, are unquestionably among the most important and expressive remains of Etruscan culture, and they have excited the imaginations of experts and other Etruscan enthusiasts over the centuries. If one sets aside their Bronze Age precursors in Minoan and Mycenaean palace painting from the second millennium .., they stand at the beginning of the history of European wall and monumental painting, and as it were constitute the first chapter in the history of Italian painting. The special significance of Etruscan tomb paintings lies not only in their splendid colors, their rich iconography, and the variety of their expressive possibilities, but also in the fact that they serve us as a kind of substitute, however inadequate, for the famous Greek wall and panel painting of which virtually nothing survives. Etruria’s unique “underground museum” presents the largest and most important collection of ancient wall painting from the pre-Roman period in the Mediterranean region. Etruscan tomb painting spans nearly five hundred years, from the second quarter of the seventh century to the turn from the third to the second century .. The majority of it falls within the Late Archaic period, that is, between the last decades of the sixth and first decades of the fifth centuries, and is concentrated (roughly 80 percent) in Tarquinia’s Monterozzi necropolis and in the necropolises of Veii, Cerveteri, Vulci, Orvieto, and Chiusi. Some examples may have been known as early as the Renaissance, but the first certain discoveries date back to 1699. A number of painted tombs came to light in the second half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth, but the number of known Etruscan painted tombs roughly quadrupled between the
1950s and 1970s, largely thanks to systematic geophysical prospecting in Tarquinia’s Monterozzi necropolis by the Fondazione Lerici. Over the past few decades several seminal publications and a systematic evaluation of the many lucidi, facsimiles, watercolors, and drawings of tomb paintings from the nineteenth century have added considerably to our understanding of them. There have also been exciting new discoveries like the Tomb of the Blue Demons (dei Demoni azzurri) in Tarquinia, the Late Orientalizing tomb in the Cancellone area near Magliano Toscano, the Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga (della Quadriga infernale) in Sarteano, and a painted underground space of a nonsepulchral nature within the ancient precinct of Cerveteri. Of further assistance in our reconstruction of the history of Etruscan painting are various painted clay plaques, so-called pinakes, most of them from the Archaic period (and from Cerveteri), and later Etruscan painted sarcophagi (mainly from Tarquinia) and urns (mainly from Volterra, Perugia, and Chiusi). Unfortunately, nothing has survived of possible wall paintings (some on clay or wood plaques) in Etruscan temples, sacred structures, public buildings, or aristocratic houses, simply because their materials (wood, clay bricks, opus craticium) were vulnerable to decay. We do, however, read of them in Pliny (Nat. Hist. 35.17–18) as mainly in Caere and in Ardea and Lanuvium in Latium. Certainly the most prominent masters would have been commissioned to produce such wall paintings, some of them doubtless on mythological subjects, which unlike those in tombs would have been accessible to the broad public. Over the course of five centuries, tomb paintings naturally underwent changes in technique, style, iconography, and “ideology.” They thus provide valuable information about
Facing page: Naruto, Japan, Otsuka Museum. Fullsize ceramic reproduction of Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Augurs
INTRODUCTION
9
everyday Etruscan life, society, fashion and taste, religion, and beliefs relating to the cult of the dead—at least those of the upper class. We know the names of any number of Greek painters, but the individuals and workshops that created these works remain anonymous; with but a few exceptions the same is true of the artists who produced all the other Etruscan art genres. Restoring and preserving these tomb paintings for future generations poses a special challenge. The main concern in this new publication is to retrace the history of Etruscan wall painting— mainly, but not exclusively tomb painting—in text and pictures, to present the various possible interpretations of it, and to place it in the larger context of the history of painting in antiquity. Needless to say, the greatest attention is given to the tomb paintings of Tarquinia, but the most recent discoveries are discussed as well. Finally, to show how Etruscan wall painting relates to that of the entire Mediterranean, I also compare it with monuments in southern Italy, Macedonia, Thrace, southern Russia, Asia Minor, and Alexandria.
Greek Monumental Painting Let me first address Greek monumental painting, without which many features of Etruscan painting would surely be inconceivable. As already mentioned, it has been almost completely lost, but much is written about it—unlike Etruscan painting—by Greek and Roman writers, namely Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristophanes, Polybius, Vitruvius, Pliny, Plutarch, Lucian, Petronius, and Pausanias. Various handbooks and treatises on the history of Greek painting, including the most recent one by Agnes Rouveret, are primarily based on these sources rather than on original paintings. The sources provide a wealth of valuable information, including anecdotes, indicating the high esteem accorded to Greek pinakes, or wood panel paintings. They also describe the pinakothekes, or public, royal, and aristocratic painting galleries in Athens, Macedonia, Alexandria, and Pergamon, as well as the public collections in Rome and the Roman aristocracy’s private collections of pinakes obtained as plunder of war and art thefts (a pinax by the famous Greek painter Apelles was reused in the decoration of the Forum of Augustus in Rome). They discuss prices of paintings; describe the preservation and restoration of paintings in antiquity; rank Greek paintings and painters; and
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INTRODUCTION
describe famous paintings and their subject matter, whether mythological or heroic, historical, political, or religious, or representing theater, landscapes, still life, or personifications. Finally, they tell us about noted painters and their schools, discuss painting as a profession of considerable prestige (often greater than that of sculptors and architects), and describe the painting process, including techniques, pigments, and implements. From all these literary sources it is clear that Greek painting reached its akmé, or culmination, between the end of the fifth and beginning of the third centuries .., that is, in the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic periods. This “golden age” of Greek painting was based on a number of important stylistic and technical innovations attributed by the ancient writers to specific famous painters or their schools. The first major figure in Greek painting was unquestionably Polygnotos of Thasos, who worked in the Early Classical period, that is, in the second quarter of the fifth century. The beginning of the “golden age” at the end of the fifth century coincides with the careers of such well-known Greek painters as Apollodorus of Athens (the inventor of skiagraphia, balancing light and shadow), Agatharchos of Samos (the inventor of skene, or scenery painting for the theater), Parrhasios of Ephesus, and Zeuxis of Heraclea. Greek painting in the first half of the fourth century was mainly associated with such names as Eupompos, Pamphilos, Pausias, and Melanthios, all of them representatives of the Sikyon school of painting, Aristides from Boeotian Thebes, and Euphranor from Corinth. The most prominent painters in the second half of the fourth century were Nikias of Athens; Philoxenos from Eretria, in Boeotia; Apelles from Colophon, in Asia Minor; and Protogenes from Caunus, in Caria. The main activity of the painters Antiphilos of Alexandria and Theon of Samos fell in the first decades of the third century. The most famous Greek schools of painting were those of Athens and Sikyon, in the Hellenistic period also Alexandria and Asia Minor. The leading painting center in Magna Graecia (southern Italy) was Tarentum. The Greeks produced paintings on wood panels, clay plaques, stone, and plastered walls, employing the three techniques of tempera, encaustic, and fresco. Paintings decorated houses and palaces, shrines and temples, theaters, tombs,
and tomb monuments. Of all paintings, pinakes were unquestionably the best-known and most desirable, but virtually none has survived. We do not have a single pinax from the hand of any of the many famous painters mentioned and praised by the ancient writers. On the other hand, at least a few painted clay and wood panels by anonymous seventh- and sixth-century artists have survived; there are examples from Thermos, in western Greece, and from Pitsa (near Corinth). In addition, there are painted grave steles from the fourth and third centuries from Macedonia (Vergina, for example), Thessaly (Demetrias), Alexandria, and Sidon, a few Late Archaic tomb paintings in Asia Minor (Phrygia, Lydia, and Lycia), the famous Tomb of the Diver (del Tuffatore) in the Greek colony of Poseidonia/ Paestum in southern Italy (ca. 480 ..), a considerable number of painted Macedonian tombs from the second half of the fourth century and the third century, the paintings on the Etruscan Amazon Sarcophagus from Tarquinia (third quarter of the fourth century), probably the work of a painter from Magna Graecia—possibly Tarentum—and numerous, mostly fragmentary wall paintings from the fourth to second centuries .. in Greek houses and palaces (in Athens, Pella, Vergina, Delos, Cnidus, and Pergamon). In addition, we have a number of other archaeological artifacts that help us to reconstruct the history of Greek painting, above all of the lost pinakes, including Greek and southern Italian vase paintings, especially those executed in polychrome on a white ground; Greek and Roman pebble and tessera mosaics; incised drawings on Etruscan and central Italian bronze mirrors and cistae; and finally the many RomanPompeian wall paintings that often copied Greek paintings or at least borrowed specific elements and motifs from Greek models. With them we are almost able to reconstruct a few of the more famous Greek paintings. Moreover, certain subjects, motifs, stylistic features, and techniques employed in Greek painting are found in wall paintings—generally in tombs—in other cultural regions, such as Thrace, southern Italy, and of course Etruria. A number of the prominent Renaissance painters, notably Sandro Botticelli and Andrea Mantegna, were well aware of the accomplishments of the famous Greek painters and were often inspired by the Greek masters in their choice of subject matter.
A number of important discoveries in the 1980s and 1990s—especially in Macedonia—have added greatly to our knowledge of Greek painting and the painting of antiquity in general. These finds have occasioned a profusion of new publications, exhibitions (mostly in connection with Macedonia and Alexander the Great), and congresses that have focused not so much on the well-known ancient literary sources as on original paintings in Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean. Among the issues under discussion, some have to do with the iconography or “ideology” of these paintings. Other concerns relate to the attribution of specific painted tombs to historical figures (like Philip II of Macedonia in Vergina) and/or famous Greek painters (such as Nikias and Nikomachos); the origin of landscape and still-life painting; the phenomenon of a cultural and artistic “koine,” especially in the Early Hellenistic Period; and the analysis of colors and pigments with the help of new scientific methods and special photographic techniques, which have been applied not only to wall paintings but also to Greek sculptures and reliefs. These new methods have virtually revolutionized our knowledge of antique polychromy. By far the oldest known tomb paintings in the Mediterranean region are from Egypt, dating from the third and second millennia ..; the cultures of the ancient Near East have left us considerably fewer. It was only during the first millennium .. that tomb painting became more widespread in various largely peripheral cultures and regions around the Mediterranean: Asia Minor (mainly Phrygia, Lydia, and Lycia), the Crimea in southern Russia, Thrace, Macedonia, Alexandria, Etruria (primarily southern Etruria, with its leading center Tarquinia), central Italy (Rome and Samnium), and southern Italy (Apulia, Campania, and Lucania). Because the local people used different types of tombs and different funerary customs, there are almost no tomb paintings in Greece itself; there wall painting was apparently mainly limited to sacred and public structures. The tomb paintings in the regions mentioned are mainly found in chamber tombs, often imitating the shapes of houses, but they are also documented in small half-chamber, stone chest (cassone), and sarcophagus tombs. Painted grave steles from Macedonia, Thessaly, Alexandria, Apulia, and Lucania tend to date from Early Hellenistic times. Decoration of houses and
INTRODUCTION
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Chronological distribution map of painted tombs in Etruria
palaces with wall paintings and mosaics became more common beginning in the fourth century .., as we see from examples in Macedonia, Pergamon, Delos, Apulia, Campania, and Sicily.
From the Renaissance to 2000 But let us return to Etruscan tomb painting. As early as the fifth century we find mention of subterranean chambers with wall paintings and inscriptions in the writings of the well-known cleric and scholar Annio da Viterbo and a member of the noble Vitelleschi family of Tarquinia. In a sketch by Michelangelo there is a bearded head with a wolf ’s cap that clearly recalls the head of Aita/Hades, the god of the underworld, in Tarquinia’s Tomb of Orcus (dell’Orco) II. A number of depictions of hell in late medieval and Renaissance painting also lead us to suspect that some Etruscan tomb paintings were known even before the first documented discoveries. The great period of discovery and the development of a veritable Etruscan frenzy started only in the second half of the eighteenth century. It was mainly associated with the activities of the Scottish antiquarian, art dealer, and architect James Byres and his Polish draftsman, Franciszek Smuglewicz, to whom we owe the compendium Hypogaei or Sepulchral Caverns of Tarquinia, published belatedly in London in 1842 and richly illustrated with engravings—needless to say in part reflecting the spirit and taste of Romanticism. Interest in the painted Etruscan hypogea became still more intense in the first half of the nineteenth century, especially on the part of the so-called Hyperboreans, a circle of German and Scandinavian scholars who in 1829 founded the Instituto Archeologico di Corrispondenza— precursor of the present-day German Archaeological Institute in Rome—on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Among them were E. Gerhard, A. Kestner, and O. M. von Stackelberg, who were especially enraptured with newly discovered tombs in the Monterozzi necropolis of Tarquinia; their paintings were copied by draftsmen and painters, most notably Carlo Ruspi, with the aid of lucidi: in-situ tracings of tomb paintings on translucent paper. These copies were then published in the Bullettino dell’Instituto, the Annali dell’Instituto, and the Monumenti inediti. At that time, photography had not yet been invented. Ruspi, a Roman who liked to refer to himself as an “artista-archeologo,” was at the same
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INTRODUCTION
time an antiquarian and restorer, among other things of Greek and Etruscan vases. Other draftsmen like Nicola Ortis, Giuseppe Angelelli, Gregorio Mariani, and Louis Schulz helped to document newly discovered tomb paintings in the following decades. Gottfried Semper, the famous architect of the Dresden Opera, also made copies of Tarquinian tomb paintings. Other patrons of such work were the Vatican, for its Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, and the Bavarian crown prince Ludwig I—a philhellene primarily—who visited Tarquinia and its painted tombs in 1834 and commissioned the use of their decorations in Leo von Klenze’s new Pinakothek in Munich. Our detailed knowledge of these tomb paintings, many of which have since been lost or destroyed or have faded badly, comes mainly from these drawings and watercolors, especially the nineteenthcentury lucidi still for the most part preserved in the archives of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, these were made known to a broader public in a traveling exhibition, accompanied by a beautiful catalogue, in Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In the fall of 2000 a selection of them was sent to Japan and exhibited in the Tokyo exhibition “Investing in the Afterlife.” H. Blanck and C. Weber-Lehmann are above all responsible for the rediscovery, critical winnowing, and publication of these documents, which are so extremely valuable to scholarship. These lucidi are naturally more reliable and more faithful in their details than the color facsimiles or watercolors produced from them, which are often infused with a neoclassical sensibility. Other institutions, notably the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen and the Swedish Institute in Rome, preserve watercolors and drawings of Etruscan tomb paintings from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Copenhagen collection, created between 1895 and 1913 by Carl Jacobsen, documents a total of twenty-three tombs from Tarquinia, two from Chiusi, and one each from Orvieto, Veii, and Vulci. In the 1850s three magnificent painted hypogea came to light outside Tarquinia, namely the two Golini tombs near Orvieto and the François Tomb in Vulci. In the 1860s and 1870s, large landowners in Tarquinia like the Bruschi and Marzi excavated other painted tombs in their domains. The long period between the 1880s and the 1950s saw relatively few new discoveries, but
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ⴛBolsena Lake Bolsena
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Grotte S. Stefano
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Tuscania
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Castel d’Asso Norchia
Lake Vico
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Lake Bracciano
Monti della Tolfa
Capena Lake Martignano Veio
Pyrgi
ⴛ
Cerveteri
Tevere
ⴛ = ancient site
= 2–3 tombs
●▲◆ ■ ●▲◆■
●▲◆■ ●▲◆■
= 4–10 tombs
ⴛRome = more than 10 tombs
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during this time a wealth of important scholarly publications were produced, most notably those by L. Dasti, F. Weege, V. Poulsen, F. Messerschmidt, R. Bianchi Bandinelli, and M. Pallottino, the founder of modern Etruscology, who with his Etruscan Painting of 1952 presented a first true history of Etruscan painting. A whole new chapter in the discovery of Tarquinian tomb painting began in the late 1950s when Milan’s Fondazione Lerici began systematically to use the most modern geophysical research methods on Tarquinia’s Monterozzi Hill. This led to the excavation of numerous additional chamber tombs with wall paintings, and roughly quadrupled the number of known Etruscan tomb paintings. Cooperation between archaeology, science, and technology proved extremely successful. Based on this much larger mass of material, several seminal publications on Tarquinian and Etruscan tomb painting appeared, like that of M. Moretti, former superintendent for Southern Tuscany, and the magisterial Catalogo ragionato della pittura etrusca, the fruit of a Japanese-ItalianGerman collaboration, edited by S. Steingräber and published in four languages in 1985, the “Anno degli Etruschi.” Since that time the corpus of known Etruscan tomb paintings has grown only slightly—I have mentioned a few important discoveries above—but it continues to offer a rich field of activity for scholars of the most varied interests, as the many publications from the last twenty years attest. Two ongoing projects, one sponsored by the Istituto di Studi Etruschi in Florence and the other being carried out by C. Weber-Lehmann are endeavoring to document the body of Etruscan tomb paintings with new tracings, with the particular aim of making more visible details that are otherwise difficult to see. We should also take advantage of the vastly improved photographic documentation techniques now available, especially to capture the most recently restored tomb paintings. Meanwhile computer technology has taken on the world of Etruscan painting; the ICAR project, initiated by Natasha Lubtchansky, includes a database of figural images in Etruscan art, including tomb painting. But further refinements are needed in this sector as well. It would be helpful to include, for example, nonfigural painting, stylistic and technical criteria, and links to ancient wall painting in other geographical and cultural areas. The most recent book on Etruscan funerary
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painting—by Alessandro Naso, with brief outline texts and about fifty color illustrations—was published in April 2005, by L’Erma di Bretschneider of Rome, under the title La pittura etrusca: Guida breve.
Tarquinia Tarquinia and its Etruscan tomb paintings have left their mark on poets and writers. Dante mentions the famous Etruscan city in his Inferno (Canto 13): “Non han sì aspri sterpi né sì folti/ quelle fiere selvagge, che in odio hanno/ tra Cecina e Corneto i luoghi cólti” (No rougher, denser thickets make a refuge/ for the wild beasts that hate the tilled lands/ between the Cècina and Corneto [R. and J. Hollander, trans.]). In his famous Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (London, 1848), the English writer, scholar, and diplomat George Dennis sketches a somewhat sobering picture, at least of the yellow-brown, scorched landscape of Tarquinia. The fascination of Tarquinia’s lively tomb paintings is reflected in the 1920s and 1930s in the writings of the Englishmen Aldous Huxley and D. H. Lawrence. A chapter in the latter’s Etruscan Places, from 1932, features Tarquinia and its paintings. Lawrence’s visit to Tarquinia and its painted tombs in the spring of 1927 left a deep impression on him and helped to solidify his mainly positive and enthusiastic image of the Etruscans as a race with a lust for life. In one of his poems, the poet Vincenzo Cardarelli, from Tarquinia, provided a lasting monument to the lovely “Velia” in the Tomb of Orcus I, which was discovered near Tarquinia’s modern cemetery in 1868: “Alto su rupe, battuto dai venti, un cimitero frondeggia: cristiana oasi nel Tartaro etrusco. Là sotto è la fanciulla billisma dei Velcha, che vive ancora nella tomba dell’Orco” (By the high cliffs, pummeled by the winds, a cemetery bursts into leaf: Christian oasis in Etruscan Tartarus. There below lies the loveliest maiden of the Velcha, who lives still in the Tomb of Orcus). Anyone wishing to see original Etruscan tomb paintings today must first of all visit Tarquinia, and there see both the extensive Monterozzi necropolis and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in the venerable Late Gothic–Early Renaissance Palazzo Vitelleschi. It is no longer possible for ordinary visitors to get inside the painted chamber tombs. The majority have been protected by steel-framed glass doors, which allow you to see the wall paintings on the
back and side walls, but protect them from deterioration, ensuring a constant, controlled microclimate (temperature, humidity, etc.) inside the tomb. In the 1950s it was still believed that the tomb paintings could better be preserved by removing them from the walls, mounting them on canvas, and housing them in museums; however, today’s specialists and restorers, especially those of the prestigious Istituto Nazionale di Restauro in Rome, try to preserve the colorful frescoes in situ by means of increasingly sophisticated restoration and preservation techniques. These measures are well described in the section of the second floor of Tarquinia’s archaeological museum that is devoted to Tarquinian tomb painting. The detached frescoes from six tombs are also displayed there, those of the Tombs of the Olympic Games, the Bigas, the Triclinium, the Funerary Bed, the Black Sow, and the Ship (delle Olimpiadi, delle Bighe, del Triclinio, del Letto funebre, della Scrofa nera, and della Nave). Just now the only tomb paintings one can see in Chiusi are those of the recently restored Tomb of the Monkey and Tomb of the Lion (della Scimmia and del Leone). In Orvieto one can marvel at the frescoes from the two Golini tombs in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, next to the famous cathedral. They were removed in 1950. The wall paintings in the Tomb of the Hescanas, only fragmentary but recently restored once again, are still to be seen in situ near Porano, south of Orvieto. The wall frescoes of Vulci’s famous François Tomb, which were detached most unprofessionally shortly after their discovery in the 1860s, continue to be privately owned by the Torlonia family in Rome (Villa Albani); however, they were recently completely restored with financial support from the Hamburg Bucerius-Stiftung and were presented to a larger public for the first time in exhibitions in Hamburg and in Vulci’s Castello. A traveling exhibition in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s in Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, mentioned above, provided exposure to the valuable lucidi and facsimiles of Etruscan tomb paintings from the nineteenth century. Now anyone who is unable to visit Tarquinia and Tuscany can admire almost perfect copies of Etruscan tomb paintings even in places far removed from the originals. In the Otsuka Museum in Naruto, on the Japanese island of Shikoku, for example, the Tomb of the Augurs (degli Auguri) and other Tarquinian tomb paint-
ings have been reproduced in ceramic in their original size and with accurate colors, using a special firing technique. They are guaranteed to withstand fires and earthquakes. We now know of approximately 180 Etruscan chamber tombs decorated with wall paintings, while roughly another 100 tombs have only horizontal painted stripes and/or inscriptions. Fewer than half of these tombs are still accessible (many of them only to specialists). Roughly 80 percent of these painted tombs are in Tarquinia, which became the “capital” of Etruscan tomb painting by the middle of the sixth century .. at the latest. According to statistics, roughly 140 tombs with paintings have been registered in Tarquinia, 14 in Chiusi, 11 in Cerveteri, 3 in Vulci, 3 in the environs of Orvieto, 2 each in Veio (ancient Veii), Blera, Sarteano, Magliano Toscano, and Populonia, and 1 each in Bomarzo, Cosa, Grotte San Stefano, Orte, San Giuliano, and Tuscania. This does not include the numerous South Etruscan, primarily Caeretan tombs with fragments of architectural and ornamental painting from the Orientalizing and Archaic periods catalogued by A. Naso. These—for geological reasons among others—are mainly a South Etruscan phenomenon, with a clear concentration in Tarquinia, though the oldest tomb paintings, from the seventh century, are found in Veii and Cerveteri. The examples in Veii—including the Tomb of the Ducks (delle Anatre), the oldest Etruscan chamber tomb with figural paintings— date exclusively from the Orientalizing period, as do the majority in Cerveteri. However, Chiusi’s tomb paintings date almost exclusively from the first decades of the fifth century, while those of Orvieto and Vulci belong to the second half of the fourth century. The remaining, largely isolated examples range from the Late Orientalizing period down to Hellenistic times, those in southern Tuscany falling within the spheres of influence of Cerveteri, Tarquinia, or Volsinii/Orvieto. Almost all of Tarquinia’s tombs with wall painting were hollowed out of the ridge at Monterozzi, southeast of medieval and modernday Tarquinia (formerly called Corneto), where certain concentrations can be seen in the Calvario area and the Secondi Archi. It is not possible to determine the horizontal stratigraphy with any certainty. Among the roughly six thousand known Tarquinian chamber tombs, only roughly
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Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus I, detail of the right wall: profile head of the “lovely Velia,” second quarter of the fourth century ..
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2.5 percent are distinguished by wall paintings, which in itself sheds significant light on the social status of their owners. They date from the first quarter of the sixth century to the turn from the third to the second century .., that is, from the Late Orientalizing to the Middle or High Hellenistic periods. A definite flowering is seen in the Late Archaic, in the decades between 530 and 490, when roughly a third of all the tomb paintings were executed. The great majority of Chiusi’s tomb paintings also date from the Late and SubArchaic, that is, the first decades of the fifth century. A second, much later flowering occurred in the Classical and Early Hellenistic times, hence mainly in the second half of the fourth and first half of the third century. Numerous major Tarquinian aristocratic tombs fall into this period, as do Vulci’s François Tomb, a few great Caeretan hypogea like the Tomb of the Reliefs (dei Rilievi), and the three Orvietan tombs Golini I and II and the Tomb of the Hescanas. Essentially, only chamber tombs carved out of tufa, macco, or sandstone were decorated with wall paintings. The same is true of the few examples from northern Etruria, where built-up tomb structures predominate. As for their architecture, it is possible to see differences between periods and local conventions. The tomb architecture of Tarquinia is generally not executed with nearly the richness and detail of that found in its neighboring metropolis of Cerveteri. This is also mainly a factor of geology, because in Tarquinia there is no tufa, but rather macco—a soft calcareous sandstone. Tarquinia’s chamber tombs from the early sixth century to the beginning of the fourth century, with their generally well smoothed walls and ceilings, tend to imitate simple house forms, with rectangular floor plans, hipped roofs, and columena. They mostly have only a single chamber (almost 90 percent), though there are occasionally two-, three- (with a wide anteroom and two chambers at the back), or even fourchamber tombs with a cruciform ground plan. Examples of these as well as of paneled ceilings appear above all in Chiusi. A dromos, or rockcarved bench, that widened slightly at the bottom leads down to the entrance of the tomb. Rooms or lateral niches are extremely rare. Wall loculi become increasingly common in the fourth century. In some cases they take on the form of niches. While the concept of the house persists in typical Hellenistic tombs—with their flat, almost
hipped roofs, wide columen and cross-girders (such as in the Giglioli Tomb in Tarquinia)—the expansive Hellenistic hypogea, with their continuous benches, sarcophagi, pilasters, and often coffered ceilings, increasingly diverge from the original concept of the tomb as a “house of the dead.” Only some paneled ceilings serve to recall the influence of wooden models in royal structures. The sepulchral areas in the Hellenistic Tomb of the Mercareccia and Tomb of the Charuns (dei Caronti) in Tarquinia are on various levels. The upper chamber of the Tomb of the Mercareccia follows this typology of the “atrium displuviatum,” deriving from house architecture and mentioned in Vitruvius (6.3); this form is also found in an urn from Chiusi of the Hellenistic period. Architectural elements of some hypogea of southern Etruria of the fourth and third centuries, mostly found in Cerveteri and Tarquinia, reflect—intentionally—the type of atrium considered to be most important among the private cult of the senatorial gentes of Rome, to which several Etruscan families belonged during the latter part of that period. The floor plans of the rooms are mostly rectangular and at times almost square. The chamber dimensions vary from 4 square meters (Tomb of the Dying [del Morente]) to 260 square meters (Tomb of the Cardinal). The original burial mounds, normally rather small, for the most part crowned the most ancient chambered tombs in Tarquinia. They were largely leveled by intense agricultural work but have been documented by aerial photographs as well as by timely digs such as in the area of the Tomb of the Panthers (delle Pantere). In the Fondo Scataglini, during the Hellenistic period, a former stone quarry was transformed into a necropolis, with the painted Tomb of the Anina Family at its center. There is no proof that the dromoi and tombs share a common orientation, but positioning toward the southwest, and therefore facing the sea, predominates during the Classical and Archaic periods. From the seventh century until the Hellenistic period, inhumation clearly prevailed in the Tarquinian tombs (in sarcophagi surely made, in part, of perishable materials such as wood, on beds and benches of stone, in hollowed-out fossae). Niches, hollowed out of the walls for burial and cremation, are found in important painted tombs such as the Tomb of the Lionesses and the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing (delle Leonesse and della Caccia e Pesca).
Distribution map of the painted tombs in Tarquinia’s Monterozzi necropolis 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
18
T. 3716 T. of the Maiden T. 3713 T. 3697 T. of the Lotus Flower T. of the Hunter T. of the Lionesses T. 3242 T. of the Warrior T. of Hunting and Fishing T. of the Jugglers (2437) T. of the Charuns (1868) T. 5636 T. 6071 T. 5591 Cardarelli T. T. 808
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18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.
T. of the Gorgoneion (1825) T. of the Whipping (1701) T. 810 T. 5517 T. of the Deer Hunt T. 5512 T. 1822 T. 5513 T. of the Little Flowers Bartoccini T. T. 1560 T. of the Triclinium T. of the Bacchantes T. of the Funerary Bed T. of the Leopards T. 4170 T. 4021
35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51.
T. 3988 T. 3986 T. of the Dead Man T. of the Typhon T. 4467 T. 4255 T. 4260 Querciola T. I T. of the Sculptures Maggi T. (5187) T. 4780 T. of the Anina Family T. 4912 T. Street Side T. of the Mercareccia T. 5039 T. of the Garlands
52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68.
T. of the Master of the Olympic Games T. of the Shields T. of the Cardinal T. of Orcus I–III T. 5898 T. 5892 T. 5899 T. of the Painted Vases T. of the Old Man T. 1144 T. 4813 T. of the Meeting T. of the Mouse (494) T. of the Dying T. of the Inscriptions T. of the Panthers T. of the Black Sow (578)
69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85.
Francesca Giustiniani T. T. 1000 Giglioli T. (1072) T. 1200 T. of the Baron T. 1999 T. of the Frontoncino T. 2015 T. 994 T. of the Jade Lions T. 356 T. 3011 T. 3010 T. 3098 T. of the Bulls T. of the Pygmies (2957) T. 939
86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99.
T. of the Red Lions (389) T. of the Skull (300) T. of the Cock (3226) T. 2327 (Bertazzoni) T. of the Bigas T. of the Sea T. 1646 T. of the Tritons (2711) T. of the Ship (238) T. of the Antelopes (199) T. of the Olympic Games (53) T. of the Hut (139) T. of the Augurs T. of the Pulcinella
INTRODUCTION
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The concept of the tomb as a “house of the dead” was fundamental in Etruria, at least in the earlier centuries. The shape of the chamber tomb, its architectural elements and furnishings, and the majority of its grave goods—notably jewelry and textiles, banqueting vessels, sometimes even the remains of food—clearly indicate as much. In this the Etruscan mentality, steeped in magic and religion, clearly contrasts with that of the Greeks, whose more elevated intellectual level is shown by their own cult of the dead and tomb art, for example Attic grave steles depicting scenes of parting. In Tarquinian tombs from the sixth and fifth centuries, architectural elements like architraves, gable supports, columena, and bases are frequently suggested or particularly emphasized in colored paint. In a number of Late Archaic Tarquinian tombs, like the Tomb of the Lionesses and the Tomb of the Hunter (del Cacciatore), the pavilion- or tentlike nature of the tomb is especially emphasized by painted columns or poles. Some Tarquinian tombs of the fourth and third centuries are distinguished also by their relief decoration (mostly with mythological themes or figures). These are largely no longer preserved. In this category, above all, are the Tomb of Orcus II, the Ceisinie Tomb, the Tomb of the Mercareccia, and the Tomb of the Sculptures (delle Sculture). Impressive remains of a monumental frieze in bas relief, 145 centimeters high, are displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia, though we can no longer reconstruct its original burial context. A unique example is the well known Tomb of the Reliefs (dei Rilievi) in Cerveteri: its stucco reliefs, covering walls and pillars, project a strong, assertive energy that evokes the vitality of Etruscan daily life. Regarding the painting techniques used in Etruscan tombs, it is necessary to distinguish three different periods. In the Orientalizing period, the seventh and early sixth centuries, the pigments—the three basic colors of red, black, and yellow—were applied directly to the hollowed-out and smoothed stone walls. In the Archaic period, however, beginning in the second quarter of the sixth century, we see a rudimentary form of fresco painting, including (a) a thin, light intonaco (from 1 to 3 mm, possibly lacking on the ceiling), made of clay, stone dust (macco in Tarquinia), and even vegetable fibers and peat; (b) a thin layer of lime paste (it reacts chemically with the moist backing to form a light coating of
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INTRODUCTION
calcium carbonate, which acts as a fixative for the colors); and (c) preliminary scribing, dark outline drawings, and a richer palette of colors, now including blue and green. These innovations were probably stimulated significantly by immigrant eastern Greek painters and artists. The tombs were clearly painted very rapidly and, due to the atmosphere’s high humidity, the walls would never completely dry. The outline drawings did not always precisely follow the preparatory graffiti, as demonstrated, above all, by photography taken with grazing light over the surface. Horizontal lines were almost always created using taut string dipped in color, as shown by the telltale marks. Circular patterns were traced beforehand with a compass. Over the course of the fourth century, a further basic change occurred with the application of a much thicker intonaco (up to 3 cm), that could have as many as three layers (pozzolana at the bottom, siliceous sand and limestone in the middle, and calcium carbonate blended with colors and sand at the top). Preliminary scribing was reduced or omitted, and a still more varied and nuanced palette came into use, including a number of blended colors that could produce more subtle plastic effects. The find of a votive gift in Tarquinia’s harbor emporium of Gravisca, which was partially populated by Greeks, is of the greatest interest in this regard: it contained a collection of pigments that could indicate the presence of Greek painters. Research aimed at identifying components of the pigments, the support, the plaster on which the color was laid, and the adhesives used (obtained in part from egg white) has recently come to fore. The young Greek archaeologist Hariclia Brecoulaki’s research in Macedonia, southern Italy (Paestum, Campania, Puglia), and Etruria is particularly noteworthy in this context, as are, for example, the tempera paintings on the Amazon Sarcophagus found in Tarquinia. The pigments were obtained from oxides and ferruginous hydroxides (red and yellow); from limestone or kaolin (white); and from charcoal or charred bones (black). Only the blue was man-made, made of an artificial mixture called Egyptian frit. Licia Vlad Borelli has rendered a major service in the last few decades with her research into Etruscan painting techniques and the preservation of wall paintings. Restoration and preservation techniques have become much more sophisticated in recent decades. It is no longer necessary or even advis-
able to detach paintings from their walls, as was done rather barbarically during the nineteenth century to the François Tomb in Vulci and the Bruschi Tomb in Tarquinia and during the 1950s, though with much more professionalism, to seven Tarquinian tombs. Restorations using metal braces and mortar (such as cement) are today considered obsolete. More modern and above all less invasive techniques were applied, for example, to the paintings of the Tomb of the Ducks (delle Anatre) in Veii; the Tombs of the Monkey, the Casuccini Hill, and the Lion in Chiusi; to Tomb 13 in the Palazzina necropolis at Sarteano; and to a painted tomb in Blera. Starting in 1979, numerous tombs were restored (Tombs of the Anina Family, the Augurs, the Bacchantes, the Baron, the Bulls, the Charuns, the Dead Man, the Funerary Bed, the Hunter, Hunting and Fishing, the Inscriptions, the Jugglers, the Lotus Flower, the Leopards, the Lionesses, the Maiden, the Panthers, the Pulcinella, the Typhon, and the Whipping; the Bruschi, Cardarelli, Giustiniani, and Orcus Tombs; and Tomb 5513). They were mainly cleaned and freed of incrustations, in many cases with astonishing results, as with the Tombs of the Dead Man (del Morto), the Whipping (della Fustigazione), the Leopards (dei Leopardi), the Maiden (della Pulcella), the Giustiniani Tomb, and the Tomb of Orcus I, where the colors now appear considerably fresher and numerous figures and details once presumed to be lost are once again visible. Much credit is due to the restorer Claudio Bettini, now deceased. Other tombs are currently undergoing restoration. Now that the interiors of the tombs are closed off to the public, a constant microclimate can be maintained. With this measure, one can hope that something of these unique paintings will remain for future generations. Tarquinia was and continues to be by far the most important site for Etruscan tomb paintings. As already noted, roughly 80 percent of all known examples are found here. For this reason, it is appropriate to take a brief look at its history, topography, and art history at the close of this introduction. The vast majority of tourists who visit Tarquinia today are drawn by its glorious Etruscan past, the painted tombs in its Monterozzi necropolis, and the rich holdings of its Museo Archeologico Nazionale, once praised by D. H. Lawrence, in the Palazzo Vitelleschi; the latter, built between 1436
and 1439 by order of Cardinal Vitelleschi, is located in the heart of the Old City, whose impressive medieval structures, above all its churches, clan towers, and city walls, are themselves worthy of a tour. Until 1922 the city, called Tarchonion by the Greeks, Tarquinii by the Romans, and probably Tarch(u)na by the Etruscans, was known as Corneto. The medieval and modern city rises above a steep hill with a panoramic view of the Tyrrhenian Sea some four miles away. The Etruscan and Roman city, however, stood a mile and a half farther inland, on the limestone plateau of the Piano della Civita, some 550 feet above sea level. The plain is bordered on the north by the Fosso degli Albucci and on the south by the Fosso San Savino; these waterways flow into the river Marta, which connects the coastal region of Tarquinia, by way of Tuscania, with Lake Bolsena, also called Lacus Tarquiniensis. As the ancient sources tell us, Tarquinia was more thickly wooded during Etruscan times; today it is widely arid and, above all, characterized by limestone (macco) formations. With a surface area of some 133 hectares, Tarquinia was one of the largest cities in Etruria. The high plateau over which the city spread is narrower to the west and wider to the east. It was populated continuously, though at different levels of density, from the Villanovian to the late Roman period. The ridge of the Monterozzi hill, six kilometers in length, was the main necropolis of Tarquinia from the seventh century and is traditionally subdivided mainly into the localities of Calvario, Fondo Scataglini, Primi Archi, Arcatelle, and Secondi Archi. Tarquinia was without doubt among the prominent cities of Etruria and, at least during some periods, a sort of cultural and religious capital. There are numerous literary traditions attesting to its legendary origins, its history, and its relationship with Rome. Tarchon, son or brother of the Lydian king Tyrrhenus who would have led the Tyrrhenians (the Etruscans) from Lydia in Asia Minor to their future home in Italy, was thought to be the founder of Tarquinia (and of the league of the Twelve Etruscan cities). Even the origin of the disciplina etrusca taught by the “wise child” Tages, and indeed of the arts of divination generally, was localized by the ancients in Tarquinia. The royal dynasty of the Tarquinii that reigned in Rome with interruption from the late seventh century to the declining sixth century originated in Tarquinia. The first king, Tarquinius
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Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Lionesses, detail of the back wall with lioness, aulos player, and dancer, ca. 520 ..
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INTRODUCTION
Priscus, thought to be son of the Corinthian Damaratos, emigrated to Tarquinia and married a local woman named Tanaquil. According to Strabo (5.2.2), the Etruscan kings from Tarquinia were also responsible for introducing into Rome various attributes of dominion and power, such as the golden crown, the ivory throne, the scepter with eagle, the crimson cape, and the processional lictors that preceded the sovereign with fasces and ax. In the sixth century, Gravisca, the harboremporium of Tarquinia, saw a marked flourishing characterized by a definite cosmopolitan atmosphere, from the presence of artists, craftsmen, and numerous foreign merchants, above all Eastern Greeks (like Sostratus of Aegina, who was also celebrated by Herodotus, and Pakties, possibly minister of the treasury for Croesus, king of Lydia). At that time, the territory of Tarquinia extended to Lake Bolsena. A political and economic crisis that arose in the second quarter of the fifth century led to social and economic disorder in Tarquinia and other coastal centers of southern Etruria, resulting in the strong erosion of Gravisca’s importance. Renewed growth took place, however, after constitutional and social reforms during the transitional period of the fifth to the fourth centuries, which saw the emergence of new gentes and affirmation of what could be referred to as a middle class. Tarquinia reassumed its leadership role among the cities of southern Etruria and notably extended its sphere of influence toward the interior. This new impetus is above all seen in connection with the known patrician gens of the Spurinna of Tarquinia, whose most famous exponent, Velthur, commanded an Etruscan naval contingent in 414–413, defending Athens against Syracuse. The glorious deeds of this gens are celebrated in the so-called Elogia Tarquinensia, a Latin text, dating back to the first imperial Roman age, that was found in the vicinity of the Ara della Regina. The fourth century and the beginning of the third century .. were characterized by wars and conflicts between Tarquinia and Rome, primarily from 358 to 351 and from 312 to 308, and were followed by a forty-year truce. Cruel episodes were not lacking during those times, as for example the slaughter of Roman prisoners of war in the forum of Tarquinia in retaliation for the killing of prisoners of war from Tarquinia in the Roman forum. Tradition has it that the destruction of the two oppida of Cortuosa and Contenebra occurred in the hinterland of
Tarquinia from 394 to 388, respectively. Tarquinia was defeated definitively in 281; we have only the Roman point of view on this episode, above all the version written by Livy. At the end of the third century Tarquinia contributed to the African campaign during Scipio’s rule, particularly by supplying linen that was used for the sails of Roman battleships. The founding of the maritime colony of Gravisca in 181 .. and the annexation of the coastal dominions that had already taken place in the third century; the acceptance of some members of Tarquinian aristocracy into the Senate of Rome; the concession of the rights of Roman citizenship in 90 ..; and the establishment of a town hall that also housed a college of sixty “haruspices” (diviners) were further steps toward the definitive Romanization of Tarquinia. The decline of Tarquinia’s coastal territory in later antiquity is also mentioned in Rutilius Namatianus (De reditu 1.279), who, in 416 .., sailed along the Tyrrhenian coast from Ostia to Pisa. In the eighth century, the Civita hill was definitively abandoned and the episcopal seat was transferred to neighboring Corneto. We are in a substantially better position to reconstruct Tarquinia’s history today, also from an archaeological standpoint, thanks to the numerous findings and investigations of recent decades. This history begins sometime between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age. With the transition from the second to the first millennium .., we begin with a concentration of built-up huts, previously spread out over ample territory on the Civita hills, and a series of necropolises placed around them (Poggi Gallinaro, Selciatello, Selciatello di Sopra, dell’Impiccato, della Sorgente, and Quarto degli Archi). Three settlements also took shape on the Monterozzi hill, each with its own necropolis (Rose, Arcatelle, and Villa Falgari). The remains of a Villanovian settlement, later found under a tomb in Calvario on the Monterozzi hill, are particularly instructive. This settlement included at least twenty-five huts (with oval, rectangular, or square floor plans). Cremation predominated almost exclusively in the tombs of the ninth century, mostly in biconic urns that were only rarely shaped like huts. In the most ancient Villanovian period, grave goods do not yet imply great social differentiation. Some characteristic findings attest to relationships between Tarquinia and Sardinia, southern Italy, and Sicily. From the end of the
ninth century the dead are increasingly interred in tombs. Social stratification becomes more prominent in the more recent Villanovian period as the composition of grave goods testifies to the strengthening power of an aristocratic class. Particularly noteworthy are the Tomb of the Warrior (del Guerriero) and some findings that point to a relationship with the Sardinian nuraghic culture and with the Greeks, the Near East, northeastern Italy, and central Europe of the Hallstatt period. Social stratification accelerated in the eighth century when Tarquinia became the predominant center in Etruria, spurred by the presence of Euboean Greek settlers in the Gulf of Naples (Ischia and Cuma). The Etruscan Tyrrhenian coast was already known—among the Greeks as well—for the rich metal deposits of the Tolfa Mountains (iron, lead, copper, and zinc). Production of bronze objects in Tarquinia significantly increased, as is very impressively demonstrated by the richness of grave goods found in the Tomb of the Warrior, dated in the third quarter of the eighth century. Thanks to the excavations started in the 1980s by Maria Bonghi Jovino, we now know of a sanctuary on the western hill in the Civita, near the terrain’s natural open fault. It was frequented from the beginning of the Bronze Age, the tenth century, and had been the venue for documented human sacrifices. During the age of princes (the Orientalizing period), settlement concentrated itself on the Civita hill, while the Monterozzi hill became
24
INTRODUCTION
Tarquinia’s main necropolis. The aristocratic hegemonic class that was clearly beginning to crystallize began to build enormous tumuli with chambered tombs and rich grave goods. Some of the tombs were completely carved out of the native rock, while some were built up on the highest elevation of the hill (Doganaccia, Avvolta, Infernaccio, Poggio del Forno, Poggi Gallinaro). Inscriptions show the successful integration of foreign elements into Etruscan society of the seventh century. The Italic writer Numerius, the Greek Rutilius Namatianus, and the Corinthian nobleman Damaratos attest to this as well. Although it enjoyed renown and wealth, Tarquinia seems to have relinquished its role as prominent leader along the coastal territory of southern Etruria, near Cerveteri, during the seventh century, above all with regard to the control of the rich metal-bearing mines of Tolfa Mountains. During this time, Tarquinia’s harbor was probably still located at the mouth of the river Marta, where a rich Orientalizing tomb was unearthed in 1988 in the locality of Piano San Nicola. A rich funerary context of the seventh century is also found south of Gravisca, in proximity to the saltworks. Tarquinia probably owed much of its wealth to products that no longer can be attested archaeologically, such as textiles (primarily linen) and foodstuffs. International commerce, largely with the Greek and SyriaPhoenician worlds, are evident in numerous imported Greek painted ceramics and Eastern
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Baron, center section of the right wall with encounter scene, ca. 510 ..
luxury goods in silver, gold, ivory, and faience (as from the Bocchoris Tomb); among the notable curiosities are painted ostrich eggs. Tarquinia was also one of the first literate cities of Etruria. It is significant that the oldest Etruscan inscription known today comes from there: it is etched on a Proto-Corinthian goblet, dating back to the transitional period from the eighth to the seventh century. The sanctuary previously mentioned, located on the western side of the Civita hill, underwent a monumentalizing phase during the Orientalizing period. Its singular importance for the city is emphasized by the finding of three fragmentary symbols of power and status in bronze: a shield, an ax, and a curved horn known as a lituus. During the Archaic phase of the sixth century and the beginning of the fifth century, Tarquinia had a period of prosperity, strikingly characterized by urbanization. Among the impressive results were a new urban plan of a Hippodamic nature, the development of Gravisca and its harbor emporium, and the spread of the Monterozzi necropolis. The power, wealth, and tastes of dominant aristocratic families in Tarquinia are now no longer reflected in the monumentality of the tombs but, instead, in the funerary paintings, a phenomenon that is almost unique to Etruria. Foreign artists and craftsmen, above all Eastern Greeks—among them painters and ceramicists—settled in Gravisca, a city that reached its maximum vitality during the second
half of the sixth century. Numerous vases imported from Attica have been found in the sanctuaries dedicated to Greek cults (for example, those of Hera, Aphrodite, and Demeter), as well as in the tombs. The existence of monumental buildings on the Civita hill is proved above all by the architectural terracottas. The origin of the celebrated Ara della Regina also dates back to the Archaic period, in the first half of the sixth century. In the period of crisis, beginning above all in the second quarter of the fifth century, there is a signification reduction of Attic pottery imports, the number and quality of the painted tombs diminish, and few new public buildings are evidenced by their architectural ceramics. At the end of the fifth century and into the fourth, revitalization was under way and new, impressive activity is noted in public building. For example, colossal double walls were built around the city, measuring about eight kilometers in length, made from blocks of tufo and macco, and the new monumental building of Ara della Regina went up, the largest Etruscan temple overall. While its plan is not well understood, its ruins still dominate the walls of the Civita today. The discovery of numerous examples of architectural ceramics, not least the celebrated pair of winged horses from the Ara della Regina, attests to the fourth-century building boom. Votive writings give witness to cults devoted to the divinities Artumes/Artemide, Suri, Selvans, Culsans, and
INTRODUCTION
25
Thuflthas. Socioeconomic modifications are also reflected in funerary practices, particularly in the great painted hypogea created by a new aristocracy (Velcha, Partunu, Curuna, Pulena, Pumpu, Camna, Alvethna, Apatrui, Anina) and, after the first half of the fourth century, in the active production of sarcophagi and in the ceramic studios using the red-figure technique. The decline of Tarquinia during the Hellenistic age, particularly after the third century, is evident in the cessation of the aristocratic hypogea and funerary painting, as well as in a great overall reduction of handicraft production. Tarquinia was highly regarded among the artistic centers of ancient Etruria, and not solely for funerary paintings, a field in which it played a unique role. Among the significant specialties of Tarquinia’s artists and craftsmen are the bronzes of the Villanovian period, such as helmets, weapons, vases, incense burners, ceramics, and bucchero ware; a series of Italo-Geometric pitchers with strong influences from Cuma; EtruscanCorinthian vases; so-called umboni, or small bronze shields adorned with three-dimensional heads of lions, rams, and Acheloos of the Archaic period, whose function is not well understood today; the sepulchral stepped slabs, exclusive to Tarquinia, whose figures were created in limestone and decorated in relief; architectural terracottas, among which is the most beautiful equine
26
INTRODUCTION
masterpiece of Etruscan art, the above-mentioned winged horses of the Ara della Regina; a series of high reliefs of large figures, created in the second half of the fourth century, which originally decorated tomb walls or funerary naiskoi (small temples); some funerary stele and inscribed pillars carved in stone of the same period (the Arnth Paipnas); the vast production—prevalent in Etruria—of stone-carved sarcophagi (mainly in nenfro) with the figure of the deceased supine on the lid or both figurative and ornamental polychrome reliefs on large stone chests, made during the periods of the Early and High Hellenism, with branch workshops in outlying areas such as Tuscania, Norchia, San Giuliano, and Musarna; a series of vessel decorations mostly using the redfigure technique; and votive anatomic ceramics of the Hellenistic period. Among numerous vases found in Tarquinian tombs, imported from Corinth, Laconia, Ionia, and Attica, the most significant are the first Attic vases using the redfigure technique. The Kleophrades Painter, Phintias, the Brygos Painter, Oltos, and the Berlin Painter were among the masters of this genre. Tarquinia occupies fourth place, after Vulci, Cerveteri, and Orvieto, in the statistical findings of Attic vases in Etruria. All the works of art found in Tarquinia can be admired today, both in the local archaeological museum and in numerous other Italian and European museums.
The History of Etruscan Wall Painting Style, Workshops, Chronology, Iconography, and “Ideology”
Several issues and basic problems need to be cleared up before we start discussing the development of the various stages of Etruscan art. Chief among these issues are chronology, tomb furnishings, iconography, style, and painting techniques, as well as “ideology.” A great deal of progress has been made in recent years with regard to establishing the chronology of the Etruscan funerary paintings. However, while it has been relatively easy to reconstruct the history of painting during the Orientalizing and Archaic periods and during early Hellenistic times, there have been persistent problems in dating the tomb paintings of the Classical and mid- to late Hellenistic periods. To arrive at more precise dating, we need to utilize all available criteria, rather than relying solely upon iconographic elements and stylistic impressions. Aside from stylistic and iconographic criteria, we must take account of sepulchral architecture, sarcophagi (when present), tomb inscriptions (where applicable), tomb furnishings (if they are extant or can be reconstructed), and technique. Comparisons with Greek art, which is generally easier to date, must be put forward with caution, because in Etruria—precisely during the Classical period—there are often delays in cultural transmission. Recent research has contributed greatly to achieving more precise chronology of the late Etruscan tomb paintings of the Hellenistic era. Not only have we been able to determine the starting point of Etruscan funeral painting—that is, the second quarter of the seventh century—but also its end, in the last decades of the third century. Later dating, to the second century or even around 100 .., can no longer be maintained today. In addition, certain difficulties still hamper the dating of some tomb paintings of the second half of the fifth and the first decade of the fourth centuries. Attempts to assert relationships between specific
tombs and historical events and figures are enticing but not always convincing. It is incumbent upon us to resist the tendency to assign dates that are either too early or too late and rather to examine each case on its own merits. Almost none of the Etruscan chamber tombs decorated with wall paintings was found with its original furnishings intact. However, many tombs had not been completely stripped but still contained at least remnants of the ancient grave goods—mostly ceramics—albeit in fragmentary form. Admittedly, for a long time no one gave adequate consideration to these remains, which are often of very poor quality. Many of the numerous painted tombs excavated by the Fondazione Lerici of Tarquinia that were published by Mario Moretti in his volume Nuovi monumenti della pittura etrusca (Milan, 1966) still contained the remains of furnishings. Nonetheless, precise points of reference such as these are not always there to help with the dating of the wall paintings, particularly because many tombs were used over long periods of time, or even for successive burials following a hiatus. Recent research conducted by Federica Wiel Marin, concerning vases that are still being discovered in over fifty Etruscan painted tombs, is particularly noteworthy. Of the ceramics found in the Archaic tombs, most were Etruscan-Corinthian, Attic redfigure and black-figure vessels, Etruscan blackfigure vases from the workshop of the so-called Micali Painter, bucchero ware, cylindrical bucchero ware, and black-glazed decorative vases. In several of the tombs, the furnishings were more ancient than the wall frescoes. Often represented in the wall paintings themselves were clay vessels (lebetes, kraters, amphorae, kylikeia, and kyathoi) or goods in bronze (such as amphorae, kraters, kylikeia, wine cups with embossed decorations, oinochoae, olpae, and horn-billed urns) all fashioned after the origi-
INTRODUCTION
27
Tarquinia, Tomb 5591, view of the back wall and portions of the side walls with komos circles and two heraldic lions in the gable spandrels, ca. 500/490 ..
28
INTRODUCTION
nal models, either Etruscan or Attic in style. The inspection of numerous painted tombs of the Hellenistic period has enabled us to verify important remains of furnishings; this research was conducted mainly by Giovanni Colonna, Lucia Cavagnaro Vanoni, and Francesca Serra Ridgeway. In recent decades, the rich and diverse iconography of Etruscan art—in vase decorations, sarcophagi, painted urns, and so forth, as well as in funerary paintings—has been examined with
refined methods and interpreted from different points of view in numerous publications. Italian scholars have proposed and elaborated upon wellthought-out and erudite interpretative prototypes, including and above all aspects of a religious and ritualistic nature. We can ask ourselves, nonetheless, if these prototypes really fit the data and sepulchral customs that are specifically Etruscan or whether they were, instead, oriented more toward Greek models. It should not be forgotten that, in contrast
to the Greek world, we in Etruria do not have any written sources that can be used to ascertain certain Etruscan beliefs and peculiarities relating to the cult of the dead and to its forebears. Decisive also, and not to be overlooked, is that the paintings of the Etruscan chamber tombs were not meant to be subterranean private or public “picture galleries.” The frescoes were not intended for the edification and artistic enjoyment of the families and their descendents. They were—in a symbolic sense—there for the deceased who were buried in the tomb, and the iconographic contents of the paintings were selected either by the family or by the deceased family member before dying. The tombs, surely, were opened only on specific occasions, such as for new burials or commemorations, and were visited by only a small circle of relatives and clergy. The wall frescoes were seen only briefly by the flickering of a small flame, candelabra, or oil lamp. This contrasts strongly with southern Etruria’s rupestral tombs, whose expensive facades had a clearly manifest representative nature and were partially modeled after temples and the mausoleums of heroion, with Asia Minor influences; in such tombs the deceased was, so to speak, publicly exposed, often depicted in a supine position on a kline, designated in the inscription, and accompanied by demons, as we see in the Tomb of the Siren at Sovana, or alternatively appearing in a frieze relief depicting a procession and weapons on the bottom wall of one of the temple-shaped facades, as in the Doric Tombs in Norchia. The themes of these frescoes were meant somehow to evoke permanent memories of the surroundings that were familiar to the deceased and also to emphasize the need and vital efficacy of the represented funerary rituals. The religious aspects are here more important than the social perspectives. The depictions are often marked by the joy of storytelling, evident in the minute mimicry of many details, its robust realism, and its penchant for humorous content, albeit indecent or even obscene: this too in clear contrast to Greek art. During its lengthy history of almost five hundred years, Etruscan funerary and wall painting understandably saw profound change, mostly in its stylistic profile and painting techniques. Two entire epoch worlds came and went between its first humble beginnings during the first half of the seventh century—when the three basic colors of red, black, and yellow were applied not onto a plaster backing but directly onto smoothed walls of tufa, with a rather modest figural repertoire—and the wall
paintings of the fourth and third centuries, executed in rich polychrome using a fresco technique on a centimeters-thick layer of plaster, with a well planned iconography. The recent restoration of several tombs, the use of specialized photographic techniques, specifically targeted observations, and, above all, chemical-mineralogical analyses performed on the painted walls have decidedly enriched our knowledge of the colors and pigments and of painting techniques. The change in stylistic features during the various stages of Etruscan painting runs hand-in-hand with the general evolution of artistic style in Etruria. Not only the chronology, but also regional and local criteria need to be taken into consideration. Of major importance are comparisons to Greek artistic style and painting, without which the entire evolutionary arc of Etruscan art would be unthinkable. Numerous new discoveries of original Greek wall and funerary paintings, mostly in Macedonia, also offer instructive comparisons with Etruscan art. The names of almost all the painters and workshops of Etruria, unlike those of Greece, will remain forever anonymous, despite recent research that has helped to identify the hands of several painters and to reconstruct the contexts in which the workshops operated. During the 1970s, the concept of “funerary ideology” gained a lot of currency in Italian research, and to a lesser extent among German scholars as well. This concept from the first posited a clear intentionality, which was thought be manifested in a selection of specific types of tombs, specific iconographic contents, decorative elements, furnishings etc., from the sepulchral environment, and to have flowered also in Etruscan funerary painting. Figural motifs and programs were thus interpreted not only from a merely iconographic and art-historical point of view but just as much from political, social, economic, and religious points of view, with the aim of reconstructing the respective historical environment. A methodological circumspection is certainly necessary, as one can otherwise end up with an inverted procedure in which certain historical and politicosocial assumptions are made, to which the images must then “adapt themselves.” In any case there can be no doubt that much of the iconographic content of Etruscan painting was seen in the past through the lens of an excessive simplification, and that today it must be reexamined in the light of its conspicuous complexity.
INTRODUCTION
29
The Beginnings The Etrusco-Geometric (or Early Orientalizing) Period (End of the Eighth Century– ..)
In the beginning of Etruria’s historic epoch at the turn from the eighth to the seventh century, the Etruscans adopted the western Greek alphabet from Euboean colonists on the Gulf of Naples and subsequently learned to read and write (what appears to be the oldest known Etruscan inscription comes from Tarquinia). This period saw the rise of a monumental tomb architecture with both tumuli and chamber tombs, and the beginnings of wall painting in the region’s oldest chamber tombs, especially
in the South Etrurian coastal metropolis of Cerveteri. This era, also referred to as the Early Orientalizing phase, was of crucial importance for Etruria’s history and culture. It saw the urbanization of the most important Etruscan centers as the result of synoicism (the union of small towns to make cities), the development of monumental architecture, the introduction of new, mostly Near Eastern craft techniques such as goldsmithing (filigree, granulation, pulviscolo) and ivory working, the
Facing page: Grosseto, Museo Archeologico, krater with lid and geometric painting from Pescia Romana, last quarter of the eighth century .. Distribution map of the most important painted tombs from the seventh century .. in Cerveteri (after A. Naso): 1. Sorbo Tumulus; 2. Mengarelli Tumulus; 3. Tomb of the Ship; 4. Tomb of the Painted Animals; 5. Maroi Tomb I; 6. Tomb of the Painted Lions; 7. Campana Tomb I; 8. Tomb of the Dogtooth Frieze; 9. Tomb 50 of the Vecchio Recinto; 10. Tomb of the Via degli Inferi.
THE BEGINNINGS
31
introduction of the potter’s wheel, the invention of bucchero sottile in imitation of metal (probably in Cerveteri workshops shortly before the mid-seventh century), and the ultimate establishment of an aristocratic elite, kingship, and increasing stratification of Etruscan society. It witnessed the establishment of an Etruscan thalassocracy (maritime supremacy) in the Tyrrhenian Sea, the systematic exploitation of rich mineral resources—especially metals— in Campigliese (near Populonia), the Colline Metalliferi (Metalliferous Hills, north of Vetulonia), and the Monti della Tolfa (between Tarquinia and Cerveteri), more intensive agriculture (grains, wine, oil, etc.), and increasing imports of goods including craft and art objects from the Near East and the Greek realm (especially Euboea and its colonies in southern Italy). Finally, the period was marked by the immigration of Asian and Greek craftsmen and artists (especially to the coastal centers of southern Etruria), the development of Etruscan sculpture (especially in the Cerveteri area), and the Greek influence taking hold in Etruscan religion, including the introduction of Greek myths. Cerveteri, Tomb of the Dogtooth Frieze: longitudinal section and ground plan (after A. Naso),
Wall paintings first appear in large tumuli carved out of the rock or built up in the first decades of the seventh century and containing one or more chamber tombs, mainly in the necropolises of Cerveteri and only slightly later in Populonia. Interestingly, at roughly the same time similar structures were produced in Asia Minor, especially Lydia. Tomb paintings from this early historical period, which is generally referred to as the Early Orientalizing period or—in art history—the Etrusco-Geometric or Italo-Geometric phase, were still purely architectural and ornamental in nature. Almost never did they cover the entire surfaces of walls and ceilings, and generally they are very poorly preserved, because their basic colors—red, black, and yellow—were applied directly onto the smoothed tufa rather than onto a layer of plaster: that would come later. They were produced only in southern Etruria, mainly in the Cerveteri region, and for a long time they received little attention. In recent decades, however, a number of scholars have submitted them to careful study, most notably by the Italian Etruscologist Alessandro Naso. In partic-
AA’
middle to third quarter of the seventh century ..
A’
A
nero rosso giallo
32
THE BEGINNINGS
Cerveteri, Tomb of the Dogtooth Frieze: section of the right wall with painted dogtooth framing (after A. Naso), middle to third quarter of the seventh century ..
Cerveteri, Sorbo Tomb and Tomb of the Dogtooth Frieze: reconstruction drawings of the painted columena (after A. Naso), second to third quarter of the seventh century ..
ular, his 1996 book Architetture dipinte. Decorazioni parietali non figurate nelle tombe a camera dell’ Etruria meridionale (VII–V sec. a.C.) has expanded our knowledge of these early paintings and of the nonfigural tomb paintings still commonly produced in later periods. Naso was able to discover and reconstruct the painted decorations in numerous South Etruscan chamber tombs with the help of such modern photographic techniques as glancing, infrared, and ultraviolet light, because in many cases they are only barely or not at all visible with the naked eye. He was able to identify chamber tombs with traces of ornamental architectural painting from the Orientalizing and Archaic periods in a number of necropolises in southern Etruria, especially in Cerveteri, but also to a lesser extent in Canale Monterano, Capodimonte, Castel d’Asso, Castiglione in Teverina, Castro, Cività Castellana, Cività Vecchia, Grotta Porcina, Grotte de Castro, Grotte San Stefano, Latera, Monte dell’Oro, Monteroni, San Giovenale, San Giuliano, Soriano nel Cimino, Tolfa, Trevignano, Tuscania, Vasanello, Veii, Viterbo, and Vulci. The smaller settlements and necropolises fell within the territories of Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Vulci, Volsinii/Orvieto, Falerii, and Veii. Ceiling beams and coffers, columen (center roof beams) with their disc-shaped slabs at the ends, gables and gable supports, pilasters, pilaster strips (lesenes),
columns, keystones (mensole), walls, doors and windows, moldings, and benches could all be adorned with paintings. The most common ornamental motifs are rhombuses, dogtooth friezes, herringbone patterns, stripes and fascias, beams, wall pilasters, center gable supports, faux doors similar to Doric-style doors (porta dorica), windows, frames, and shields. Figural motifs are still quite rare; the only ones that appear are predatory cats. The most important tomb paintings in this early phase are found in Cerveteri and Veii. Tarquinian wall painting would begin to play a more important role only in the Late Orientalizing period. In Cerveteri the Sorbo necropolis and the Mengarelli Tomb —both from the second quarter of the seventh century—are most instructive, and in Veii the Tomb of the Ducks (Tomba delle Anatre) presents probably the oldest figural depictions in Etruscan tomb painting. In the early Cerveteri tombs the painted decorations are mainly concentrated on the ceilings, columens, and doors. In the vestibulum of the Mengarelli Tomb, for example, the ceiling painting imitates the structure of a thatched roof (rhombuses between small beams); in this tomb we also find the first instance of a figural element: a predatory cat. In the Sorbo necropolis the relief columen is painted with triangles, stripes, and small animal figures in red and black.
Following pages: Veii, Tomb of the Ducks: section of the back wall with five stylized ducks marching toward the left, second quarter of the seventh century ..
THE BEGINNINGS
33
Above: Cerveteri, Mengarelli Tomb: detail of the vestibule ceiling painted with a rhombus design (after A. Naso), second quarter of the seventh century .. Below: Cerveteri, Mengarelli Tomb: ground plan, second quarter of the seventh century ..
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THE BEGINNINGS
The Tomb of the Ducks, discovered in 1958 in the Riserva del Bagno area, near Veii, and recently restored, is the oldest completely painted Etruscan chamber tomb that we know of. In its structure— hip roof, round-arch door, and bed of stone blocks—it looks much like a tent. It is possible that such tents or baldachin-like structures were in fact erected for the performance of certain funerary rites before the actual burial. For the painting, only the basic colors of red, black, and yellow were used. The four ceiling surfaces are painted alternately in red and yellow. Above a high base level of red, a frieze of five stripes—black–red–black–yellow– black—runs across the back and right-hand walls. The tomb is named after the figural frieze on a yellow ground on the back wall, which presents five highly stylized ducks, mostly in red with black rhomboid internal drawing, striding to the left (in the direction of the baldachin roof that once spread above the tomb bed). These must have had some symbolic meaning; possibly, as F. Roncalli and others have proposed, they somehow alluded to the afterlife. Depictions of water birds, the so-called heron (aironi) motif, often appear on the contemporary, Subgeometric vases produced in great numbers in the South Etruscan centers, most notably Caere and Veii. In many cases these “herons” are represented with their heads turned to the back, in a pose that is not only decorative but also recalls the Skiapodes (“shadow-footed” monsters) of Aristophanes. Ducks, generally in rows, were a favored motif in the Etruscan art of this time, one found not only in vase painting (notably from Veii, Tarquinia, and Bisenzio) but also in small bronze sculptures, in relief on bronze shields, and on gold fibulae and pectorals. G. Colonna sees distinct similarities between the painting technique and silhouette style of Veii’s Tomb of the Ducks and the earliest Greek painting between the end of the eighth century and the seventh century. Pliny (Nat. Hist. 35.15–16) calls this style “pictura linearis” or “skiagraphia,” and attributes it to Cleanthes of Corinth. Corinthian and Sikyonic painters of the second generation were then to paint “sine ullo etiamnum hi colore, iam tamen spargentes lineas intus” (“not using any color, but already adding lines here and there”). The remains of grave goods in the Tomb of the Ducks, consisting of ItaloGeometric pottery (including an olla with animal friezes) and Middle Proto-Corinthian and impasto ceramics, suggest that the tomb dates from the second quarter of the seventh century. Whether the
painter of the Tomb of the Ducks was originally a vase painter or one of the first true wall painters is a matter of scholarly debate to this day; the opposing opinions are presented by M. A. Rizzo and G. Colonna. In the first half of the seventh century there were doubtless as yet few commissions for the painting of chamber tombs, especially figural painting, so one would assume that at least some workshops were active in both mediums. What we know of early Etruscan painting is based primarily on painted vases, mainly representative of the Italo-Geometric style. These were probably first produced in the workshops of Veii, inspired beginning in the second half of the eighth century by Greek Geometric painted vases imported into Etruria. For a long time these early Etruscan vases were virtually ignored, and the most outstanding examples tend to be known from either the art market or private collections. They have been studied by Å. Åkerström and more recently by M. Martelli and F. Canciani. To judge from finds in the necropolises at Veii, the earliest pottery imported from Greece itself (Euboea, Corinth) and subsequently from the western Greek colonies in southern Italy (Gulf of Naples) appears to date from the first half of the eighth century. A true Etrusco-Geometric style developed only during the third quarter of the century, parallel to the Late Geometric style in Greece. It is not always easy to distinguish between imported Greek vessels, those produced in Etruria by immigrant Greek craftsmen, and works produced by native Etruscan craftsmen. The decorative repertoire of Etrusco-Geometric pottery from the last decades of the eighth century is mainly Euboean, seen notably on wares from Ischia/ Pithekoussai and Cumae, and it includes in addition to various geometric elements a few figural ones such as fish, birds, and mammals, only rarely humans. The oldest workshop in Etruria, which produced mainly stands for lebetes (cauldrons), is known to have been in Veii and was probably established by immigrant potters of Euboean provenance. By the last quarter of the eighth century, it appears that Vulci had become the main center for the production of Etrusco-Geometric vases, though there were also workshops in Tarquinia, Bisenzio, and Poggio Buco. Corinthian elements were assimilated in addition to the Euboean. Especially typical of Euboean decoration are rows of concentric circles and metope-like fields that are sometimes adorned with stylized birds.
Vulci’s indebtedness to Euboean precedents is most clearly manifested in a large-format lidded krater (height 49 cm) from Pescia Romana, on the Vulcian coast (now in the Museo Archeologico in Grosseto). It is the work of the most important Euboean vase painter, the Cesnola Painter, or his workshop, but it is not clear whether it was imported or produced locally. It dates from the last quarter of the eighth century and is distinguished by a linear, largely geometric decoration divided into metope fields. By contrast, the repertoire of other Vulcian workshops employed abundant figural motifs as well, namely horses with and without riders, deer, and birds. The Etrusco-Geometric pottery from Bisenzio, on the west shore of Lake Bolsena, is also closely related to that of Vulci. Its predominant vessel forms are barrel- or bird-shaped askoi (zoomorphic vessel). Tarquinia’s famous Tomb of the Warrior (del Guerriero), discovered in the nineteenth century and dating from the waning Villanovan epoch, is the earliest site to have contained Etrusco-Geometric vases, largely featuring rows of birds in silhouette.
Among the Etrusco-Geometric vases that have come to light outside of Vulci and Tarquinia, in Castro, Poggio Buco, Pitigliano, and Sovana, up until the middle of the seventh century the typical shapes are oinochoae (wine jugs) of both the Cypro-Phoenician and Proto-Corinthian types, footed cups, skyphoi (drinking cups), kyathoi (onehandled cups), and small amphorae with knot handles. The predominant decoration is the “metope style” of Euboean provenance. At the beginning of the seventh century Tarquinia increasingly supplanted Vulci as a production center and produced a number of remarkable vase painters, most notably the Bocchoris Painter, whose vase and decorative forms clearly reflect a Proto-Corinthian influence. He is named after Tarquinia’s Bocchoris Tomb, which in addition to his vases contained a famous small imported faïence vase bearing the cartouche of the Egyptian pharaoh Bokenranf = Bocchoris (720–712 ..). It was probably in the Bocchoris Painter’s workshop that the decorative schemes were developed that would have a long success as Subgeometric pottery. One of Tarquinia’s vase painters in the first half of
Above: Rome, Museo di Villa Giulia: ItaloGeometric askos from Bisenzio, last quarter of the eighth century .. Below: Milan, Civiche Raccolte Archeologiche e Numismatiche: Italo-Geometric plate with depictions of “herons” (aironi) from Cerveteri, Tomb 65 Laghetto, first half of the seventh century ..
THE BEGINNINGS
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Selection of stylized water birds from the EtruscoGeometric Period (after A. Naso): 1. Cerveteri, Tomb 2006; 2. Cerveteri, Speranza Tumulus; 3. Cerveteri, Urna Calabresi; 4. Veii, Tomb of the Ducks; 5. Veii, Passo della Sibilla; 6. Veii, Cava di Pozzolana; 7. Veii, Passo della Sibilla Facing page: Cerveteri, Museo Archeologico: biconical krater with stylized animals by the Heptachord Painter, from Cerveteri, second quarter of the seventh century ..
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THE BEGINNINGS
the seventh century was the Palm Painter, whose rows of fish reflect Proto-Corinthian influences and whose palm friezes were inspired by Asian designs. The first full-figure depiction in Etrusco-Geometric vase painting—apparently mythological (Theseus and Ariadne dancing the Geranos or dance of the labyrinth on Delos?)—is found on an oinochoe from the early seventh century, and is doubtless the work of a painter from Euboea or Cumae. Vase painting in Tarquinia soon adopted a less ambitious style, the Subgeometric, one that contains both Euboean and Proto-Corinthian stylistic elements. The more vital production centers were now Cerveteri and Veii, also—in a second tier—Falerii, Narce, and Capena. In South Etruscan pottery it is possible to distinguish two main trends: one is more figural, with scenes that in part draw on mythology; the other is more conventional, employing a more standardized repertoire, and mainly includes oinochoae, plates, chalices, ollas, and amphorae. In addition to fish, the Caeretan and Veiian examples often feature the “heron” motif. Despite its repetitive character, this pottery was very popular and found wide distribution. The Etrusco-Geometric style did not end with the eighth century, but rather persisted as the Subgeometric beyond the middle of the seventh century, as we see from vase production in Veii, Tarquinia, Vulci, and above all Cerveteri. In addition to Euboean-Cycladic reminiscences, the Subgeometric repertoire presents mainly influences from Proto-Corinthian pottery and its Cumaean variants. In the Vulci and Tarquinia area the “metope style” predominates, whereas in the Cerviteri-Veii region we find mostly vases with schematic, silhouetted herons and fish. Such vases were exported in considerable quantities, to the Faliscan Capena region but also outside Etruria, to Latium, southern Campania (Pontecagnano), and southeast Sicily (Gela, Syracuse, Eloro). The popular herons—a contamination deriving from Villanovian traditions and Greco-Geometric designs of Euboean-Cycladic and Corinthian provenance—are found in dark red on light-ground vases, in white on red-ground impasto vessels and red roof tiles in Acquarossa, and incised on impasto vessels and the oldest bucchero vases. The so-called “white-on-red” genre just mentioned, which was developed in the first half of the seventh century and has been extensively published by M. Micozzi, forms an isolated class, even with regard to technique. This typically red-ground
impasto pottery with white decorations was widely used in the South Etruscan area (Cerveteri, Veii, Acquarossa) and the Faliscan-Capenatan region (Falerii, Capena), and includes mainly urns, large storage vessels like pithoi (storage jars) and amphorae, tableware, ointment jars (balsamaria), and holmoi (stands). In addition to linear designs we find, at first still in the Subgeometric style, mainly zoomorphic friezes (fish, herons) and friezes of human figures (choros dancers, horsemen). The further development of this genre in the second half of the seventh century will be discussed in the next chapter. A white-on-red roof tile from Acquarossa (Zone G), decorated with stylized horses and birds in the Subgeometric style, is comparable in both technique and style. From the beginning of the seventh century on, Cerveteri became increasingly important for its vase painting, especially its production of largeformat vessels. Here we can even distinguish between a number of different hands and workshops, among them the Crane Painter (Pittore delle Gru), whose monumental style was mainly influenced by Greek-Cycladic precedents. We now find depictions of other animals besides “herons” and fish, including felines, horses (some of them with wings), birds, deer, and griffins, also trees and branches. Motifs like the centaur and the fallen warrior are altogether new. The Heptachord Painter (Pittore di Eptacordo) was path-breaking in that he was the first to devote himself primarily to human figures. His large-format scenes are narrative in nature, like the acrobatic dance accompanied by a kithara player on an amphora in Würzburg or the couple on a biconical krater in Cerveteri. The mythological, epic quality of these highly expressive scenes in the Subgeometric style doubtless derives from Greece, especially the Greek islands. The Etruscans clearly owed their familiarity with Greek legends to the presence at this time of Greek merchants and craftsmen in the South Etruscan coastal centers, especially Caere. Scenes with ships and huge fish also become increasingly common. By contrast, contemporary Subgeometric vases from the workshops of Veii—considerably more modest in quality—tend to feature zoomorphic elements like fish, herons, and horses in silhouette. Beginning in the mid-seventh century, the (Sub-) Geometric style increasingly gave way to a type of decoration featuring botanical motifs, one that was primarily influenced by Near Eastern art. We will discuss this further in the next chapter.
Asian and Corinthian Influences The Orientalizing Period (– ..)
The advanced middle and later Orientalizing period was chiefly marked by Asian and Corinthian influences. It was in this period that Etruscan tomb painting experienced a first flowering, though vase painting continues to be our chief source of information about the development of Etruscan painting. In general, the cultural changes described in the first chapter in relation to the previous Etrusco-Geometric period only became more fully entrenched. Urbanization, for example, continued with the building of city walls (present from the mid-seventh century in Roselle) and monumental architecture (the first and second palaces at Murlo-Poggio Civitate, south of Siena), and the final transition from simple huts, generally oval in form, to solid, rectangular houses (Veii, Acquarossa). The Etruscans continued to dominate the Tyrrhenian Sea, and traded widely, especially with Asia and the Greek world. This period saw the introduction of hoplite tactics in warfare, further exploitation of the region’s rich mineral deposits, and increasing imports of Asian, Egyptian, and Greek wares (particularly ProtoCorinthian and Corinthian vases) and even true luxury articles—what the Greeks referred to as athyrmata—in gold, silver, electron, bronze, ivory, faïence, and glass paste. It also saw the immigration of artists and craftsmen from Asia (mainly from the area of Syria and Phoenicia) and Greece (primarily Corinth and eastern Greece). Etruria began to export bronzes, bucchero wares, and wine amphorae to other regions of Italy and the Mediterranean and developed the arts of largeformat sculpture and relief (especially in Cerveteri, Vulci, and Vetulonia), including grave steles (Vetulonia and Emilia-Romagna) and so-called stepped slabs (Tarquinia). Greek iconography, especially mythological subject matter, became
increasingly common. The large princely tombs that begin to appear in the second quarter of the seventh century in the north (Populonia, Vetulonia, Marsiliana d’Albegna, Casal Marittimo, Artimino, Quinto Fiorentino, Castellina in Chianti, Cortona, Chiusi) and the south (Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Vulci, Veii, Palestrina), with their frequently exorbitant quantities of valuable grave goods, attest to the wealth of leading Etruscan families in this “age of the princes.” Gold and silver vessels, ivory combs, gold jewelry and objects made of amber, faïence vessels and figures, scarabs, glass-paste jewelry, large bronze cauldrons, wooden furniture, and woolen and linen textiles (only very rarely preserved, as in Verucchio in the Romagna), painted ostrich eggs, and decorated Tridacna shells are evidence of this aristocratic society’s appetite for luxury items. Inscriptions from this period (as on the two cippi from Rubiera, near Reggio Emilia) document how this taste for luxuries is affecting the first magistracies. Of decisive importance in the realm of architecture was the introduction in the midseventh century or shortly afterward of new roof forms, with tiles and white-on-red painted architectural terracottas, as seen in Murlo (first palace) and Acquarossa (Zone G). This important innovation—adopted from Greek, probably mainly Corinthian, architecture—is associated by Pliny (Nat. Hist. 35.16, 35.151–52) with the arrival in Tarquinia in around 650 of the Corinthian nobleman Damaratos. Among his company were artists and craftsmen (for example, the painter Ekphantos and three artifices or fictores with the telling names Euchir, Eugrammos, and Diopos), who “stand for” the three mediums sculpture (coroplasty), painting, and architecture. Such Corinthian artists and craftsmen, especially the “plastae laudatissimi . . . iidem pictores” (“highly praised modelers . . . also
Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Panthers: detail of the back wall with profile head of a panther, around 600 .. or shortly thereafter.
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painters,” Pliny Nat. Hist. 35.154), surely worked mainly for the Etruscan aristocracy, ornamenting the exteriors of their houses with painted terracottas and the interiors with wall paintings or the “pinakes leleukomenoi” (whitened tablets). In fact, a strong Corinthian influence can be seen in Etruria shortly after the middle of the seventh century. Pliny (Nat. Hist. 35.17–18) tells of the perfection achieved in the art of painting in this period in Italy as well. To him there were three aspects to such “perfection”: outline (“umbra . . . lineis circumducta”), interior drawing (“spargentes lineas intus”), and homogeneous color groundings (“primus inlevit eas colore”). These had been mastered by the painting schools in Corinth and Sikyon on the Peloponnese. Pliny goes on to relate that he had admired very old paintings that antedated the founding of Rome (“antiquiores urbe”)—surely an exaggeration— in Ardea and Lanuvium (southern Latium), and in Etruscan Caere. He praises their perfection and their technique and indicates that the paintings in Lanuvium presented mythological content in fresco technique. Aside from the Euboeans, those introducing Asian and Greek cultural and artistic innovations and ideas into Etruria in the Orientalizing period were mainly Asians from the Syrian-Phoenician region, Corinthians, eastern Greeks, and colonial Greeks from southern Italy and Sicily. The large Etruscan coastal centers, mainly in the south, were most exposed to such influences, but with a certain time lag they penetrated even interior and northern Etruria by the Late Orientalizing period. The Etruscan aristocracy’s adoption of Asian culture, with its dynastic models, palaces (as on Cyprus, in northern Syria, and western Anatolia), triclinia for banquets, and monumental tombs, was in part a way of demonstrating its status. As in the preceding Etrusco-Geometric period, tomb painting, now more widespread but still extremely rare, was concentrated in southern Etruria, notably Cerveteri and Veii. Other sites in southern Etruria were Tarquinia and San Giuliano, and in interior and northern Etruria the cities of Chiusi, Magliano Toscano, and Cosa. Cerveteri definitely took the lead in this period. Interestingly, though Tarquinia would later become the “capital” of Etruscan tomb painting, chamber tombs there were first adorned with wall paintings only in the Late Orientalizing period; that is considerably later—at least to the best of
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our present knowledge—than in Veii and Cerveteri. The few traces of wall painting in the well-known Montagnola Tomb (Tomba della Montagnola), a constructed tholos tomb from the Late Orientalizing period in Quinto Fiorentino, west of Florence, constitute a distinct exception. Because Etruria’s aristocratic houses were built of perishable materials (wood, mud bricks, etc.), nothing has survived of wall paintings that may have adorned the residences of the aristocracy, like the palace in MurloPoggio Civitate. For a comprehensive understanding of Etruscan tomb painting from the Orientalizing period, we are indebted to the work of G. Bovini, and more recently to that of G. Colonna, A. Naso, and the author. In this period, too, pigments—generally only red, black, yellow, and white—were applied directly to the smoothed stone walls. This is the main reason why the paintings are often so poorly preserved, with little or nothing still visible, forcing us to rely on old photographs, drawings and/or watercolors, and at times only summary descriptions. Welcome exceptions are the two Late Orientalizing tombs at Magliano Toscano and Tarquinia. The paintings—generally more like colored drawings—are distinguished by a largely unrealistic but vivid and at times expressive coloring. The outlines of the individual motifs were first scored, then traced in black or brown. The paintings consist mainly of smallformat friezes, often limited to a single wall, but especially in the Late Orientalizing phase there are a few more complex compositions, some divided into picture panels and some in larger format (nearly life-size). In multichamber tombs the painted decorations are generally concentrated in a single room. Most often it is the architectural elements—ceilings, columen, ceiling beams and coffers (lacunaria), gable supports, door frames, pilasters and pilaster strips—as well as couches and stone baskets that are adorned with painting, as A. Naso illustrates in his seminal study of “pittura architettonica.” A fine example is the Tomb of the Dogtooth Frieze (dei Denti di Lupo) in Cerveteri (ca. 630/20), to which Naso has devoted a separate monograph. In Tomb Porzarago 9 in San Giovenale, painting is used to emphasize the gable support. Most tomb paintings of this period are relatively easy to date, in part thanks to a profusion of grave goods, mostly pottery, both Etruscan and imported.
The painting repertoire is still limited: in addition to architectural elements, we see mainly botanical motifs and stylized, eclectic animals and fabulous creatures. Animal friezes predominantly show rows of striding beasts—both ordinary and fabulous—or animals in combat. We find winged lions and panthers, other great cats, deer, goats, hounds, serpents, and dolphins. Among the fabulous beasts are sphinxes, griffins, and winged and bearded centaurs. Human figures like striding men, horsemen, archers, some on horseback, and the potnios theron (Lord of Beasts) between two rampant lions are still relatively rare. The chief botanical ornaments are palmettes, lotus blossoms, rosettes, and volutes. In addition we find comb and herringbone patterns, dogtooth friezes, and simple stripes. Shields with concentric circles of small col-
ored squares and a depiction of a ship are exceptions. All in all, compositions of a purely additive nature predominate. Only in the Campana Tomb in Veii, on the back wall of the front chamber, do we find animals, fantastic creatures, human figures, and botanical ornaments blended into a “linguaggio fantastico,” a pictorial unity. Many of the motifs that appear in tomb painting are familiar to us not only from vase painting but also from other Etruscan arts from the Orientalizing period, for example bronze statuettes and reliefs (especially repoussé bronze shields), gold jewelry (pectorals and fibulae), ivories (pyxides), impasto and bucchero (incised drawings), painted ostrich eggs, painted impasto urns and roof tiles, and pithos reliefs. Most are originally Asian motifs adopted in Etruria—with
Selection of palmette motifs from the Orientalizing Period (after A. Naso): 1. Tomb of the Painted Animals (Cerveteri) 2. Tomb of the Painted Lions (Cerveteri) 3–4. Ceiling of the Cima Tomb (San Giuliano) 5. Wall of the Cima Tomb (San Giuliano) 6–8. Wall of the Campana Tomb (Veii) 1
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9. Impasto “white-on-red” pyxis from the Züst Collection 10. Impasto “white-on-red” pyxis, Louvre D 151 11. Repoussé bronzes from the Barberini Tomb (Praeneste) 12. Repoussé bronzes from the Regolini Galassi Tomb (Cerveteri) 13–14. Bucchero reliefs 15–18. Bucchero incisings
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Rome, Capitoline Museums: Aristonothos Krater from Cerveteri with sea battle, middle of the seventh century ..
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corresponding modifications—by way of Corinth. Motifs like the centaur and the chimaera are Greek. Typically Etruscan are the great cats or fantastic creatures with human limbs in their maws, familiar from incised drawings on bucchero sottile vessels. Lions, which appear frequently, are of two main types. The first comes from Assyria and northern Syria and is distinguished by the flame pattern on its back. It appears first and most frequently in Cerveteri, but in the later phase in Veii’s Campana Tomb as well. The second, somewhat simpler type, with vertical stripes on its back, is also mainly documented in Cerveteri, for example, in the wall paintings of the Tomb of the Painted Animals (degli Animali Dipinti) and the Tomb of the Painted Lions (dei Leoni Dipinti). The motif of the sphinx, originally Egyptian and Asian and also taken over by the Greeks, is found in the Orientalizing period not only in Etruscan tomb
painting but also in vase painting, notably that of the Bearded Sphinx Painter. At this same time, such predatory and hybrid beasts of largely Asian provenance appear for the first time in large sculptures as guardians placed in front of tombs in Cerveteri and Veii (and somewhat later in Vulci). They probably symbolize the inevitability and universality of death. The especially interesting motif of the potnios or despotes theron and his female counterpart, the potnia theron, had been known in Mesopotamia since the third millennium .., and later in Cretan art; it then found its way to Etruria, especially Caere, most likely by way of CyproPhoenician bronze cups with such depictions, which were widely exported in the seventh century. The potnios and potnia theron were originally depicted in a warlike or triumphant pose, but in Etruria in the second half of the seventh century they are simply placed between two peaceful ram-
pant or standing lions, with a more decorative effect. In the context of the tomb they were apparently meant to symbolize triumph over death. Certain motifs from Late Orientalizing Etruscan tomb painting would be used again in considerably later Tarquinian tombs from the Late Archaic period, as for example in the colorful, deliberately old-fashioned animal frieze with an almost textile
quality in the Tomb of the Hunter (del Cacciatore) and in the potnios theron depiction of the Stefani Tomb, which is no longer accessible. In the advanced Orientalizing period there continued to be close connections between wall painting and vase painting. This period saw the production of Etrusco-Corinthian vases in the large South Etrurian centers, a genre inspired by
Rome, Museo di Villa Giulia; oinochoe from Vulci by the Swallow Painter with animal friezes and lotus-blossom frieze, ca. 620 ..
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Selection of lion depictions from the Orientalizing period (after A. Naso): 1. Ostrich egg from the Tomb of “Isis” (Vulci) 2. Silver situla from the Castellani Tomb (Praeneste) 3. Pyxis in the Louvre, D 151 4. Tomb of the Painted Lions (Cerveteri)
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voluminous imports of Corinthian pottery; for our knowledge we are particularly indebted to the intensive studies and valuable publications of the Hungarian Etruscologist J.-G. Szilagyi. In this period it is easier to document the presence of Greek vase painters and painting workshops in the southern Etruscan coastal centers; in some cases we even know their names. The famous krater from Cerveteri dating from around 650 in the Capitoline Museums in Rome is signed by Aristonothos, an immigrant Greek. On one side is a scene from Homer’s Odyssey, namely the blinding of Polyphemus, and on the other a sea battle between Greek and Etruscan warships, which apparently refers to a historical event in the struggle for dominance in the Tyrrhenian Sea. This Greek master craftsman incorporates various artistic influences and traditions (Attic, insular Greek, Chalcidic) and is distinguished by a powerful, monumental style that emphasizes figures. Along with “Rutile Hipukrate,” an Etruscan Greek documented by an inscription in Tarquinia, and the already mentioned Damaratos in Tarquinia (Dionysius of Halicarnassus Ant. Rom. 3.46), who was driven out of Corinth after the fall of the Bacchiadae, he represents the successful assimilation of Greek (as well as Latin and Italic) ethnic elements into Etruscan society during the Orientalizing period and a considerable amount of horizontal mobility within the various social classes. Vase painting in Etruria in the second half of the seventh century saw a number of innovations, such as incised preliminary drawings, large heraldic animal compositions or rows of animals including deer, bulls, horses, predatory cats, sphinxes, and griffins, and botanical ornaments in the form of bands of palmettes and lotus blossoms. Prominent in Cerveteri in this period were the workshops of the urna calabresi (house-shaped urns in red impasto) and the Painter of the Birth of Athena (Pittore della Nascita di Minerva), who painted large-format, frequently mythological scenes, some of them on large pyxides. A typical example is his pyxis in the Louvre, which presents two mythological scenes—the birth of Athena and the hunt for the Calydonian Boar—and was probably influenced by the large-format painting from Corinth: a painting of the birth of Athena attributed to the Corinthian painter Cleanthes was preserved in a temple in Pisatis (Athenaeus 8.346 b–c). As for the strong Corinthian influence on
Etruscan painting, one must recall the Corinthian painter Ekphantos, who found his way to Etruria in the train of Damaratos. Whereas the botanical and ornamental decor of these vases is essentially Asian, their figural and narrative scenes betray a predominantly Greek influence. One thinks, for example, of an amphora by the Amsterdam Painter (in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam) depicting a woman and a three-headed monster— probably Medea and the dragon of Colchis. Production of Etrusco-Corinthian vases began in southern Etruria around 630, and these vessels would soon dominate the market. They continued to be produced until the middle of the sixth century. Examples of this production, not always especially valuable, number in the thousands, and continuing finds and excavations constantly bring new ones to light. These vases—especially the ones made in Vulci—were exported to Campania, Sicily, Sardinia, southern France, eastern Spain, Carthage, Cyprus, and the Black Sea region. They were of course largely patterned after the Proto-Corinthian and Corinthian vases imported into Etruria in large quantities from the beginning of the seventh century, and especially in mid-century. They also borrowed features from the pottery of eastern Greece. Among the Proto-Corinthian import wares are a few exceptional pieces like the Chigi Vase from Veii, dating from around 640, with its miniaturist figural friezes (now in the Museo di Villa Giulia in Rome). Etruria’s close commercial ties with Corinth are underscored not only by such trading activities but also by the presence in Tarquinia of the abovementioned Corinthian aristocrat Damaratos. The most common vase forms were pouring vessels like olpae and oinochoae and unguent vessels like aryballoi and alabastrons. The main production centers were Caere, Veii, and Vulci. Caere specialized in large-format amphorae with almost exclusively incised zoomorphic motifs like those of the “Pittore dei Cappi.” The repertoire included hippocampi and double-bodied panthers as well, but very few human figures. Because of their richly incised figural decoration of a narrative character, the oinochoae from Tragliatella from the last third of the seventh century, belonging to the polychrome Caeretan group, are highly interesting exceptions. By contrast, the so-called Castellani group, active in Caere and Veii, produced mainly small-format unguent jars with miniaturist decoration. Prominent within this group is the Castellani Painter, active in Veii around 630 or 620, who fully exploited
the possibilities of the polychrome technique and whose lively and colorful decorations are reminiscent of Late Orientalizing wall paintings, such as those in Veii’s Campana Tomb. In Vulci, beginning in the second half of the seventh century, the technique of black-figure vase painting based on Corinthian and eastern Greek models becomes increasingly common. Among the Greek vase painters who immigrated to Vulci in the later Orientalizing period we can distinguish two main personalities: the Swallow Painter (Pittore delle Rondini) and the Bearded Sphinx Painter. It has been possible to attribute some ten vessels to the former, which quite clearly betray his eastern Greek origins and recall the Wild Goat style, popular on the Ionian coast. Especially beautiful is a Vulcian oinochoe from the period around 620 in the Museo di Villa Giulia in Rome, whose light-ground friezes are dominated by grazing goats and rosettes of dots. The second master, who in the last third of the seventh century established a very successful workshop in Vulci, had a wholly different training and drew inspiration largely from the Corinthian Transitional style. It is possible to attribute more than one hundred vessels to this workshop, mainly olpae and oinochoae, which were also distributed to other Etruscan centers outside of Vulci. Especially characteristic of these works is the animal repertoire, which includes the eponymous bearded sphinx as well as a lion devouring a human leg. The most famous piece comes from Vulci’s Tomb of the Bearded Sphinx Painter, an almost monumental amphora (82 cm tall) now displayed in the Museo di Villa Giulia in
Rome, with large-scale but quite crude figures of animals and fantastic creatures along with dot and discus-shaped rosettes. Only two of the vessels from this workshop present narrative scenes, which include hoplites, horsemen, and war chariots and episodes from the myth of Troy. Somewhat later the workshops of the Boehlau Painter (with especially bizarre animal figures), the Pescia Romana Painter (with hybrid creatures like a lionrooster and a two-headed fish), and the Feoli Painter operated in Vulci as well. The Feoli Painter became the most successful painter from the second generation of Vulci’s Etrusco-Corinthian vase painters. In addition to friezes of animals and fabulous beasts, we find in his repertoire brief narrative insertions like a man and woman embracing and a centaur being attacked by a dog, also a fantastic Gorgon-Minotaur-like creature. Also of a distinctly Corinthian orientation in Vulci are the Painter of the Polychrome Arches (Pittore degli Archetti Policromi) and the Lotus-Flower and Phoenician Palmette Groups, which favor a largely botanical decor and scale- and textile-like designs. In the decades between 630 and 580, large anforoni squamati (scale-decorated amphorae) dominated the vase production in Cerveteri. At the beginning these were distinguished by a largely zoological repertoire in miniaturist style, but later swimming birds and birds in flight were added. Etrusco-Corinthian workshops and vase painters, among them the Vitelleschi Painter, established themselves only relatively late in Tarquinia. With the third generation of EtruscoCorinthian vase painters, production once again
Left: Cerveteri, Tomb of the Painted Lions, righthand dromos chamber: detail of the right wall with lion frieze (watercolor), third quarter of the seventh century ..
Right: Cerveteri, Tomb of the Painted Lions, righthand dromos chamber: back wall with “potnios theron” between lions (watercolor), third quarter of the seventh century ..
ASIAN AND CORINTHIAN INFLUENCES
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p. 49 Veii, Tomb of the Ducks: section of the back wall with two stylized ducks marching to the left and striped frieze, second quarter of the seventh century ..
pp. 50–51 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Panthers: upper part of the back wall with two heraldic panthers and mask of a predatory animal, around 600 .. or shortly thereafter
p. 52
p. 53
Magliano in Toscana, Cancellone area, Tomb of San
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Bacchantes: section of the
Andrea: detail of a winged lion in three-color
back wall with pair of dancers (possibly the deceased
technique, end of the seventh century ..
owners of the tomb), ca. 510/500 ..
pp. 54–55 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Baron: center section of the back wall with encounter between an aristocratic woman and an older man with a kylix and a young aulos player, ca. 510/500 ..
p. 56 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Augurs: section of the right wall with two wrestlers above bronze lebetes, ca. 520 ..
Left: San Giuliano, Cima Tomb: reconstruction drawing of the pair of heraldic panthers on the back wall of the main chamber (after A. Naso), third quarter of the seventh century .. Below: San Giuliano, Cima Tomb: ground plan, longitudinal section, and cross section of the lefthand side chamber, third quarter of the seventh century ..
rose dramatically in order to satisfy the increasing demand for highly standardized vessels in various parts of Etruria and beyond. As evidence of this true mass production we have the works of the painters of the Olpae Group and the Rosoni (Large Rosettes) Group, who mainly reverted to the Middle Corinthian stylistic repertoire. In the last phase of Etrusco-Corinthian vase production, potters limited themselves for the most part to small-format vessels, most notably sculptural unguent jars patterned after Corinthian and eastern Greek models. Corinthian taste dominated up to the end, when in the decades between 560 and 540 Etrusco-Corinthian production in Etruria finally ceased after a full three generations, ending with the production of Caere. In the Late Orientalizing phase of the closing seventh century two large amphorae (in the Villa Giulia in Rome) are deserving of special attention. Probably produced in Veii, they were discovered in 1965 in an intact tomb in Trevignano, on Lake Bracciano, at the edge of Veiian territory. On the first, the upper frieze depicts a procession with a bridal pair, along with a biga with driver and other attendant figures. There follows an ibex and a griffin devouring a man. The bottom frieze depicts a pair of sphinxes, a panther, a lion devouring a man, birds in flight, and human figures. This large-figure frieze is enlivened by botanical ornaments with flowers. The monumentality of these figures could be an echo of larger wall painting,
now lost. The contrast between the white figures and the strong red ground is striking. But let us return to tomb painting. In several princely tombs in Veii, like the one in Monte Michele and the tumulus of Vaccareccia, the coloring is still limited to red and yellow wall surfaces. A group of princely tombs in Cerveteri, dating from the middle and third quarter of the seventh century, are crowned by large tumuli and characterized by rich interior architecture and fragments of wall painting. The back wall above the burial couch in the right-hand back dromos chamber in the Tomb of the Ship (della Nave) was painted with a small sailboat with a tilted mast, which was probably originally part of a narrative seascape or harbor scene; it can only be verified today with the aid of a watercolor from the beginning of the twentieth century. Iconographic parallels are found in Caeretan vase painting, notably the famous Aristonothos Krater from the mid-seventh century. It may be that such seascapes were based on mythology—perhaps the Siren episode from Homer’s Odyssey, as seen on a white-on-red Caeretan amphora in Milan—but this can no longer be determined. More likely it was either an allusion to the deceased’s activity as a maritime merchant or symbolized his journey across the sea into the afterlife. One could almost see this work as a kind of anticipation of the magnificent seascape with ships in the Tarquinian Tomb of the Ship from the second half of the fifth century. In the Tomb of the Painted Animals and the Tomb
A’
A
B B’
AA’
BB’
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of the Painted Lions, discovered in 1834, animal friezes predominate. Here the animals are shown either in simple striding poses or fighting in pairs: perhaps they represent episodes from a hunt. Each of the side walls of the right-hand dromos chamber in the Tomb of the Painted Lions is decorated with two striding red-and-white lions with black outlines and a palmette-lotus blossom. Originally this lion frieze probably continued into the other chambers. Quite similar lions, with the same longhaired manes and extended tongues, can be seen on an Etruscan krater, also probably from Cerveteri, in the Louvre. The gable of the back wall is dominated by the motif of the potnios or despotes theron, originally from the Near East: a man who, turning toward the left, grasps two flanking lions by their manes. His triumph over the wild beasts can be interpreted metaphorically as the triumph of the tomb’s aristocratic owner over death. Two stone baskets are painted with herringbone designs in red and black. In the round vestibule of the Tomb of the Painted Animals are two animal friezes, one above the other. Among other motifs, the upper one depicts a goat fleeing from a lion, two lions attacking a stag, a running archer, and another man. In the main room a sarcophagus intended for a woman is painted with a lion, a stag (?), and palmettes. On the basis of a number of stylistic similarities, the wall paintings of these two Caeretan tombs have recently been attributed to a vase painter, the Painter of the Birth of Athena, already mentioned, who specialized in large red-ground impasto ves-
Above: Cerveteri, Campana Tomb 1: ground plan and detail drawing of the ceilings and baskets (after L. Canina), third quarter of the seventh century .. Right: Veii, Campana Tomb: painted back wall of the front chamber with figural and botanical elements (watercolor after L. Canina), around 600 .. or shortly before
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sels with white figures. Like those in numerous contemporary vase paintings, the figures of animals and fantastic creatures in these Caeretan tomb paintings show clear influences from Asia, especially Syria and Phoenicia. Caeretan influence is reflected in several aristocratic tumulus tombs outside Cerveteri, for example the Cima Tomb in San Giuliano, near Barbarano Romano (Viterbo Province), and the Tomb of the Sun and the Moon (del Sole e della Luna) in Vulci. Originally all their architectural elements—ceilings with beams and coffers, interior doors, and wall pilaster strips—were richly painted in polychromy. The monumental Cima Tomb, from the third quarter of the seventh century, is crowned by a large tumulus. The back wall of its main burial chamber was moreover decorated with a pair of heraldic panthers, of which no traces are visible today. The Campana Tomb was discovered in Veii’s Monte Michele area in 1842/1843 by the marchese Gian Pietro Campana, a well-known collector of Etruscan and Roman antiquities. Justifiably, it is the best-known example of a tomb from the Late Orientalizing period, shortly before or around 600. It is a monumental, two-chamber tomb, still extant, with a wide, open dromos with two side chambers, a built-up facade, and an arch-shaped entrance. Upon discovery, it still contained a quantity of grave goods from the end of the seventh century and first third of the sixth, including Corinthian and Etrusco-Corinthian vases. The front chamber held two bodies, the back one three
cremation burials. The wall paintings, which constituted the finest cycle in the Orientalizing style, have completely faded since their discovery, so that we are forced to rely on early watercolor drawings—mainly those published by Canina. Early on, George Dennis recognized their importance and their great age, and the well-known German archaeologist Andreas Rumpf devoted a monograph to them in 1915. The back wall of the forechamber above two burial couches, one on either side, was painted with two friezes, one above the other. Each of them was subdivided into two panels and painted in a highly colorful (red, black, yellow, and white)—if unrealistic—style, resembling a tapestry or textile. The panels show human figures, animals, fantastic creatures, and rich botanical ornamentation—a tangle of volutes,
palmettes, and lotus blossoms—in a “linguaggio fantastico.” These lush botanical motifs and figural scenes with animals (panther, horse, dog, deer or gazelle), fabulous beasts (sphinx), and human figures were mainly influenced by Corinthian and Etrusco-Corinthian vase painting (the workshop of the Castellani Painters and the two previously mentioned large amphorae with monumental figures from Trevignano), but the long legs of some of the animals, especially the horse with the small rider, are also reminiscent of Cretan architectural sculpture (Prinias, horseman frieze of Temple A) and Cretan vase painting (Arkades). The interpretation of the procession scene in the upper right panel, with a horseman and two men on foot, one carrying a double ax, is disputed. Some have taken it to be a hunting scene—a
Magliano in Toscana, Cancellone area, Tomb of San Andrea: detail with winged lion in three-color technique, end of the seventh century ..
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Magliano in Toscana, Cancellone area, Tomb of San Andrea: detail with winged lion in three-color technique, end of the seventh century ..
favored subject, especially in the second half of the sixth century and in the fifth century, as an indication of aristocratic status. Others see in it some mythological event, perhaps the return of Hephaistos. Still others interpret it as the tomb’s aristocratic owner’s journey on horseback, accompanied by a lictor, into the underworld, a frequent motif especially in the late period of Etruscan tomb painting. This last reading clearly finds greatest acceptance today; the journey into the underworld—often through a natural realm inhabited by wild animals and fantastic creatures with underworld associations—is also documented in the seventh century in reliefs on the ivory cista from Chiusi’s Pania Tomb and on Bolognese grave steles like the Zannoni Stele. The segmented gable is dominated by a dogtooth design and vines with lotus blossoms, and the door is also surrounded by a dogtooth frame. The back wall of the back chamber, with a low continuous bench, was painted with two rows of round shields, three in each row; these are decorated with bright squares in concentric rows and recall the custom in the first half of the seventh century of hanging actual bronze shields in princely tombs (as in the famous Regolini Galassi Tomb at Cerveteri). A similar real shield comes from Verucchio in the Romagna. These surely underscore the tomb owner’s rank as an important war-
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lord and are accordingly to be interpreted as an indication of aristocratic standing. Unfortunately, the name of the family buried in the Campana Tomb is not known. The Tomb of San Andrea, a two-chamber tomb with impressively monumental wall paintings discovered in the Cancellone area near Magliano in Toscana in 1984, also dates from the Late Orientalizing period, that is, the close of the seventh century. It was recently published by Paola Rendini. A number of striding, almost life-size winged lions (ca. 1.30 m tall) of the Phoenician type, in the usual three-color scheme of dark red, black, and ocher-yellow, adorn wall sections of the first and second chambers (with a typical partition in front of the back wall that is reminiscent of early Chiusan chamber-tomb architecture). On either side of the entry wall are a rampant, wingless lion and a palmette. The lions are probably symbols of death, the palmettes symbols of life after death. On the one hand, these relatively wellpreserved wall paintings recall roughly contemporary vase paintings like those of the Bearded Sphinx Painter or the Pescia Romana Painter; on the other hand, they resemble the now lost paintings in the Poggio Renzo Tomb at Chiusi and also refer to the Campana Tomb at Veii. Rendini suspects that they are the work of a Caeretan painting workshop active in the Veii and Chiusi regions.
In 1835 another painted tomb from the Late Orientalizing period, the “Painted Grotto” (Grotta dipinta or Tomba Dei), was discovered in the Le Ficaie area, near Magliano. Its figural paintings, since destroyed—including a winged centaur, an archer on horseback, dolphins, serpents (?), blossoms, and rosettes—were described by G. Dennis. The earliest known painted tomb from Tarquinia is the Tomb of the Panthers (delle Pantere), discovered in 1968, which also belongs to the Late Orientalizing period from the years around 600 or shortly afterward. This singlechamber tomb is distinguished architecturally by a relatively steep hip roof and sepulchral couches on either side, as well as a tumulus with krepis (raised base of stones) that can still be easily recognized in situ. Its large-figured, highly stylized paintings are relatively well preserved. A continuous base zone is bordered at the top by three thin lines in black, red, and black. Two rampant felines, probably panthers, flank the inside of the entry door, and two others in a heraldic scheme—the left one facing frontally, the right one with his head in profile—dominate the back wall with gable, their front paws held above the masklike protoma of another predatory feline. Here the gable and the upper wall surface are still treated as a single panel,
not clearly separated as they would be after the mid-sixth century. The characteristic decorative style in three-color technique (black, red, and white) and with a pattern of dotted circles on the animals’ coats is reminiscent of contemporary vase painting, mainly of the Etrusco-Corinthian mold, as well as the white-on-red genre. The fearsome large cats in this tomb surely had something to do with the symbolism of death. Nothing more survives of Late Orientalizing tomb painting in Chiusi and Cosa. Of the tomb discovered near Cosa in 1870 we know only that its wall paintings were comparable to those in the Campana Tomb at Veii. Of the paintings in the Tomb of the Orientalizing Style (Tomba di Stile Orientalizzante), discovered in 1874 in the Poggio Renzo area at Chiusi, not even copies have survived. According to descriptions of them, they consisted of a typical Late Orientalizing repertoire with animals (lions and panthers), fantastic creatures (griffins and sphinxes), and botanical ornaments (palmettes and rosettes), all nearly life-size. The monumentality and in part even the motifs of these paintings recall those of the Tomb of San Andrea near Magliano Toscano. In the Pania Tomb, which dates from the period around 600 and was also discovered in 1874, apparently only
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Panthers: upper part of the back wall with two heraldic panthers and mask of a predatory animal, 600 .. or shortly before
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The First Major Flowering and the “Ionic Koine” The Archaic Period (575–480 ..)
The Archaic period was of fundamental importance for the history, culture, and art of Etruria. This is especially the case in painting, which in the Late Archaic phase—that is, in the second half of the sixth century and first decades of the fifth century—enjoyed a special flowering and left us works that have decisively shaped our general concept of Etruscan art. Archaic art first appeared in the seventh century in Greece, where it reached its high point in the sixth century. Various regions and centers shared in this development, namely Corinth and Argos on the Peloponnese, Athens in Attica, and the Greek-Ionic east, notably Miletus, Didyma, Phocaea, and Samos. Among the outstanding achievements of Greek Archaic art are large sculptures—kouroi and korai—and black-figure and early red-figure vase painting, especially that of Attica. The Archaic style was not limited to Greece itself, of course, but extended to Greek colonial territories around the Mediterranean as well as peripheral regions dominated by other peoples and cultures like Etruria, portions of Asia Minor, and Cyprus, so that it was a phenomenon of international scope. It was especially favored in Etruria, in part owing to the considerable numbers of Greeks, especially eastern Greeks, residing in the southern coastal metropolises and harbor towns. This period was marked in Etruria by social changes, with a strong trend toward isonomy (equality before the law) and the development of a new middle class, by definitive urbanization of the larger centers, and by the introduction of new, rational, Hippodamic city plans based on orthogonal systems—one thinks of Marzabotto, also of a number of necropolises laid out a few decades earlier, like those of Cerveteri and Orvieto. One also sees a greater variety in tomb architecture and the development of a distinct rock-tomb architecture
in the interior of volcanic southern Etruria; the beginning of monumental religious architecture, with canonical temple types, especially the templum tuscanicum described five centuries later by Vitruvius; and major Greek influences on sculpture and vase painting (Late EtruscoCorinthian and black-figure) from Corinth and the Peloponnese, Ionia–eastern Greece, and finally mainly from Attica. In terms of history, the period saw the culmination and end of Etruscan dominance in Rome, the “grande Roma dei Tarqini”; Etruscan expansion to the south into Campania and to the north into Emilia-Romagna and the Po Valley; and conflicts in the Tyrrhenian Sea, culminating in the Battle of Alalia between the Caeretans and their Phoenician allies and the Ionic Phocaeans. Toward the end of the sixth century numerous smaller centers (like Murlo and Acquarossa) disappeared as the great Etruscan metropolises strengthened and became more centralized. A glance at the extensive necropolises at Cerveteri, with their thousands of tombs, suggests that this South Etruscan coastal metropolis must have been one of the most important and populous cities in the western Mediterranean in the Archaic period. Around 500, and especially in the first decades of the fifth century B.C., we see indications that the Etruscan coastal centers declined— the reasons for and consequences of which will be discussed in the next chapter—resulting in the rise of various cities in inland Etruria. Also in the Archaic period we see the crystallization of certain specialties in the realm of art and crafts in the most important Etruscan urban centers. Vulci, for example, was known primarily for its pottery and vase painting, bronze implements, and stone tomb sculpture; Cerveteri for its tomb architecture, kouroi, and painted clay plaques; Tarquinia for its tomb painting; Veii for
Above: Paris, Louvre: Caeretan Campana plaque with two old men in conversation seated on folding chairs, third quarter of the sixth century .. Facing page: Paris, Louvre: Caeretan Campana plate with scene of a sacrifice at an altar, third quarter of the sixth century ..
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Left: Grotte di Castro, Necropoli delle Pianezze, Tomb 2: back wall with painted wall pilaster, middle of the sixth century .. Right: Grotte di Castro, Necropoli delle Pianezze, Tomb 2: section of the ceiling painted with beams, middle of the sixth century ..
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the kouroi that adorned famous temples there and in Rome, some of which are attributed to the famous sculptor Vulca of Veii and his school; Chiusi for its canopic jars, tomb sculptures, urn and cippus reliefs, and bucchero pesante; Orvieto for its tomb architecture, tomb cippi, kouroi, and bucchero pesante; Fiesole for its grave steles; and Populonia for the first silver coinage. Our knowledge of the history of Etruscan painting in the Archaic period is naturally based primarily on tomb painting, painted clay plaques, and various styles of vase painting. There are also a few literary sources. Tomb paintings are for the most part concentrated in the Monterozzi necropolis of Tarquinia, though we also have examples from Cerveteri, Chiusi, and Sarteano, as well as purely architectural painting, as A. Naso has shown, from various smaller South Etruscan towns. The main ones are Bisenzio, Grotte di Castro, and Latera, in the vicinity of Lake Bolsena, and Castiglione in Teverina, in the territory of Volsinii. But Vulci and especially Cerveteri also provide examples of such painting, emphasizing important architectural elements like the columen, beams, gable supports, doors, and windows. Greek influences on the art and painting of Etruria continued to be mainly from the Peloponnese and Corinth up to the middle of the sixth century, but after the middle of the century it takes on a mainly Aeolian and Ionic stamp. At the
THE FIRST MAJOR FLOWERING AND THE “IONIC KOINE”
end of the sixth century and in the early fifth century, Attic conventions prevailed. In the transmission of techniques, styles, and iconography, the harbor towns in southern Etruria, true emporia, played a major role: Pyrgi in the territory of Cerveteri, Tarquinia’s Gravisca, and Vulci’s Regae/Regisvilla. Gravisca, especially, became home to any number of Greeks from the mid-sixth to the beginning of the fifth century, most of them natives of Ionia and Asia Minor who had fled their homelands in the face of the Persian invasion, after the North Ionian center Phocaea was destroyed in 546. The strong Greek presence in this international port and trading center is manifested mainly in numerous Greek inscriptions and in the cults of such Greek deities as Hera, Demeter, and Aphrodite. Sostratos, a wealthy seatrading merchant from Aegina—a kind of Ari Onassis of Greek antiquity who is prominently mentioned by Herodotus—immortalized himself in Gravisca by a votive inscription on an anchor stone dedicated to his native god Apollo of Aegina. Many of the Greek names documented in Gravisca are also found in other cities around the Mediterranean dominated or frequented by Greeks, for example the Greek emporium of Naucratis, founded in the Nile delta in 667 .. In this period Cerveteri attracted the Ionian vase painters who produced the distinctive Caeretan
hydriae (water jars). The presence of Greek painters in Gravisca is attested by the discovery of color pigments in vessels beneath votive offerings. Some archaeologists even attribute some of the more outstanding Tarquinian painted tombs from the last decades of the sixth century to immigrant Ionian painters. Among them are the Tomb of the Augurs (degli Auguri), the Tomb of the Lionesses (delle Leonesse), the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing (della Caccia e Pesca), and the Tomb of the Baron (del Barone), all of which present true megalography and figural programs. In terms of style, it is possible to discern definite links between certain of the Late Archaic tomb paintings in Tarquinia and specific regions or cities of the Ionian east. The Tomb of the Baron and the Tomb of the Inscriptions (delle Iscrizioni), for example, betray a strong North Ionian influence; the Tomb of the Augurs and the Tomb of the Jugglers (dei Giocolieri) show borrowings from Aeolian Phocaea; and certain features of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing can be traced to Samos. There are also close similarities in style and certain iconographic elements between Late Archaic Etruscan tomb painting and various examples of Late Archaic tomb and wall painting in Asia Minor, in Gordion (Phrygia), for example, in Us¸ak (Lydia), and in Elmali/Karaburun (Lycia), which are also distinctly Ionian influenced. Thus it is possible to speak of an “international Ionicism”
or “Ionian koine,” which will be discussed in greater detail in the concluding chapter. As for painting technique, all Etruscan wall painting was now executed in fresco. The motifs were first incised into thin, damp plaster and then drawn in dark outlines. In the second half of the sixth century the palette was no longer limited to black, red, brown, and yellow, but was also enriched with green and blue. For friezes of colored stripes, painters used twine dipped in pigment and stretched taut, the imprints of which are often still visible. In Archaic period tombs, the architectural features are generally emphasized with painting, underscoring the tomb’s function as a “house of the dead.” In many tombs only the purely architectural features have painted decoration: columens, gable supports, cross-beams, architraves, foundations, and false doors. Only in the Tomb of the Lionesses and the Tomb of the Hunter is there an unambiguous suggestion of a pavilion or tentlike structure. Tomb gables are generally divided by a center support with curved sides reminiscent of an altar, which can also have additional decorations like volutes, palmettes, flowers, and/or rams’ horns. Such supports were typical elements of wooden architecture and are found elsewhere as well, for example on a number of sarcophagi from Clazomenae (Asia Minor) with roof-shaped lids and on the facades of rock tombs and cult monuments in Phrygia and Paphlagonia, also in Asia
Paris, Louvre: Caeretan hydria with depiction of Eurystheus, Herakles, and Cerberus, ca. 530 ..
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TIPO 1
TIPO 2 1
2a
2
Leoni Rossi
n. 3986
3
n. 1646
Leoni di Giada 7
2b
Leonesse
6
Giocolieri
8
n. 3098
Fiore di Loto
TIPO 3
5
4
TIPO 4 9
Tori, atrio
10
Tori, camera destra 13
Cardarelli
11
Pulcinella
14
Topolino 17
12
Bartoccini 15
16
19
20
Triclinio
4b
Maestro delle Olimpiadi
Barone 18
4a
21
n. 5513 23
n. 1560
4c
n. 5892 24
n. 3697 26
22
25
Scrofa Nera rosso nero giallo
Morente
Fustigazione
Typology of painted gable supports in Tarquinian tombs (after F. Iervolino)
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n. 4021
n. 808
Minor. Multiple colored stripes—in rare instances incorporating other patterns like rhombuses— adorn the upper walls in Tarquinian tombs, imitating the position and function of beams or architraves in domestic architecture. On these striped friezes, occasionally standing out in relief, we frequently find actual or painted nails from which real or painted wreaths, festoons (taeniae), and vessels could be hung. At times these friezes are further enriched by a small frieze of stylized pomegranates or small squares at the bottom. Additional striped friezes lower down can only have been intended as pure decoration, or at times as dividers between pictorial friezes. The bottom section of the walls can be either black or light-colored and is generally bordered at the top by a multicolor stripe, occasionally by a wavelike frieze. The columen, or ridge beam, is emphasized by reliefs and/or painting. It is highlighted in a strong red, at times with stripes on either side, or decorated with disc patterns and occasionally with stylized ivy leaves that recall designs on hydriae by the Micali Painter. The sloping ceiling surfaces in Tarquinia’s Archaic tombs can be adorned with red crossbeams, with designs of little flowers on a light ground in imitation of fabric, or with colorful checkerboard patterns. The latter are generally thought to be imitations of fabric as well, but in some cases they may represent basketwork. False doors of the Doric style first appear in the second quarter of the sixth century. At first they take only a relatively simple, narrow form, but after the middle of the sixth cen-
THE FIRST MAJOR FLOWERING AND THE “IONIC KOINE”
azzurro
tury they assume greater detail, with akroteria or round bronze fittings and painted panels like the one in the Tomb of the Augurs. Eighteen Tarquinian tombs with false doors have been discovered, and it is also known from several Sub-Archaic tombs from Chiusi. At the close of the Late Archaic period, that is after 480, this architectural motif disappears from the repertoire of Tarquinian tomb painting. Significantly, false doors, which often appear in combination with komos (revelry) depictions, always appear where in other tombs one would find a real doorway leading to adjoining chambers. In some tombs, like the Tomb of the Inscriptions, a cruciform ground plan with four chambers is thereby “simulated.” False doors do not merely imitate architectural features; they also clearly symbolize a boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead. In the Tomb of the Kithara Player (del Citaredo) and Tomb 4255, the double false doors on the back wall quite obviously allude to a double burial, probably a married couple. In place of false doors we occasionally find loculi designed for cremation burials. In the decades between 530 and 480, Archaic tomb painting presents a limited number of subjects, at least some of which are exclusively Etruscan. Banqueting scenes of a typically aristocratic stamp are staged either on the ground (Tomb of the Frontoncino, Tomb of the Lionesses, and Tomb of Hunting and Fishing), in which case they tend to be exclusively male, or on klines or dining couches (Tombs of the Painted Vases [dei Vasi
dipinti], of the Old Man [del Vecchio] and of the Bigas [delle Bighe]), at times with women in attendance. Komos scenes filled with movement and dancing scenes of a Dionysian flavor may be thought of as relating to these banquets, and they can include carousers crowned with wreaths, dancers, musicians, and players of kottabos, a drinking game. These are almost always set in a grove of small trees (Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, Tomb of the Inscriptions, Cardarelli Tomb, and Tomb of the Bacchantes [dei Baccanti]). Depictions of athletic competitions (ludi athletarum), chariot races (ludi circenses), and jugglers/acrobats (akroamata) suggest funeral games in honor of the deceased tomb owner (as in the Tomb of the Jugglers, Tomb of the Olympic Games [delle Olimpiadi], and Tomb of the Bigas in Tarquinia, and the Tomb of the Monkey [della Scimmia] and Tomb of the Casuccini Hill [del Colle Casuccini] in Chiusi). Burial scenes and scenes from the cult of the dead include the prothesis, offerings, the typically Etruscan Phersu rite, and the armed dance (as in the Tomb of the Augurs, Tomb of the Dead Man [del Morto], and Tomb of the Dying [del Morente]). Hunting and
fishing scenes (Tomb of Hunting and Fishing and Tomb of the Hunter) symbolize the tomb owner’s aristocratic lifestyle. Isolated mythological scenes (Tomb of the Bulls [dei Tori], Tomb 1999, Tomb with Dionysos and the Sileni [con Dioniso e Sileni], and possibly Tomb of the Olympic Games and Tomb of the Baron) play only a minor role in Archaic tomb painting, in contrast to various other Etruscan art forms, especially vase painting. Finally, there are occasional erotic scenes (Tomb of the Bulls and Tomb of the Whipping [della Fustigazione]). The typical gable repertoire consists of heraldic wild cats, animal battles— generally lions or panthers attacking fallow deer or ibexes, as in the cultures of Asia Minor—as well as sea creatures (mainly hippocampi, less often tritons) and botanical elements. The sea creatures tend to resemble depictions on Pontic vases. The motif of the potnios theron, first seen in the Orientalizing period, is found in Archaic tomb painting only in somewhat altered form on the rear-wall gable of the Stefani Tomb. The erotic scenes, far less common here than in the contemporary art of Greece, are emphatically life-affirming; they are to be understood as Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Bacchantes, left wall: komos scene, ca. 510/500 .. Right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Jugglers: section of the back wall with aulos player, ca. 520 ..
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Right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Mouse: section of the left wall with winged phallus, ca. 520 .. Below: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Mouse: section of the back wall with little mouse on a branch, ca. 520 ..
clear contrasts to the symbolism of death. The symposium, carousing, and komos scenes, at times almost orgiastic in nature, as in the anteroom of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing and in the Tomb of the Inscriptions, indicate how Dionysian elements had been incorporated into the Etruscan cult of the dead and their notions about the afterlife in the Archaic period. They also appear on architectural terracotta friezes, as in Acquarossa. In the gable painting of the Tomb with Dionysos and the Sileni, which has unfortunately been lost, the wine god himself was presented, bearded and dressed in green, along with dancing sileni and a panther. In Tomb 1999, two naked and bearded sileni with wine flasks are seen dancing on the right-hand wall as part of a komos, next to a couple reclining in a grove on the back wall. In the gable of the entry wall of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing there are also satyrs. Other Dionysian symbols are found as well, for example the winged phallus in the Tomb of the Mouse (del Topolino) or the large ivy-wreathed volute krater in the Tomb of the Lionesses. Such Dionysian imagery, also seen in a few Late Archaic tomb reliefs from Chiusi, could suggest the existence of exoteric Dionysian communities or hetaireiai, which guaranteed immortality to their initiates. The komos, with Dionysian elements of an orgiastic nature, can thus be read in two ways; it hovers somewhere between the worlds of the living and the dead. It was both an impor-
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THE FIRST MAJOR FLOWERING AND THE “IONIC KOINE”
tant component of funeral ceremonies and one of the delights awaiting the deceased among kindred spirits and ancestors in the Elysian Fields. As already mentioned, banqueting scenes take two different forms. Those with revelers seated on the ground are mainly found on gables; banquets in which the participants lie on klines were also only seen in gables at the beginning, but after around 510/500 they usually occupy the back wall. The typologically older drinking bouts on the ground represent eastern Greek influences, even in the participants’ costumes—for example, the reveler’s hood. At first we find only men in these paintings, but beginning at the end of the sixth century women appear as well, an Etruscan peculiarity frequently criticized by the Greeks (see Diodorus Siculus 5.40, where he describes Etruscan banqueting customs, with their many attendant slaves), for these women are Etruscan wives rather than hetairai (courtesans) as in Greece. A number of banquets, as in the Tomb of the Painted Vases from the period around 500 and the Tomb of the Old Man, are deliberately familial in nature, and include the deceased couple’s children. Most carousing scenes appear to be set in a grove, which is indicated by a few small trees. The banqueters are attended by naked cupbearers, serving boys, musicians, or, as in a gable of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, women weaving wreaths. Banqueting scenes present a number of fascinating antiquarian
details regarding the furnishings of the symposium, with klines, footrests, and kylikeia (small tables), mattresses, coverlets, and cushions, also its traditional costumes and vessels—often wreathed (mainly kraters, amphorae, oinochoae, and bowls). Many of them are enlivened by the inclusion of little animals beneath the tables and klines. Among the athletic competitions held in honor of the deceased, we find footraces, long-jumping, discusthrowing, wrestling, boxing, and chariot-racing, all of which were also popular in Greece, where they are mainly depicted on vases. The most spectacular events were chariot races, which according to the literary sources were introduced into Etruria at the behest of the Delphic oracle after the Battle of Alalia and the slaughter of Phocaean prisoners of war. Chariot races are depicted in two Tarquinian tombs from the end of the sixth century and in four Chiusan tombs from the first decades of the fifth century, some including dramatic accidents. It was formerly thought that most of these subjects were to be taken literally, that they represented scenes from everyday Etruscan life, life at court, and traditional funeral celebrations. In recent years, however, scholars have raised the possibility of more complex interpretations that incorporate sociological elements, symbolism specific to the cult of the dead, and borrowings from Greek culture and religion. B. D’Agostino, L. Cerchiai, and M. Torelli have produced the most notable
contributions on this subject. We have to assume that most subjects can, and probably must, be interpreted on several different levels, that they contain allusions to the world of the living as well as to the afterlife. The banqueting scenes, for example, can be thought of both as actual events, important moments from the lives of Etruria’s aristocracy or funeral banquets in honor of the deceased, and as a kind of wishful thinking about the sort of “heroic” existence awaiting them in the afterlife. Needless to say, one must always consider the iconographic context provided by the adjacent scenes, for the subjects depicted on the various walls are interrelated. The prevailing trend in recent years has been to shift the symposium to the afterlife, as it were, and give it a more distinctly transcendental connotation. However one interprets such scenes, one must always bear in mind that these tomb paintings were by no means public showpieces but rather private, more introspective works of a largely religious, eschatological nature that were mainly intended to be enjoyed by the deceased themselves. At most, they might have been seen periodically by their closest relatives. We get some idea of Etruscan burial festivities and rites associated with the cult of the dead indirectly from the Greek historian Polybius, who lived in Rome in the second century .. He describes the corresponding customs among Roman aristocrats (6.53), especially the presence in funeral processions
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Painted Vases, right wall: kylikeion and komos scene (nineteenth-century watercolor by L. Schulz), ca. 510/500 ..
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69
Tarquinia, Tombs of the Augurs, the Jugglers, and
of actors wearing masks (Etruscan Phersu corresponds to the Latin persona = mask) and the display of symbols of office like bundles of rods and axes indicating the rank of the deceased. Also of interest is Suetonius’s later description of the festivities associated with the burial of Emperor Vespasian (Vesp. 19). Plants are more common in Etruscan tomb painting from the Late Archaic period than in the preceding Orientalizing decades, which saw the inclusion of highly stylized botanical elements primarily as decoration. Now small trees, bushes, and occasionally whole groves, also coastal landscapes, are depicted more realistically, indicating that the majority of scenes are taking place out of doors. Trees can be adorned with ribbons and wreaths to emphasize the festive, ritual nature of an occasion. Because many of the plants are still quite stylized, it is not always easy to identify them precisely. Most common are laurels, palms, and grapevines. In addition to determining what plants are depicted, it is also important to recognize their function in the overall context and composition of the picture as well as their possible symbolic meanings. M. Stangl, A.-M. Adam, and most recently I. Zanoni have thoroughly studied this subject. In many cases it is probable that such plants were included not simply to suggest an outdoor setting but also for their funereal and eschatological sig-
the Baron: details of small trees
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nificance. The laurel, for example, was sacred to Apollo, whom the Etruscans are known to have associated closely with the underworld. The cypress was sacred to Hades, the lord of the underworld, the pomegranate to Persephone and— according to a late myth—Dionysos. Palms had various meanings; they could stand for the sun, immortality, glory, and above all victory. The most elaborate depictions or suggestions of landscape are found in the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing and the Tomb of the Hunter in Tarquinia. Inscriptions are relatively rare in Archaic tombs, in contrast to later Etruscan tomb painting from the fourth and third centuries. Still, they are now more common than in the subsequent fifth century. The main examples are from the Tombs of the Bulls, the Augurs, the Inscriptions, the Jugglers, and the Dead Man. Only occasionally is the deceased identified by an inscription, either as a participant at a banquet on his kline or, as in the case of “Arath Spuriana” in the Tomb of the Bulls, in his function as founder or builder of the tomb. Occasionally figures are identified by their roles in komos plays and funeral ceremonies or by their profession or function, and even figures of obviously low social standing (like “Aranth Heracanasa” in the Tomb of the Jugglers) may be identified by name. In other cases the deceased or even the deceased couple may be depicted as participants or
spectators at banquets, komos plays, dances, and games, as in the Tomb of the Jugglers, Tomb 5591, the Cardarelli Tomb, and Tomb of the Bacchantes in Tarquinia and the Tomb of the Monkey in Chiusi. No painters’ signatures have survived, with the possible exception of an inscription in the Tomb of the Jugglers. As yet the figures have nothing of the portrait about them, and nowhere in this period is there a pictorial sequence of ancestors like those found in later Tarquinian tomb painting. Four main workshop groups can be distinguished in the especially numerous painted tombs from the decades between 530 and 490/480. Based on compositional, stylistic, and iconographic similarities, from two to six tombs can be attributed to each of them. G. Camporeale and C. WeberLehmann have made a special study of workshop characteristics. Several workshops apparently painted both tombs with animals in the gables and tombs with figural wall paintings. For example, it is probable that the Tomb of the Lotus Flower (del Fior di Loto), Tomb 3098, and the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing were painted by the same workshop. The Tarantola Tomb and Tomb 5898, as well as the Tombs of the Olympic Games, the Dead Man, and the Inscriptions belong to the same workshop group as the Tomb of the Augurs. Another workshop appears to have decorated the Tombs of the Lionesses and the Jugglers. The Tomb of the Master of the Olympic Games (del Maestro delle Olimpiadi) and Tomb 4780 are attributed to the “Master of the Banqueters” (Maestro dei
Banchettanti), active at the turn from the sixth to the fifth century. The workshop of the “Master of the Bacchantes” (Maestro dei Baccanti) was active late in this period, roughly from 510 to 490/480, and is credited with six tombs, namely the Cardarelli Tomb, the Tombs of the Bacchantes, the Whipping, and the Skull (del Teschio), and Tombs 4255 and 5591. Obvious similarities appear above all in the decoration of the columen with colorful disk designs, in gables painted with fighting animals, false doors of the Doric style on the back wall ornamented with round bronze fittings, seemingly comic figures of boxers on either side of the entrance door, and the omission of a banquet scene in favor of an animated komos circle with dancers and musicians. The painters’ obvious delight in varied movements in all these tombs already suggests the influence of Attic red-figure vase painting—for example, that of Onesimos. Some painted tombs cannot be associated with a particular workshop, because many of them have a distinctly individual character, like the Tomb of the Hunter, which will be discussed later on. In many tombs, moreover, one can distinguish between various hands, some more accurate, others less skillful. Of particular interest in recent years is the problem of how the tomb space relates to architecture and painting. F. Roncalli, for example, sees in Tarquinian tombs like the Tombs of the Bulls, the Jugglers, and the Baron a division into a front space reserved mainly for the living and a back area dedicated to the dead. This division is reflected in the
Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back chamber: detail of the back wall with bird hunter with slingshot, ca. 510 .. Center: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Olympic Games: detail of the back wall with running youth, ca. 510 .. Right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Lionesses: detail of the back wall with blond male dancer, ca. 520 ..
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p. 73 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Augurs: detail of the left wall with escaping masked Phersu, ca. 520 ..
pp. 74–75 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Lotus Flower, back wall: right half of the gable with lion, ca. 520 ..
pp. 76–77 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Mouse, entry wall: detail of the left half of the gable with cupbearer and reveler lounging on a kline, ca. 520 ..
pp. 78–79 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Bulls, back wall of the antechamber: detail of the center picture with scene of Achilles waiting behind a fountain to ambush the Trojan prince Troilus, ca. 530 ..
p. 80 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Augurs, right side of the back
p. 81
wall: male figure identified by an inscription—
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Pulcinella: detail of the left
probably a priest—caught in a gesture of mourning,
wall with a mounted warrior, ca. 510 ..
ca. 520 ..
p. 82
p. 83
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Lionesses: detail of the left
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Lionesses, back wall: detail
wall with a reclining symposiast, lotus-palmette band,
with richly gowned female dancer and lotus-palmette
and wave frieze, ca. 520 ..
band, ca. 520 ..
p. 84 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Jugglers, back wall: detail of a
p. 85
juggling scene with a female dancer balancing a
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Jugglers, right wall: detail with
candelabrum on her head and a youth with disks in
female dancer, ca. 520 ..
front of a basket, ca. 520 ..
pp. 86–87 Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back chamber: detail of the back-wall gable with a banqueting scene, an aristocratic couple in the center surrounded by aulos players and cupbearers, ca. 510 ..
p. 88 Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back chamber: detail of the left wall with water birds, ca. 510 ..
placement of the stone burial couches, and also in the way the painted scenes on the side walls are shifted closer to the back wall. M. Torelli sees a clear distinction between a front space for the living and a back one for the dead in the placement of false doors on the side walls in a number of tombs, for example in the Tomb of the Inscriptions. The subject matter of the wall paintings underscores it as well. In the front space we find games and rituals associated with funeral festivities, while the back space presents allegorical scenes like the journey on horseback into the afterlife or the eternal symposium in the Elysian Fields. In this way the tomb space becomes a kind of “locus medius,” a transition zone between the worlds of the living and the dead. Considered chronologically, Tarquinian tomb painting in the second quarter of the sixth century is at first characterized by a “tectonic phase,” in which only the most important architectural elements—reflections of domestic architecture—are reproduced in painting, in a very simplified manner. Here one thinks mainly the Tomb of the Hut (della Capanna), the Tomb of the Marchese, and Tomb 7120, in which for the first time a narrow false door of the Doric style appears between the two stone benches and even extends up into the gable area. Characteristic of the third and in part even the final quarter of the sixth century are “animalgable” tombs, in which the architectural elements are treated more decoratively, and the sides of the
gable, now strictly separated by a center support, tend to be filled with animals, mostly predatory felines, but occasionally fabulous beasts and sea creatures, pairs of animals in combat, and plants, often in intense abstract colors. The closest parallels in terms of motifs and style are found on contemporary Pontic vases from Vulci—especially those of the Tityos and Amphiaraos Painters, whose characteristics will be discussed later. Typical animal-gable tombs are the Tomb of the Red Lions (dei Leoni Rossi), the Tomb of the Lotus Flower, and Tomb 2098. The last two are distinguished by their distinctly decorative and intense coloring, and G. Camporeale was able to attribute them to the same workshop as that of the “Master of the Bright Colors” (Maestro dei Colori sgargianti). The gables of the Tomb of the Tritons (dei Tritoni) are dominated by sea creatures. The famous Tomb of the Bulls, which will be discussed separately, belongs to the animal-gable type but presents the innovation of a central figural picture. Also representative of the type are the Labrouste Tomb, the Tomb of the Lions (dei Leoni), the Tomb of the Jade Lions (dei Leoni di Giada), the Tomb of the Sea (del Mare), the Tomb with Doors and Cats (con Porte e Felini), and the Stefani Tomb—with the despotes theron between birds and lions in the back-wall gable— and Tombs 356, 939, 1646, 3010, 3011, and 3986. All these typical animalgable tombs can likely be attributed to only a few workshops, like that of the “Master of the Red
Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Bacchantes; detail of the back wall with pair of dancers (nineteenthcentury lucido by Carlo Ruspi), ca. 510/500 .. Right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Bacchantes, back wall: komast and pair of dancers, and groups of fighting animals in the gable, ca. 510/500 ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb of the Red Lions, back-wall gable: two lions flanking the center gable support, ca. 530 ..
90
Lions” (Maestro dei Leoni Rossi). The predatory beasts and sea creatures in particular must have been chosen as much for their apotropaic or symbolic significance as for their decorative qualities; the latter, for example, act as attendants on the deceased’s journey across the sea into the afterlife. Around 530 narrative scenes, most of them depicting drinking bouts, also begin to appear in gables, which are now generally lacking a center support. Typical of this group are the Tarantola Tomb, Tombs 4780 and 5039, and above all the Tomb of the Frontoncino, whose back-wall gable was irreparably destroyed by tomb robbers in 1971. In strong colors (including blue) clearly set apart from each other, this latter tomb presented an allmale drinking bout on the ground of the Ionian type, in which the naked cupbearer on the left was probably a quote from Attic vase painting. The oldest banqueting scene with klines in Tarquinian tomb painting is found in the Bartoccini Tomb from around 530/520. Such banquets are documented in Etruria beginning in the first quarter of the sixth century, namely on painted terracotta frieze plaques from the younger aristocratic palace complex at Murlo-Poggio Civitate, south of Siena. The Bartoccini Tomb—the largest Tarquinian tomb from the Archaic period—has four chambers in a cruciform arrangement, and the smallfigured, dark-ground scene in question fills the back-wall gable of the main center chamber. An
THE FIRST MAJOR FLOWERING AND THE “IONIC KOINE”
unusual feature of this typical aristocratic banqueting scene is the obvious distinction drawn between men in Ionian dress lounging on klines (of the Greek type with sawed leg shapes) and the women seated in armchairs next to them on the right. This motif derives from eastern Greece, seen there mainly in reliefs of funeral banquets, but it is one that also appears several decades later on grave steles from Fiesole and in the Tarquinian Tomb 808 from the turn from the fifth to the fourth century. The gables in the other chambers are decorated with sea creatures, lions and panthers, and predatory animals attacking ruminants. There is a distinctly Ionian element in the Bartoccini Tomb, but one may not necessarily conclude that this singular tomb was commissioned by an Ionian Greek. The ceiling of the main chamber is painted with a colorful checkerboard textile design, as are the doorframes. The Tomb of the Mouse, from the period around 520, is distinguished by its comic features, some of them rather vulgar. Its separated gable panels are filled with banqueting and komos scenes as well as hippocampi and predatory cats. Around the walls we find for the first time a continuous grove of small trees—populated by birds but not yet figures— which is only interrupted on the back wall by a false door of the Doric style. The tomb is named after the miniature depiction of a small mouse seated on a branch; the winged phallus on the left
Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Mouse, back wall: false door flanked by small trees, gable support flanked by a lion and a reclining reveler, ca. 520 .. Below: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Bulls, back wall of the antechamber: mythological scene with Achilles and Troilus and erotic scenes with bulls, ca. 530 ..
wall derives from Dionysian symbolism in the Etruscan cult of the dead. The Tomb of the Bulls, from the period around 540/530, is a three-chamber tomb with a ground plan often encountered in contemporary Caeretan tomb architecture. In type it still essentially belongs to the animal-gable group; however, it includes the seminal innovation of a large picture centered on the back wall of its roomy antechamber. In it we see Achilles killing the Trojan prince Troilus next to an altar-like well with lion waterspouts, amid a landscape with lush vegetation. This is one of the very few depictions of mythological subjects in Archaic Etruscan tomb painting, and surely the best known. The subject often appears in contemporary vase painting, on Pontic vases, for example. According to E. Simon, the event is taking place in the laurel grove of Apollo Thymbraios, which could be considered an allusion to the Etruscans’ worship of Apollo as an underworld deity. The scene takes on the character of a ritual sacrifice, due to the presence of the altar and Achilles’ use of a machaira (curved blade), which emphasizes the warrior’s aretè (valor). The scene may also contain a hidden allusion to the sacrifice of Liparian prisoners of war to Apollo in the sixth
century, as reported by Theodotus. The quality of the painting is not especially distinguished, with its limited palette, its inaccurate proportions in spots, and its rather draftsmanly style. A. Giuliano has shown that the workshop has much in common with eastern Greek vase painting, especially Pontic vase painting (the Paris Painter and his circle). An inscription identifies an “Arath Spuriana” as the owner of the tomb; he may have come from the same family as the “Araz Silqetenas Spurianas” in the well-known inscription on a small ivory lion from the Sant’Omobono shrine consecrated to Fortuna and Mater Matuta on the Forum Boarium in Rome. The depiction in the gable of the back wall is generally related to the myth of Bellerophon and the Chimaera, a heroic subject of Anatolian origin beloved by Etruscan princes. C. WeberLehmann prefers to see the bowman in Scythian clothing as a Trojan. In the gable of the entry wall a hippocampus, its rider, and cliffs apparently allude to the journey across the sea into the afterlife. Among the other gable motifs are bulls, lions, panthers, ibex, ducks, a sphinx, and plants. The famous small ribald frieze showing a heterosexual couple regarded by a complacent bull and a homosexual couple with an enraged one (with an Acheloos
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91
head) is one of the most disputed works in Etruscan tomb painting, and has often been interpreted in an apotropaic sense. In the Tomb of the Bulls we thus find a combination of various elements and concepts such as war, aretè, love, sacrifice, and death. The first Tarquinian tombs with walls completely painted with figures appear around 530/520, a time when traditional animal-gable tombs were still being created as well. One of the first to present large-format paintings—true megalography— is the famous Tomb of the Augurs, whose high-quality and expressive wall frescoes with astonishingly monumental and extremely balanced compositions have led many archaeologists to attribute them to an immigrant Ionian master, perhaps a member of the workshop that produced the
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Caeretan hydriae, which have many similarities to the Augurs’ Tomb. It is possible that the Tombs of the Olympic Games, the Dead Man, and the Inscriptions were created by the same workshop. The style of the paintings is definitely influenced by Ionian, especially Phocaean painting, though the subject matter is Etruscan. Noteworthy are the number of inscriptions, unusual for the Archaic period, and the complete absence of female figures. In the back-wall gable, an ibex is being attacked by a lion on one side and a panther on the other, a motif unique in Etruscan tomb painting. The back wall itself is dominated by a beautifully executed false door in the Doric style flanked by two “augurs,” who with their gestures of mourning radiate a sacred dignity, standing between small trees. Inscriptions identify them as “tanasar” and
“apastansar,” apparently priests in the ancestral cult. To the left of the door, a bird has taken flight. The other scenes, like the wrestling match with a referee and the bloody Phersu rite on the right wall, the boxing match to musical accompaniment on the left wall, and the acrobats on the entry wall are clearly to be interpreted as part of the funeral ceremonies in honor of the tomb’s aristocratic owner. The deceased is probably the wildly gesticulating figure on the right wall, identified by his purple-red garment (toga purpurea); behind him is a small servant figure bearing the folding chair (the later Roman sella curulis) that identifies the dead man as a high official in the magistracy. Like the deceased, the other aristocratic gentleman wears a purple-edged toga, and with his curved staff he is identified as “tevarath,” probably in his function as
referee or the man responsible for the games. Another small servant or slave wearing a cap (cucullus) is seen to be asleep, crouching on the ground. Several of the figures wear the beakshaped shoes, called calcei repandi, that were very popular in this period. The wrestlers, with three bronze lebetes as prizes and two birds flying above, could be slaves. The seemingly gruesome Phersu rite, which is depicted only four times in Tarquinian tomb paintings and on a single Etruscan black-figured vase, could allude to the killing of prisoners of war, like the slaughter in Cerveteri of Phocaean prisoners of war after the sea-battle of Alalia. A number of experts choose to see in this bloody ritual a precursor of the later Roman gladiatorial games. The Phersu on the right wall, wearing a short jerkin and identified by an
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Augurs, right wall: wrestlers above bronze lebetes, flanked by high-ranking men with servants and the bloody Phersus rite, ca. 520 ..
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inscription and a bearded mask, is siccing a bloodthirsty, leashed Molosser dog on an already wounded man in a loincloth with a sack over his head, who has only a cudgel with which to defend himself. A second, similarly masked Phersu on the left wall is running away, apparently defeated. In the Tomb of the Pulcinella and the much later Tomb of the Cock (del Gallo), the Phersu, again distinguished by a mask, appears only as a dancer, with none of the gruesome context. The Tomb of the Lionesses, possibly executed by the same painting workshop as the Tomb of the Jugglers, is another of the earliest Tarquinian chamber tombs with large-format scenes. It is notable for its pavilion- or tentlike character, suggested by the thin wood columns with richly patterned Etruscan capitals. The center of the back wall is dominated by a large volute krater—probably meant to look like bronze (like the famous krater from Vix in eastern France)—adorned with ivy and flanked by two musicians. An elegantly dressed female dancer with tutulus (pointed cap) and castanets—perhaps the deceased—appears on the left, and a pair of young dancers on the right; they are striking because of their contrasting colors. The young woman, wearing an almost transparent garment, has light skin and black hair, and is making an apotropaic hand gesture; the naked male is Tarquinia, Tomb of the Lionesses, back wall: base of the wall with wave frieze, lotus-palmette band, dancers and musicians, and lionesses flanking the gable support, ca. 520 ..
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dark-skinned, with blond hair, and holds an oinochoe in his left hand. Centered directly below the large krater—doubtless intentionally—is a niche for a cremation burial. On the two side walls are large-format banqueting scenes on the ground, a men-only drinking bout in the Ionian manner. Some of the reclining men, who are dressed in contrasting blue and green garments—among them possibly the deceased owner of the tomb—hold eggs in their hands as symbols of life. The gable of the back wall is filled with the eponymous lionesses with swollen teats. The sloping ceiling is painted in a red-and-white checkerboard pattern, and the bottom of the walls is adorned with a dark frieze of waves with leaping dolphins and birds, possibly suggesting the journey across the sea into the afterlife. Above it there is a colorful lotus-palmette frieze of the eastern Greek type, similar to those found on Clazomenaean sarcophagi. Ionian influences clearly predominate; the painter of this outstanding Tarquinian tomb could have been an émigré Ionian himself. The Tomb of the Jugglers dates from the same time. Its animated, colorful paintings again show strong Ionian—mainly Phocaean— influences, as confirmed by contemporary vase painting on Caeretan hydriae. The painter of this tomb employed a few highly original ideas, some of
them almost scurrilous. On the back wall are a group of young men with mourning gestures, an aulos player, a graceful and richly adorned ballerina balancing a candelabrum on her head, and an acrobat with disks and baskets. A high-ranking, older aristocratic gentleman wearing a purple toga—probably the deceased tomb owner himself—is seated on a folding chair (sella curulis), watching the animated scene with interest. On the right wall we find a sort of country dance, a row of large-format, colorfully dressed and richly adorned female dancers with lovely Ionian profiles and vivid gestures, with a musician playing a syrinx, or panpipes, in the center. On the left wall an old man with a gnarled walking stick is accompanied by a youth, and another young man with a curved staff runs ahead—perhaps a symbolic allusion to the journey into the afterlife. Another man, who is relieving himself beneath a palm tree filled with birds, is identified as “Aranth Heracanasa,” that is “Aranth, servant of Heracanas.” Like the twohumped camel (or two clowns costumed as one) on the entry wall—Bactrian camels were used in battle by the Persians in the Near East—this vulgar motif, depicted with utmost realism, is unique in Etruscan tomb painting. Most scholars interpret it as an apotropaic gesture or mockery of death. A number of them, like G. Colonna and M. Torelli,
choose to see this figure, a man of obviously inferior rank, as the painter of the tomb, which would make this the only Etruscan painter’s signature. The Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, which consists of two chambers, one behind the other, is unquestionably one of the most beautiful and original of the Tarquinian tombs from the Late Archaic period, around 520/10. The wall frescoes in the antechamber, which are less frequently discussed and illustrated, present a number of almost naked, grotesquely inflated figures performing what appears to be a ritual dance of a Dionysian character in a grove (E. Simon takes it to be a laurel grove) richly decorated with ribbons, wreaths, mirrors, and cistae. The reclining satyrs with drinking horns (rhytoi) on the gable of the entry wall are another indication of the importance of Dionysian elements, adopted in the sixth century, probably from Attica, in the Etruscans’ religion and cult of the dead. On the back-wall gable is a scene depicting a return from the hunt, with hunters, dogs, and abundant quarry in an almost tropical landscape with lush vegetation. The scene attests to the tomb owner’s virtus. Like the hunt, the banquet, here found on the gable of the back wall in the main chamber, served Etruscan aristocrats as a status symbol. A noble, richly adorned reclining couple, apparently the husband and wife buried in the
Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Jugglers, back wall: base level with wave frieze, jugglers, and predatory cats flanking the gable support, ca. 520 .. Right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Jugglers: section of the right wall with female dancer, ca. 520 ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, antechamber: left wall and right wall with komos in a decorated grove (nineteenth-century watercolor by G. Mariani), ca. 510 .. Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, antechamber: section of the left wall with dancer in a decorated grove, ca. 510 ..
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tomb, are surrounded by two young women weaving wreaths, possibly their daughters, two naked cupbearers, an aulos player, drinking vessels, wreaths, and birds. This couple, shown in profile in the Ionian manner, is reminiscent of the two famous, roughly contemporary husband-and-wife sarcophagi in terracotta from Cerveteri. The tomb’s best-known and most impressive paintings are the seascapes with cliffs, boats (with apotropaic eyes), fishermen with harpoons and nets, hunters with slings, water birds, and leaping dolphins on the walls of the main chamber. Their almost miniaturist style with loving details and landscape elements recalls that of the so-called Ionian Little Masters of Late Archaic Samos vase painting. Here nature clearly prevails over the figural elements and blends in with them. The motif of the diver, probably to be understood in the eschatological sense as a leap from this world into the next, recurs roughly thirty years later in the well-known Tomb of the Diver (del Tuffatore) in Poseidonia/Paestum, and is also found in the form of a Late Archaic Etruscan
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bronze statuette from Perugia. The seascapes of this tomb surely have multiple meanings. They reflect the coastal landscape of Tarquinia and show typical activities of the Etruscan aristocracy like hunting and fishing, but at the same time they allude to the long journey across the sea into the afterlife and the Elysian Fields. As a result, the banquet in the tympanum takes on an otherworldly, heroic dimension. In the back wall there is a niche for a cremation burial. The Tomb of the Baron, from the period around 510 and discovered in 1827, was named after its codiscoverer Baron Kestner. It is extremely important, and its high-quality wall paintings have been singled out in the archaeological literature time and again, though it has been interpreted in very different ways. Particularly striking are the symmetry of the figural scenes on the back wall and two side walls and the harmonious distribution of figures and muted colors. The gray background (sovradipintura grigiastra), unique in Etruscan wall painting, makes the figures appear to
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Baron, left wall: center section with an aristocratic woman between two youths with horses (original and nineteenthcentury lucido by Carlo Ruspi), ca. 510 ..
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be silhouetted. There are ten figures in all, possibly representing only five people. The horsemen or grooms that appear on all three walls could be the Dioscuri, assimilated from Greek mythology and known as psychopompoi, guides who lead the dead into the afterlife. They are identified in an Etruscan inscription on a famous Oltos kylix from Tarquinia. The richly dressed, veiled woman in the center of both the back wall and the left wall is probably the deceased. In the center of the back wall the noble, elegant woman wearing a tutulus is either being welcomed or departing. Some have taken her to be a priestess, heroine, or even a goddess (E. Simon argues for Semele). An older, dark-haired, bearded man is offering her a large drinking cup, and a blond youth is playing a double flute. All three wear the typical calcei repandi. In style the Tomb of the Baron is strongly influenced by the painting of northern Ionia and recalls depictions on Clazomenaean sarcophagi and on the
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Ricci Hydria from Cerveteri, which is why some have suspected that this outstanding Tarquinian tomb may even have been painted by an immigrant Ionian, probably of Clazomenaean origin. The Tomb of the Olympic Games, from the period around 510, may perhaps be attributed to the same workshop as the Tombs of the Augurs, the Inscriptions, and the Dead Man. Such agonistic disciplines of Greek origin as boxing, foot-racing, the long jump, discus-throwing, and chariot-racing are presented, the latter for the first time in Etruscan tomb painting and complete with a dramatic accident in the foreground. The scene on the back wall is more difficult to interpret. Some choose to see in it a Greek myth, perhaps the Judgment of Paris, which was very popular in Etruscan Archaic art. In that case the youthful, naked Paris to the right of the false door would appear to be rushing off with the victor Aphrodite in the guise of a noble Etruscan woman. In the
gable, relaxed carousers flank the curved center support. On the right wall, as in the Tomb of the Augurs, the gruesome Phersu rite is depicted with the masked Phersu wearing a checkerboardpatterned doublet. The paintings, mainly limited to reds and blues, are Ionian-Phocaean in style and are distinguished by their vitality and even certain humorous features, but in terms of quality they do not match those of the Tomb of the Augurs. The Tomb of the Master of the Olympic Games, much more poorly preserved and of lesser quality, presents the so-called kalpe, described by Pausanias, in which riders leap down from their horses and race to a finish line on foot, still holding the reins. A Late Archaic group of tombs from the period around 500, notably the Cardarelli Tomb, and the Tombs of the Whipping, the Skull, and the Kithara Player—probably the Tomb of the Bacchantes, and Tombs 4255, 4260, and 5591 as well—was probably painted by the same
Tarquinian workshop. Among the main features of these tombs are comic, paunchy boxers on either side of the entrance. Here they are not related to other athletic competitions, so they must be accounted for some other way. The other wall paintings in this group of tombs do not show actual banquets but rather Dionysian komos scenes—some with the kottabos game adopted from Greece—and false doors, doubtless as symbolic passages from this life into the next or as representations of the deceased “ex absentia” (L. Cerchiai). The scenes of animals and fights between animals in the gables symbolize death as well, but can also be associated with the sphere of Dionysos and Aphrodite. Cerchiai, for example, underscores the connections between hunting and Eros and between the boxers and the Dionysian komos. He finds figures comparable to the boxers on Chiusan cippus reliefs and on Attic and Etruscan black-figure vases (the Micali Painter).
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Master of the Olympic Games, back-wall gable: detail of the fighting animals to the right of the gable support, ca. 500 .. Below: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Olympic Games, right wall: section with three runners, a jumper, and a discus thrower, ca. 510 ..
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Tarquinia, Cardarelli Tomb, back wall: false door flanked by a kithara player and an aulos player, with groups of fighting animals in the gable, ca. 510/500 ..
Below: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Whipping, entry wall: nude boxer to the left of the door, ca. 490 .. Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Dead Man, left wall: detail with prothesis scene (original and nineteenth-century lucido by Carlo Ruspi), ca. 510 ..
On the left wall of the Cardarelli Tomb—named after the local Tarquinian poet Vincenzo Cardarelli—a noblewoman, depicted as a dancer with tutulus and calcei repandi, the contours of her body visible beneath her transparent gown, probably represents the deceased. She is accompanied by servants holding attributes symbolic of status (a fan) and women (a mirror). In the Tomb of the Whipping, komos figures, dancers, and musicians alternate with erotic groupings that relate to the Dionysian sphere, to be sure, but were also certainly meant to be apotropaic and life-affirming. In one of the two groups on the right wall, a woman is being subjected to what appears to be a ritual flogging, which recalls the fertility rites of the feast of Lupercalia in Rome. In style and subject matter these groupings are reminiscent of depictions on early Attic red-figure cups. The actual prothesis, or entombment of the deceased, frequently depicted in Greece since the Geometric period, especially in vase painting, is documented only twice in Etruscan tomb painting in Tarquinia, namely in the Tomb of the Dead Man and the Tomb of the Dying from the closing sixth century. It is presented more often in Chiusan urn and cippus reliefs. In the two Tarquinian tombs,
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the burial is depicted on one of the side walls; the female corpse has been placed on the couch and is surrounded by family members with gestures of mourning, some of them identified by name. In fourth-century Lucanian tomb painting at Paestum, such burial scenes—some beneath baldachins—are exclusively reserved for tombs of women; men were there celebrated with a funus triumphalis, a procession of horsemen and warriors. Other tombs from the turn from the sixth to fifth century worthy of mention are the Tomb of the Old Man (with a large-format banquet on klines on the back wall), the Tomb of the Bronze Door (della Porta di Bronzi), the Tomb of the Pyrrhicist (dei Pirrichisti, with nude armed dancers), the Tomb of the Pulcinella (with athletic and musical scenes, including the Phersu as a dancer), the Tomb of the Inscriptions, and the Tomb of the Painted Vases (with a familial banquet on klines, komos players, and dancers). Of greatest interest are the Ionian-style paintings in the Tomb of the Inscriptions, from the period around 520. Sadly, they are in a very poor state of preservation and now no longer accessible, so that we must rely on the valuable facsimiles by Carlo Ruspi. They feature dense crowds of large-format figures and
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Right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Inscriptions, left portion of the right wall: circle of komasts with figures identified in inscriptions (nineteenthcentury lucido by Carlo Ruspi), ca. 520 .. Bottom: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Hunter: detail of the left wall with animal frieze imitating textiles, ca. 510/500 ..
three false doors. In the front area of the chamber are depictions of athletes, musicians, and offerings in honor of the deceased, in the rear a procession of horsemen and a merry komos scene. According to M. Torelli, the scenes at the back half of the chamber are set in the afterlife. Unique in Archaic tomb painting are the large number of inscriptions that name members of various families, possibly members of a hetaireia. In terms of style, the animated figures can be compared with depictions on Caeretan hydriae and Campana-style dinoi of a northern Ionian stamp. The Tomb of the Hunter, also called the Tomb of the Hunting Pavilion (del Padiglione di Caccia), from the period around 510/500, exhibits great originality; it is not attributed to any specific
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workshop. Its structure clearly imitates that of a splendid hunting tent, with slender wooden poles, a fabric ceiling decorated with a colorful checkerboard design, and transparent, gauzelike curtains. It is thus unique in Etruscan tomb painting. Of particular interest are the dark-ground frieze of a hunt, painted in imitation of patchwork fabric and incorporating almost ninety figures—a deliberately old-fashioned element ultimately rooted in the Orientalizing phase and presented in abstract colors—and the way landscape is suggested with horizon lines, small trees adorned with festoons, and a deer grazing behind the transparent, delicately patterned curtains, whose wavy hemlines suggest that they are swaying in the wind. This is a distinctly innovative feature that expands the rela-
tively small chamber in an almost illusionistic manner. Hung against the walls are wreaths, garlands, hunting caps, and slain quarry. The idea of the hunt, a typical indication of aristocratic status, governed the very structure as well as the imagery of this unusual tomb, which presents both oldfashioned and innovative features. A highly important and innovative tomb from the waning Archaic period around 490/480 is the Tomb of the Bigas, which was recently the subject of a more careful study by R. Benassai. Its paintings have been detached and are now on display in Tarquinia’s Museo Archeologico. Ruspi’s facsimiles from the 1830s, in the archive of the
German Archaeological Institute in Rome, give us a good idea of many of their details, which have either been lost or are only barely visible. They are divided into two friezes, a smaller light-ground one above and a larger red-ground one below. In this they recall the transition phase in Attic vase painting from black-figure to red-figure technique. In the main frieze—for the first time in Tarquinian tomb painting—we see a banquet with three couples reclining on couches (back wall) and dancers and musicians (on the side walls) regularly positioned between trees—just as in the Tomb of the Kithara Player, which no longer survives. This iconography and arrangement would be repeated
in numerous tomb paintings from the following decades. The back-wall gable is filled with a large krater with reclining symposiasts. The more innovative but smaller, multifigure frieze is of greater interest. It depicts various disciplines practiced in the Greek palaestra (athletic grounds), with athletes, trainers, judges, horses, bigas, and warriors in an armed dance. There is also a scene of worship before a cult image, possibly Hermes Enagonios as patron of the palaestra rites, and lively spectators seated on bleachers. Among these are figures seen from the back and in three-quarter view rendered with foreshortening. Of interest sociologically are the servants or slaves shown lounging beneath the bleachers, some in indecent poses. In subject matter and style the Tomb of the Bigas, though still clearly in the Late Archaic tradition, betrays influences of early Attic red-figure vase painting— like that of such masters as Euphronios,
Euthymides, Epiktetos, Phintias, and Nikoxenos Painter—from the turn from the sixth to the fifth century. A number of archaeologists choose to believe that the outstanding painter of this tomb was a Greek metic. A small Late Archaic chest-shaped urn with animals’ feet from Tarquinia that was documented in watercolors by Gregorio Mariani in the late nineteenth century is altogether unique. Both in style and subject matter, its painted decoration compares favorably with contemporary Tarquinian tomb painting. It is especially reminiscent of the Tomb of the Baron from the closing sixth century. On the long side are two naked youths flanking a horse and laurel trees or rosettes; each of the narrow ends has a painting of a black horse and botanical ornaments in the gable. A group of a dozen or so Late and SubArchaic tomb paintings in Chiusi, dating from the
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Bigas, back wall: section of the small frieze with athletes and the large frieze with a banqueting scene (original and nineteenthcentury lucido by Carlo Ruspi), ca. 490 ..
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p. 105 Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, left wall of the back chamber: detail of the seascape with rocks and diver, ca. 510 ..
pp. 106–7 Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back wall of the back chamber: detail of the seascape with boat, fishermen, and water birds, ca. 510 ..
pp. 108–9 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Olympic Games: section of the right wall with discus thrower, ca. 610 ..
pp. 110–11 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Olympic Games: section of the right wall with two runners in a footrace, ca. 510 ..
p. 112 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Olympic Games: section of the right wall with masked Phersu, ca. 510 ..
p. 113 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Hunter: section of the back wall with animal frieze in imitation of textiles and strung-up kill from a hunt, ca. 510/500 ..
pp. 114–15 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Whipping, right portion of the right wall: erotic scene with two men caning a woman, ca. 490 ..
p. 117 p. 116
Chiusi, Tomb of the Casuccini Hill, main chamber:
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Whipping, entry wall: boxers
section of the back wall with referee between
to the left of the door, ca. 490 ..
competing athletes, second quarter of the fifth century ..
pp. 118–19 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Bigas, right wall: section of the large red-ground frieze with a female aulos player and a male dancer in a grove of small trees, ca. 490 ..
p. 120 Chiusi, Tomb of the Monkey, back wall of the main chamber: right section of the frieze with boy, spear thrower, and boxer, ca. 480 ..
first decades of the fifth century, also reflects a strong Tarquinian influence both in style and iconography. It is possible that relatively provincial Chiusan tomb painting, coming somewhat later, developed largely because workshops from Tarquinia had resettled there. In any case, it did not flourish for long. Its familiar subjects—banquets, music, dancing, and athletic competitions, including chariot races—are clearly derived from Tarqinian tomb painting (one thinks of the Tombs of the Jugglers, the Olympic Games, and the Bigas, and the Cardarelli Tomb) and are also found in contemporary Chiusan cippus (inscribed markers) and urn reliefs. Unfortunately, most of the Chiusan tomb paintings, which were presented in a valuable monograph by R. Bianchi Bandinelli in 1925, no longer survive, so that our knowledge of them is
often based on older drawings and watercolors. Only the Tomb of the Monkey, the Tomb of the Casuccini Hill, and the Tomb of the Lion (del Leone) still have wall frescoes, some of them recently restored. These are multichamber tombs, some with a cruciform ground plan. Their painted coffered ceilings, apparently in imitation of wooden models, are unique to Chiusi. The bestknown of them is the Tomb of the Monkey, a fourchamber tomb from the period around 480 that takes its name from the depiction of a small ape crouching in a bush, an exotic curiosity possibly derived from Phoenician art. The veiled noblewoman seated beneath an umbrella is probably the deceased, who is attending—like the tomb owner seated on a folding chair in Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Jugglers—the funeral games taking place in her
Chiusi, Tomb of the Monkey, back wall of the main chamber: left-hand portion of the frieze with athletic games, referee, and small ape crouched in a shrub (original and nineteenth-century watercolor by G. Angelelli), ca. 480 ..
Left: Chiusi, Tomb of the Monkey, main chamber: right wall with armed dancer and scene with horsemen, ca. 480 .. Right: Chiusi, Tomb of the Monkey, back chamber: painted coffered ceiling with Sirens, ca. 480 ..
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Left: Chiusi, Tomb of the Casuccini Hill, right wall of the main chamber: biga and cupbearers, second quarter of the fifth century .. Right: Chiusi, Tomb of the Casuccini Hill, back wall of the main chamber: detail with female dancer, aulos player, and athlete, second quarter of the fifth century ..
honor, complete with musicians, athletes, and acrobatics. Two boxers recall the pugilists in Tarquinian tombs, such as those on the entry wall of the Cardarelli Tomb. The ceiling coffers include paintings of a Gorgoneion and winged Sirens. In the somewhat later Tomb of the Casuccini Hill, the banquet scenes, dancers and musicians, athletic contests, armed warriors’ dance, and chariot races are clearly in the Tarquinian tradition, though obviously not of the same high quality. Of the tombs that have not survived, the Tomb of the Hill of the Moro (Tomba di Poggio al Moro) is particularly outstanding. Its paintings presented various athletic disciplines and a spectacular chariot-racing accident, much as in the Tomb of the Olympic Games in Tarquinia. Others worthy of mention are the Tomb of the Hunt (della Caccia, with a hare hunt), the Montollo Tomb (with athletic contests, games, and dancing scenes), the Tomb of Orpheus and Euridice (di Orfeo ed Euridice, with a banquet and circle dancers), the Paccianesi Tomb, the Paolozzi Tomb (with riding competitions), the Tomb of Poggio Gaiella, and the Tomb of the Well at Poggio Renzo (del Pozzo a Poggio Renzo, with an animal gable). A chamber tomb (Tomb 13) with fragments of wall painting that was discovered in the late 1990s in the Palazzina necropolis near Sarteano and
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published by A. Rastrelli can also be included in this Late Archaic Chiusan group. Judging from its grave goods, it was used from the end of the sixth century until the second half of the fourth century. In one of its five loculi for cremation burials is a dark-red profile head of a bearded man, not especially high-quality, with distinctly Ionian, Late Archaic features. This loculus, framed by a Doric style door, was probably reserved for the tomb’s main occupant. There are also fragments of a painting of four horses, perhaps a quadriga. The paintings in this Sarteano tomb are somewhat older than most of the Chiusan tombs with wall paintings. Painted clay plaques, called pinakes, most of them discovered in Cerveteri, both in the city area and the necropolises, are important for the history of Archaic Etruscan painting. They probably correspond to the Greek leukomata, plastered and painted panels of wood or clay. The various sites where they have been found clearly indicate that such pinakes, originally mounted in rows, adorned not only the walls of chamber tombs but also temples (as in Veii and Falerii Veteres as well), aristocratic houses, and possibly public buildings. Pliny refers to this in his Natural History (35.17–18), though he only specifically mentions Caere and cities in Latium. Apparently in many instances the
artists were both plastae and pictores, or sculptors and painters, and between 570 and 500 they also produced, especially in Cerveteri, numerous polychrome architectural terracottas. This was certainly true of the two artists Damophilos and Gorgasos, probably from Magna Graecia, whose activity in the temple of the Aventine triad Ceres, Liber, and Libera is attested in Rome in 484, for they were designated “plastae laudatissimi…iidem pictores.” One must remember that at this same time in Athens the famous potter and vase painter Exekias was producing pinakes for use in tombs in the Kerameikos cemetery. The best study on these pinakes, which first appear around 570 and end with the sixth century, is F. Roncalli’s Le lastre dipinte da Cerveteri (1965). The most important examples are now found mainly in London (British Museum), Paris (Louvre), Berlin (Pergamonmuseum), Rome (Museo di Villa Giulia), and Cerveteri (Museo Archeologico). Some examples are of uncertain provenance, and possibly forgeries, such as the one below from an American private collection. Several groups can be distinguished chronologically and by workshop. Their subject matter, probably presented in continuous friezes composed of multiple panels, is often mythological, but not always easy to interpret. The mythical Greek heroes of royal or semi-divine stature depicted on them, like Perseus,
Paris, and Herakles—the last-named on polychrome terracotta frieze panels from Acquarossa— were certainly seen as role models by Etruria’s princes. Among the older series are the “Gorgon” and “Boccanera” plaques, which reveal mainly Corinthian and Ionian-Chios influences; outstanding among the younger series are the “Campana” plaques. In 1940 a group of clay plaques, some of them fragmentary, was discovered within the precincts of ancient Cerveteri. They had apparently decorated a building of a nonsepulchral nature. Originally roughly 1.40 meters tall and 54–56 centimeters wide, they are relatively heavy, and in their original installation they must have stood on the floor. Their paintings are executed in simple white and black on a dark-red ground, over preliminary incising. The group takes its name from its main image of the Gorgons and Perseus. Its coloring and iconography recall Corinthian and EtruscoCorinthian ceramics of the Polychrome style. Five painted plaques, now preserved in the British Museum and known as the Boccanera plaques, were discovered in 1874 in a small chamber tomb in the Banditaccia necropolis. They present a frieze in palisade form across the bottom with red and white vertical stripes, a main figural frieze, and a narrow upper frieze of a three-strand braid. They depict two opposing sphinxes plus two male and
American private collection: fragment of a painted Caeretan clay plaque from the second half of the sixth century ..
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seven female figures whose identification is disputed. They could represent a funeral procession, a scene from the cult of the dead, or a mythological scene such as the Judgment of Paris. The two men, on the left, are characterized as priests, probably a haruspex and an augur. Some of the women are carrying pomegranate branches; two on the right are presenting a pyxis and two alabastrons to a higher-ranking female figure, possibly a goddess. These plaques from the second quarter of the sixth century represent an idiom similar to that of the terracotta frieze of the younger palace at Murlo. The Campana plaques are of a later date, namely the second quarter of the sixth century. They were discovered in a chamber tomb in the Banditaccia necropolis by Marchese G. P. Campana in 1845, and are now in the Louvre in Paris. They are topped by a projecting frieze with a tongue design. Certain structural details suggest that these plaques had adorned some other space, perhaps even the dwelling of the deceased, before they found a second and final home in the tomb. They present a row of men approaching an altar on which a fire is burning and behind which a small column supports a large lebes. Approaching from the other side are two men: the first is bearded and carries a bow and arrow, the second has wings and carries a woman in his arms. Perhaps this is some mythological scene such as the sacrifice of either Iphigenia, under the direction of Apollo, or Polyxena. Or it could be that a winged demon is accompanying a dead woman into the underworld. In addition, there are two elderly male worthies seated on folding chairs, one of them holding a scepter onto which a small winged female figure is about to alight. The style is now distinctly Ionian and can be associated with the Master of the Caeretan Hydriae and his workshop. Another small group of painted plaques was excavated by R. Mengarelli in the tomb under Tumulus X in the section called “of the Painted Tiles” (della tegola dipinta) of the Banditaccia necropolis, and yet another discovered in 1963 in the Quartaccio area at Ceri. There, as in temple architecture, a meander frieze with birds and rosettes appears at the top, and on the main frieze a warrior with helmet, lance, and cardiophylax (breastplate). Another group consisting of a large number of painted-clay plaque fragments and various architectural terracottas came to light in the midnineteenth century near the Roman theater in
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Cerveteri; the majority of them are now in Berlin. They present Ionian stylistic features and are directly associated with the Caeretan Hydriae workshop, especially the plaque with a fragmentary welcoming or departure scene with a man and a woman and birds soaring above. Fragmentary painted plaques with depictions of warriors have also been discovered in the area of Cerveteri’s Hera shrine. The group of painted plaques from the precinct of Veii’s Portonaccio temple also had a sacred function. Possibly arranged in several rows, one above the other, these are decorated with a slightly raised palmette frieze and in the main section with battle scenes and landscapes that already reveal Attic influences. Of course vase painting from the Archaic period also provides us with a number of clues about the history of Etruscan painting in this vitally important and fertile epoch. It is necessary to distinguish three kinds of painted vases: vases imported from the Greek world, vases produced by Greek potters and vase painters who had immigrated to Etruria, and vessels produced by the Etruscans themselves. Vases in the black-figure technique were imported into Etruria in the sixth century, at first into the Etruscan coastal centers, but were later traded into inland Etruria, from Corinth, Laconia (Sparta), the Chalcidic centers (Euboea and southern Italy), from the Ionian east, including various islands such as Samos and Chios, and especially from Athens. Beginning in the midsixth century, imports of vases from Attica clearly dominated the Etruscan market. Among these are numerous examples of outstanding quality from the hands of famous potters and vase painters, some of whose names we know from signatures. In Etruria, where they were used in the houses of the wealthy aristocracy—especially at banquets—and later accompanied their deceased owners into tomb chambers as grave goods, these vases were not only valued for themselves, but also inspired Etruscan potters with new vessel shapes, new firing and painting techniques, and especially new subject matter—mostly mythological in nature. It may seem odd that it is not Greece’s cities and tombs, but rather the chamber tombs of the Etruscans— especially those of Vulci—that have yielded by far the richest finds of Greek vessels, especially Attic vases. This is partly because of the Etruscans’ habit of burying their dead in often elaborate chamber tombs, but it also attests to the economic strength
of Etruscans and the fondness of the upper class (also perhaps elements of the middle class) for Greek vases. We now know that a number of Attic potters and vase painters, like the Tyrrhenian Group of amphora painters and the workshop of Nikosthenes, worked almost exclusively for export to the high-paying Etruscan market, and in many respects—in the shapes and imagery of their vessels—adapted themselves to the tastes of their buyers. Many of the famous Attic masters, such as Sophilos, Kleitias, Ergotimos, Lydos, Exekias, the Amasis Painter, Psiax, and Andokides, are represented in Etruria. The same is true of the early red-figure masters from the turn from the sixth to the fifth century, like Oltos, Epiktetos, Phintias, Euphronios, Euthymides, the Kleophrades Painter, the Berlin Painter, Onesimos, Brygos, Douris, Makron, and others. Their precious vessels, some of them even repaired in Etruria, were surely not used every day, but only on special occasions— mainly at banquets. As grave goods they document the social position, economic power, and possibly even the level of culture of the deceased Etruscan. The most distinguished students of blackfigure vase painting from the Archaic period in Etruria are J. D. Beazley, G. Camporeale, T. Dohrn, A. Giuliano, L. Hannestad, J. M. Hemelrijk, M. Martelli, N. J. Spivey, and H. Thiersch. Painted Ionian–Eastern-Greek vases—some of them imported, some produced in the southern Etrurian coastal cities themselves, especially Vulci and Cerveteri, by immigrant Ionian potters and vase painters—were of particular importance for Etruscan painting of the second half of the sixth century and the period around 500. The painting on the imported vessels—frequently cups—is
mostly nonfigural in nature. The most famous genre, which we may owe to one or more immigrant Ionian vase painters, is that of the Caeretan hydriae from the decades between 540 and 520, which have been found almost exclusively in Cerveteri and to whose study the Dutch archaeologist J. M. Hemelrijk has devoted himself. They are distinguished by ornamental and botanical decoration on their neck, shoulder, and foot, and figural depictions mostly on mythological subjects, like the blinding of Polyphemus, the rape of Europa, and the battle between Herakles and Nessos, often with humorous touches, presented in strong colors like black, white, and red. An exquisite example is a hydria in the Louvre with Herakles and King Eurystheus, who in fear of Cerberus, the threeheaded hound of hell, has crawled into a large pithos. Striking stylistic similarities between the Caeretan hydriae and other Ionian painted vases from Etruria and the earliest large-figure wall frescoes in the chamber tombs of Tarquinia are not absolute proof but a strong indication that the thesis presented above is correct, and that some of the highest-quality tomb paintings from the last three decades of the sixth century were the work of Ionian–Eastern-Greek painters. Immigrant eastern Greek potters and vase painters created large-format vases for the Etruscan elite, above all dinoi and hydriae. Stylistically, the “Campana dinoi,” produced by a vase painter who had emigrated to Cerveteri from the region between Smyrna and Larissa, compare favorably with the paintings in the Tomb of the Augurs and the Tomb of the Lionesses. The female dancers in the Tomb of the Jugglers recall depictions on Caeretan hydriae; the noblewoman on the back
London, British Museum: five so-called Boccanera plaques from Cerveteri with two opposing sphinxes and a figural scene, possibly mythological (Judgment of Paris?), second quarter of the sixth century ..
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wall of the Tomb of the Baron has much in common with female figures on the Ricci Hydria (Villa Giulia in Rome), a vessel of a distinctly northern Ionian stamp that M. Martelli has attributed to the painter of Louvre E 739. Beginning in the mid-sixth century, the Pontic Group of vessels, of which only a few examples are certain to have come from tombs (including the Osteria necropolis in Vulci), was produced in Vulci. These pieces are thought to have been executed by the Paris Painter, who was active from roughly 550 to 520 and to whom we can attribute a total of forty vessels, most of them in small format like amphorae, oinochoae, chalices, skyphoi, and plates, which can be divided into three groups. Their animated, colorful depictions are arranged in several friezes, one atop the other. In the beginning, more complex narrative subjects, primarily mythological, predominate; in time the subject matter becomes more ordinary. The Paris Painter probably came from northern Ionia, as certain features point to the region that includes Miletus, Clazomenae, Rhodes, and Samos. His eclectic repertoire was nevertheless wholly influenced by Attic iconography. Among his subjects we find the Judgment of Paris, Theseus and the Minotaur, various labors of Herakles, the battle between Herakles and Juno Sospita (an Italian subject), Athena and Ares battling the giants, the duel between Achilles and Hector, and other battle scenes, the warrior’s leavetaking, hunts and banquets, animal fights, friezes with animals and fantastic creatures, processions, centaurs or horsemen, and less frequently komos figures. The figural scenes generally adorn the shoulders of the vessels, animal and botanical friezes the body of the vase. P. Ducati and T. Dohrn, and more recently L. Hannestad and A. Drukker, have studied the rich œuvre of the Paris Painter. Other representatives of the Pontic Group, in addition to the Paris Painter, are the Amphiaraos Painter, the Tityos Painter, the Painter of Bibliothèque Nationale 178, and the Silenus Painter. The Silenus Painter, active from roughly 530 to 515/10, can be considered a direct pupil of the Paris Painter. Some thirty vases can be attributed to him. He favored Dionysian subjects and figures, among them an enthroned Dionysos himself. The subjects chosen by the Amphiaraos Painter, to whom nineteen vases can be ascribed, mainly include a rich animal repertoire, but also several mythological scenes, like the eponymous departure of Amphiaraos, battle scenes, and phalanxes of
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hoplites. The Tityos Painter, to whom L. Hannestad has attributed twenty-five vases—divided into two groups—aimed for a more dynamic style, at times at the expense of quality draftsmanship. Among his subjects mythological scenes clearly predominate, especially the various labors of Herakles and Achilles’ murder of Troilus. The depiction of a running man with a wolf ’s head on a plate in Rome’s Villa Giulia is a distinctly Etruscan subject; E. Simon associates it with the cult of Soranus, on Monte Soratte north of Rome. The Painter of Bibliothèque Nationale 178 was active in the decades from 530 to 510 and frequently incorporated animal figures into his purely decorative narrative scenes. A few amphorae of more modest quality that were produced in Vulci by another contemporary northern Ionian vase painter comprise the Northampton Group. The Tolfa Group and the Ivy Leaf Group are among the other important groups of vases from the Late Archaic period. The Tolfa Group now includes fifty-four vessels, the majority of them long-necked amphorae. Most of them have been found in Cerveteri, which leads us to conclude that the workshop that produced them, active from roughly 530 to 510, was situated there. Their subject matter includes galloping horsemen and riders of hippocampi, tritons, winged running figures, and zoomorphic elements, but only very few mythological scenes. Roughly fifty vases are now ascribed to the Ivy Leaf Group, mainly Type B amphorae. Their main subjects are running male and female figures carrying outsized ivy leaves, also animal figures and fantastic creatures, Dionysian figures, and intertwining serpents with apotropaic eyes. This group of vases, with its distinctly rigid style, reveals obvious Attic influences, from the œuvres of the Amasis Painter and Nikosthenes, for example. The Painter of Munich 833, active in Vulci from roughly 540 to 520, stood very close to the Ivy Leaf Group, and only occasionally attempted more complex subjects like a symplegma (“grappling” maenads and satyrs) or warriors arming themselves. The Micali Painter, to whose workshop roughly two hundred vases have by now been attributed, is one of the chief figures of Late Archaic Etruscan black-figure vase painting. He was probably trained in northern Ionia and was active in Vulci in the last quarter of the sixth century. Influenced by large-format painting and Attic black-figure vase painting, he employs
incised drawing, however his vessels do not attain the technical quality of their Attic models in terms of firing and glazes. His most common shapes are amphorae, hydriae, and stamnoi. The Micali Painter’s workshop, which has even been the subject of an exhibition, has been intensively studied by N. J. Spivey, who distinguishes five phases. Its subjects are often purely decorative, and, along with a few mythological scenes and Dionysian figures, mainly feature winged fabulous beasts, some in heraldic poses, animal friezes, horsemen and warriors, chariot races, and botanical ornaments. The figures are often poorly proportioned. Included in the circle of the Micali Painter are the Painter of Vatican 238 (also called the Kaineus Painter), to whom we owe the famous hydria in Toledo, Ohio, depicting the metamorphosis of Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins (ca. 510–500), the Kyknos Painter, and the groups of “Kape Mukathesa,” Florence 80675, Orbetello, and Bisenzio.
Also active in Vulci were the groups Munich 892, Munich 883, and Vatican 265. They are primarily distinguished by palmettes and spirals as well as silhouetted figures like athletes, horsemen, warriors, and symposiasts, less often gods and heroes. They were inspired by Late Attic black-figure vase painting from the last quarter of the sixth century like that of the Leagros Group. Finally, vase workshops were also active in Orvieto in the Late Archaic period. The Orvieto Group falls into three sub-groups. Animals and fantastic creatures and battle and hunting scenes are the main subject matter. A stamnos in Florence is worthy of particular interest for its depiction of Epeios overseeing the building of the Trojan Horse and Greek didaskalia (instruction). The work of the Dancing Satyrs Painter falls in the period around 480. Production of black-figure vases in Etruria then gradually ceased in the first decades of the fifth century.
Orvieto, Museo Faina: Etruscan black-figure amphora by the Micali Painter from Vulci with depictions of horsemen and warriors, ca. 530/520 ..
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Between Traditionalism and Innovation The Sub-Archaic and Classical Periods (– ..)
The period after 480 was a time of change and transition in Etruria, one that unfolded in a very different way than it did in contemporary Greece. Around 490/480 in Greece, in part as a result of the Persian Wars, the Archaic period was supplanted by the Classical period. Greek victories over the Persians at Marathon and Salamis and over the Phoenicians at Himera, in Sicily, were of earthshaking significance, and rang in a new era. In the fifth century Greek art is generally divided into Early Classicism or the Severe Style, High Classicism, and the phase of the Rich Style. For the Greek world Classicism was not only a new artistic epoch but also, especially in Athens and Attica, the expression of a changing society, with in part radical political changes—one thinks of the democracy of Pericles—religious changes, and new schools of philosophy (such as Sophism). Its art was shaped by such major figures as the painter Polygnotos of Thasos, the sculptors Phidias and Polykleitos, and the architect Iktinos, with Athens clearly taking the lead. The most superb and influential manifestations of this epoch, so crucial to European art history, are Greek temples, which reached their zenith in the Parthenon; statuary, especially in bronze and marble works such as the Olympian Zeus of Phidias or the Doryphoros of Polykleitos; the paintings of Polygnotos and his followers, which have been almost completely lost; and Attic red-figure vase painting, notably that of the Penthesilea Painter and the Meidias Painter. Our knowledge of Greek Classical culture and art is considerably enriched by a number of literary sources and, with respect to sculpture, by countless Roman copies. Accordingly, we know the names of a number of the great masters and their pupils and workshops in the various Greek art centers.
The situation in Etruria in the fifth century is so different that it makes little sense to use the term “Etruscan Classicism.” At best we can speak of Etruscan art of the Classical phase or, with Tobias Dohrn, “Etruscan art of the interim period.” For a long time after the waning of Archaic art in Etruria, which had been so fertile and successful, the Etruscans did not manage to appropriate and employ the magnificent advances of Classical art, either in the physical sense or even remotely in the spiritual sense. The gap between Etruscan art and the far more dynamic art and culture of Greece only widened, as Etruria now played an increasingly peripheral role. Etruscan artists and craftsmen long continued to cling to Late and Sub-Archaic stylistic features and formulas, so that fifth-century Etruscan art lagged considerably behind. It is frequently difficult to date Etruscan art monuments from this period, including tomb paintings, with any precision. It is only with the turn from the fifth to the fourth century that the last Archaic reminiscences disappear and Classicism finally prevails in Etruria as well, though still with a certain time-lag. It is significant that these new, progressive trends—especially in larger and smaller sculpture—do not manifest themselves as much in the once-powerful coastal centers as in inland Etruria, up the Tiber, in Veii, Falerii Veteres/Cività Castellana, Volsinii/ Orvieto, Chiusi, and Arezzo. The decades after 480/470, especially following the Etruscans’ bitter defeat at the hands of the Syracusan Greeks in the sea-battle off Cumae in 474, saw a gradual political and economic decline in the coastal centers and harbor emporia of southern Etruria, especially Gravisca. There is a visible reduction in the number of Greek imports, particularly Attic red-figure pottery, and the close and direct contact with the Greek world begins to
Above: Tarquinia, Francesca Giustiniani Tomb, back wall: detail of the gable with blue panther, middle to third quarter of the fifth century .. Opposite page: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Triclinium: detail of the left wall with female dancer and small trees filled with birds, ca. 470 ..
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wane. At the same time, and partly as a result, we can see a shifting of power to the interior, mainly in the direction of Volsinii/Orvieto and Chiusi, and of trading routes to the Adriatic.
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Etruria Padana, with its centers Felsina/ Bologna, Spina (with a mixed population of Etruscans, Venetii, Umbrians, and Greeks, and even its own treasury at Delphi), and Marzabotto
flourished; by contrast, Etruscan dominance in the south in Campania finally ended with the capture of Capua by the Samnites. Institutionally, in most of the Etruscan city-states, the turn from the sixth to the fifth century had seen a change from monarchy to oligarchy, and in the fifth century, often called the “age of crisis,” Etruscan society was racked by social tensions and a crisis of the aristocracy, as new values led to ever greater equality before the law. In terms of archaeology, these developments are evidenced by more standardized and less imposing tomb architecture and grave goods, especially in the southern Etruscan coastal region. Worthy of special mention from fifth-century stone sculpture are the tomb statues at Chiusi, carved of pietra fetida; among architectural terracottas, the high-quality examples in Pyrgi (Temple A), Orvieto (Belvedere Temple and the temple on Via San Leonardo), and Falerii Veteres/Cività Castellana; among reliefs, the grave steles from Felsina; among bronze statues, the Mars of Todi, from an Orvietan workshop, and the famous Chimaera of Arezzo, discovered in the Renaissance; among bronze articles, the Spina candelabrum, decorated with figures, and especially the richly ornamented lamp of Cortona. In works of art from the closing fifth century, we finally see the triumph of the Greek Classical style. But to return to our subject, namely Etruscan painting. For the fifth century our main source of information continues to be tomb painting. A fascinating indication that not only walls of tombs but the walls of buildings were painted with frescoes was the discovery of traces of painting on the plaster of the interior walls of Temple A at Pyrgi from the period around 470. By far the most painted tombs from the fifth century are again found in Tarquinia, though their number clearly decreases after the middle of the century, just as the number of Tarquinian noble families was drastically reduced. The more provincial and more conservative tomb painting in Chiusi finally comes to an end in the second quarter of the fifth century. The only other tomb paintings from this period are in Grotte San Stefano, north of Viterbo. Obviously tomb painting was altogether a far less widespread phenomenon in the fifth century than in the Orientalizing and Archaic periods. With the beginning of the fifth century, Tarquinian tomb painting, now increasingly
influenced by the painting of Attica, becomes increasingly standardized, presenting few new or original ideas. Beginning around 490/480, it became the convention to devote the back wall to a banquet scene with three couches—generally klines with turned legs of the Greek type—or occasionally two and a kylikeion, showing men and women reclining at table and surrounded by mostly naked servant youths and flute-players wearing long himations. In a number of tombs, the banquet scene spills over onto one or both of the side walls, with the addition of a fourth or even a fifth kline. In contrast to Greek custom, especially as documented on Attic vase painting, where we can trace the transition from blackfigure banquets of the gods to red-figure everyday drinking sessions, the women depicted in Etruscan banqueting scenes are aristocratic wives, not hetairai. The side walls generally feature male and female dancers—most commonly a female dancer with castanets wearing a white chiton, red vest, and wide skirt—and musicians, mainly aulos and kithara players, regularly arranged between small trees, some of them with birds in perched them. Instead of the earlier ecstatic komos antics we now find more ceremonial circle dances. The tomb owner is no longer deliberately highlighted in either the dancing or the banquet. The number of inscriptions decreases dramatically, an indication that there was now considerably less emphasis on the individual personality than in the Archaic period, which accords with what we know of the increasing uniformity within society. In addition to banquets, dancing, and music, the main subjects now presented are athletic disciplines from the Greek palaestra—no longer the whole range of activities but typical isolated moments—and armed warrior dances from funeral games. Hunting scenes are now generally restricted to the gable, where one also sees blue panthers or heraldic revelers—leftovers from Late Archaic drinking scenes. The gable repertoire is considerably more monotonous than it was in the Archaic period. The readily apparent traditionalism of both clients and painters in the choice of subject matter and to some extent even in style can be explained in part as a reflection of Etruscan conservatism in general with regard to burial customs and the cult of the dead. The ubiquitous banquets and related scenes show tomb owners clinging to traditional aristocratic values, probably hoping to mask their loss of
Above: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Cock, left wall: detail with female dancer with krotala (clappers of wood or bone), ca. 400 .. Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Leopards, back wall: banqueting scene with three couples lounging on klines and a heraldic pair of leopards in the gable, ca. 480 ..
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Top: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Funerary Bed: section of the continuous ivy frieze at the top of the walls, ca. 460 .. Bottom left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Leopards: section of the ceiling with colorful checkerboard design, ca. 480 .. Bottom right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Triclinium: section of the lower part of the wall with wave frieze and frieze of multiple stripes, ca. 470 ..
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political and economic power. To be sure, with wall paintings from the “Classical” phase, it is not always easy to distinguish between elements that are deliberately old-fashioned, intentional reversions to Late and Sub-Archaic features and those that reflect simple unthinking conventionalism. In order to date a tomb as precisely as possible, it is important not to rely on the subject matter, the overall style, or presumed historical conditions, but only on the latest datable feature, which provides a terminus post quem. This fundamental rule is not always followed, and in some cases scholars have arrived at dates that are obviously too early. Assigning dates to tomb paintings from the second half of the fifth century and the early fourth century is notoriously difficult. For this period, Attic red-figure vases and later red-figure vase painting from southern Italy provide the most useful stylistic comparisons. Over the course of the fifth century, especially toward its close, we also find radical innovations in iconography relating to the underworld, with depictions of underworld features and figures such as demons of death. These images increase dramatically in the fourth century, and some of them may have come from Athens by way of the Adriatic, that is to say through Spina into the Etruscan Padana and thence to Etruria proper. For example, we now find depictions of the winged genius Thanatos, the ferryman Charon with his oar, demons with grotesque faces, and the netherworld journey on horseback or in a chariot drawn by winged horses. Significantly, these same subjects are typical of Felsina grave steles dating from the second half of the fifth century. One wonders to what extent such motifs reflect new notions about the hereafter and the possibility of continued existence after death. Winged genii, for example, first
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appear in Tarquinia’s Tomb 4813, the Tomb of the Maiden (della Pulcella), and the Tomb of the Warrior. Underworld figures and the journey into the hereafter are documented in Chiusan vase painting beginning in the mid-fifth century; a krater presents a winged Vanth and Hermes/ Turms as psychopompos (guide of souls into the underworld). We already know winged creatures from black-figure vases from Vulci. Innovation in the architecture of fifthcentury tombs is minimal, primarily limited to specific features. Gable supports are often wider than before, and they can even be trapezoidal in form or framed by double volutes. At times only the latter still allude to its original function as a support. At first the columen is still decorated with circles, the sloping ceiling with checkerboard designs; later the ceilings are predominantly structured with dark red beams. In exceptional instances the “architraves,” gable supports, and columen are decorated with ivy tendrils. Striped friezes, serving as top and bottom borders for figural friezes, become simpler, generally limited to red, black, and white. In a few cases the bottom of the wall is still set off with a frieze of stylized waves. Toward the end of the fifth century especially, rectangular loculi, sometimes framed, occasionally take the place of the earlier false doors. At times they take the form of aediculae and are decorated with paintings emphasizing the actual burial spot. In the fifth century, as before, it is possible to identify a few painting workshops, though attributions are more difficult than in the preceding Archaic period. There are no signatures of either painters or tomb owners. Once again, attributions are mainly based on specific antiquarian features and stylistic details, and specialists do not necessarily agree on every point.
M. Torelli, for example, proposes the following workshop groupings: Tomb of the Black Sow (della Scrofa nera), Tomb of the Funerary Bed, Tombs 5517 and 3697; Tomb of the Triclinium, Tombs 994, 4255, and 4260; Tomb of the Deer Hunt (della Caccia al Cervo) and the Maggi Tomb; Tombs Querciola I, 6071, and 1560; possibly Tomb of the Maiden, Tombs 5513, 3716, 3713, and Tomb of the Cock. According to C. WeberLehmann, the Tomb of the Triclinium, the Tomb of the Funerary Bed, and Tombs 4021, 5513, and possibly 810 were executed by the same workshop, utilizing Late Archaic elements as well as features of the Severe Style. That workshop was active in Tarquinia for roughly a generation in the second quarter of the fifth century. The Tomb of the Deer Hunt and the Maggi Tomb, as well as the Tomb of the Maiden, and Tombs 3716 and 3713, are the work of others. Although there was a certain decline and tendency toward standardization after the Tomb of the Bigas (ca. 490/480) discussed in the previous chapter, there are a few outstanding, highquality tombs from the decades between 480 and 450 as well. They can be dated by comparison to Attic red-figure vases, though virtually no reflections of lost Greek monumental painting by such masters as Damophilos of Himera, Sillax of
Rhegion, and especially Polygnotos and Mikon and later Zeuxis and Parrhasios can be identified. The Tomb of the Leopards (dei Leopardi), from the years around 480/470, was discovered in 1875. It is widely known, not so much for of its artistic quality, which is rather modest and does not approach that of the more graceful and sophisticated paintings in the Tomb of the Bigas and the Tomb of the Triclinium, but because its relatively good state of preservation (especially since the recent restoration), its lively coloring, and its animated depictions rich with gestures. It is named after the two large-scale, heraldic leopards flanking a small tree in the unsupported gable of the back wall. The columen is ornamented with colorful circles, the sloping ceiling with a checkerboard design. Its centerpiece is an aristocratic banquet with three klines on the back wall, with two women in attendance and two naked cupbearers. Some of the richly dressed symposiasts hold eggs and wreaths in their hands. On the right wall a procession of wreathed komos figures and musicians approaches the banquet; the left wall presents a more solemn, ceremonial procession of six young musicians and giftbearers. Small trees suggest that all the scenes are set out of doors. Stylistically, the paintings of this tomb still have a number of Late Archaic features.
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Leopards, right wall: left section of the wall with komast and aulos and lyre players, ca. 480 ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb 5513, back wall: banquet scene with two klines and kylikeion, ca. 450 .. Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb 5513, right wall: left section of the wall with small servant, kithara player, female dancer, and aulos player and small trees filled with birds, ca. 450 ..
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The highly animated hands of the aulos player on the right wall are clearly out of proportion. From the point of view of technique, various incised lines that are still visible are of interest: in a number of places they do not correspond with the paintings executed above them. In terms of quality, it would appear that the left and right sides of the tomb were carried out by different hands. The paintings in one of the most famous of all Etruscan tombs, the Tomb of the Triclinium, from the period around 470, are clearly of higher quality and more progressive. The Tomb of the Funerary Bed and several other well-known tombs, most notably Tomb 5513, can be attributed
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to the same circle and its successors. Both the Tomb of the Triclinium and Tomb 5513 have virtually the same compositional program, with an animated banquet on the back wall that borrows from Attic red-figure drinking scenes from the early fifth century. In the one in the Tomb of the Triclinium, interestingly enough, the third kline on the right, Greek in style with turned legs and seen from the narrow end as on an Etruscan bronze mirror, is replaced in Tomb 5513 with a kylikeion with vessels, a small three-legged table, and a naked cupbearer holding a strainer. In Tomb 5513 the female participants are all standing. In both tombs, richly clad male and female
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Tarquinia, Tomb of the Triclinium, back wall: banquet scene with three klines (original and nineteenth-century lucido by Carlo Ruspi), ca. 470 ..
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Triclinium, left wall: three female dancers, a barbiton player, and a male dancer between small trees filled with birds (original and nineteenth-century lucido by Carlo Ruspi), ca. 470 ..
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dancers and musicians with animated gestures appear on the side walls, in a grove of highly detailed small trees populated by birds. Some of the figures, certain profile heads, the birds in the grove, and the predatory cat that appears under the left-hand kline in each case are virtually identical, proving that the two tombs are products of a single workshop. The intense turquoise of the garments of some of the symposiasts in Tomb 5513 is striking. Many elements suggest that this tomb was painted somewhat later than the Tomb of the Triclinium: the way the garments have been simplified, the more elongated proportions, some of the bronze vessel types on the kylikeion, and the male heads, which except for the rendering of the eyes (which are still drawn frontally) now follow the pattern of Classical Attic red-figure vases. Also worth noting in Tomb 5513 is a recessed fossa in the floor, which is decorated with a red frieze of waves. The paintings of the Tomb of the Triclinium were detached in 1949 and are now displayed in Tarquinia’s Museo Archeologico. In addition, we have the exquisite facsimiles by Carlo Ruspi, which are of great help in decipher-
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ing details that have been lost or are now scarcely visible. The bottom of the wall is ornamented with a frieze of waves, the sloping ceiling is covered with colorful checkerboard design, and the columen, gable supports (flanked by symposiasts), and “architrave” are covered with painted ivy, suggestive of the Dionysian sphere. The famous wall frescoes present balanced compositions executed with skilled draftsmanship, delicate gradations of pastel colors, foreshortening, and mannered gestures. Especially successful is the row of dancers on the side walls, characterized by dynamic, rhythmic movement, splendid garments, expressive hand gestures, and at times ecstatic poses. Both the banquet on the back wall and the grove of trees on the side walls are enlivened by the inclusion of a number of animals. The two youths springing down from their horses on the entry wall are either apobates or perhaps a veiled allusion to the Dioscuri as intermediaries between earthly life and the hereafter. The influence of Attic red-figure vase painting— from the circle of Brygos, Douris, Hieron, Makron, and above all the Kleophrades Painter— is unmistakable. A number of experts are con-
vinced that the painter of this important tomb was a Greek metic. The same workshop painted the Tomb of the Funerary Bed, from the years around 460. It is distinguished by highly unusual iconography and outstanding quality, with exquisite drawing and delicate coloring. In terms of style, the paintings, which were detached in 1953 and transferred to the Museo Archeologico in Tarquinia, recall Attic red-figure vases like those of the painter Hieron. From bottom to top the walls present a tall, dark sea frieze with leaping dolphins, a frieze of stripes, a relatively small-format figural frieze, and a frieze of climbing ivy. The ivy on the “architraves” and columen is clearly reminiscent of the Tomb of the Triclinium. The back part of the tomb is structured as a festival tent or baldachin supported by posts entwined with foliage, and it is therefore unique in Etruscan tomb painting. The back wall, including the gable, is dominated by a large, empty bed reminiscent of a catafalque, with two light shrouds, two pillows, two wreaths, and two conical caps resembling the pilos caps of the Dioscuri. To the left and right of this bed are banqueters, with the men segregated from the
women. In the front part of the tomb we find dancers, musicians, and athletes engaged in discus-throwing, boxing—one boxer uses a sponge to catch blood dripping from his nose— the kalpe (horse race), and chariot-racing. The young horseman on the right wall is especially successful. On the entry wall are two riders and a biga. There is thus a clear division between the two sections of the tomb: the scenes in the front relate to the here and now, with features of actual funeral festivities. The depictions in the back are of a wholly different character, highly symbolic and apparently to be understood as set in the hereafter. They symbolize either a deceased aristocratic couple or a pair of divinities like the Dioscuri; in the latter case, we are dealing here with a theoxenia or lectisternium, with the Dioscuri represented aniconically, that is, as dokana in the style of Etruscan tutuli. In either case the tomb occupants are heroicized. We have also seen possible indications of a cult of the Dioscuri in other tombs, for example the Tomb of the Baron. Tombs 4021 and 810 were also probably painted by the Triclinium Workshop. Tomb 4021 is distinguished by a large-format figural frieze
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Triclinium, right wall: three female dancers, an aulos player, and a male dancer between small trees filled with birds (original and nineteenth-century lucido by Carlo Ruspi), ca. 470 ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb of the Funerary Bed, back wall: large, richly furnished bed with baldachin above, framed by women (left) and men (right), ca. 460 ..
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that presents only musicians and male and female dancers with rich garments in animated movement. The “architrave” is painted with a polychrome checkerboard design. It is mainly the ceiling decoration and columen of Tomb 810 that tie it to the workshop responsible for the Tomb of the Triclinium. A few less-well-known tombs like the Tomb of the Little Flowers (dei Fiorellini) date from the second quarter of the fifth century. In this tomb conventional subjects like a banquet (on the back wall, with only one kline) and dancers in a grove predominate. The large figures are placed relatively far apart. The cockfight in the gable of the back wall is something new, a motif seen again only in the later Tomb of the Warrior. The sloping ceiling is strewn with dark-red, three-petaled flowers on a light ground. The wall frescoes of Tomb 994 are preserved only in fragments and include a banquet and dancing as well as reclining revelers in the gable of the back wall. Various inscriptions, some only fragmentary, refer to the Varnie family that owned the tomb. We also find a banqueting scene, dancers, and an animal gable in Tomb 4813, as well as two winged youths, possibly genii with some symbolic funereal significance, an innovative and unusual feature. Banquet scenes also predominate in Tomb 3988. The Tomb of the Black Sow, to which S. Stopponi devoted a monograph in 1983, has
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not been ascribed to any particular workshop. Its wall frescoes were detached in 1959 and transferred to the Museo Archeologico in Tarquinia. Perhaps no other Tarquinian painted tomb has proven so difficult to date; scholars have placed it anywhere from the first quarter of the fifth century to the middle of the fourth century. It now seems most likely that it dates from around or soon after 450. Its paintings are distinguished by balanced composition and delicate coloring. The predominant subjects are the traditional indications of aristocratic status, a banquet and a hunt, with attendant dancers and musicians. In many respects their style, especially that of the conventional, though very richly structured banquet, which extends with an additional kline onto each of the side walls, still seems Sub-Archaic. But there are also more forward-looking features like the eyes drawn in profile—a possibility in Etruscan art since the second quarter of the fifth century, but one not universally exploited—and suggestions of perspective, for example in the numerous and richly varied depictions of animals (including dogs, cats, deer, and a variety of birds) beneath the richly appointed klines and especially in the hunting scene in the back-wall gable. This hunting scene is like no other: a halfnaked hunter on the right, with an animal-hide jacket and clearly visible genitalia, is closing in on a wild boar, which dominates the center
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Funerary Bed, left wall: section of the figural frieze with armed dancer, female dancer, aulos player, and servant, ca. 460 ..
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Funerary Bed, right wall: section of the figural frieze with two reclining men, servant, and wounded boxer, ca. 460 ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb of the Black Sow, right wall: section with deer and dog beneath a banquet kline, ca. 450 .. or shortly thereafter.
of the scene, with a spear and several dogs. Rendered in three-quarter view from the back, he compares quite favorably with the figure of Odysseus on the famous Attic red-figure cup from Spina, dating from roughly 450, by the Penthesilea Painter. A small hunter with a short cloak across his shoulders and a spear is joining the action from the left. The only parallel to this boar hunt is found in the later Querciola Tomb I. But even the way the gable support is only suggested, also the motif of the woman seated at the foot end of the kline—one seen in Etruria only later in the fifth century in Chiusan urns with Classical stylistic features—would prevent us from dating the tomb too early, in any case not before the middle of the fifth century. The “architraves” are decorated with a frieze of ivy as in the Tomb of the Triclinium.
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Black Sow, back wall: section with a civet (?) beneath a banquet kline, ca. 450 .. or shortly thereafter.
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Another workshop active in Tarquinia around or shortly after the middle of the fifth century was responsible for the Tomb of the Deer Hunt and the Maggi Tomb, which do not approach the Triclinium workshop in quality. In both tombs we find a three-kline banquet whose symposiasts—a man and a woman on each couch—are gesturing animatedly on the back wall. The naked cupbearers between the klines have elongated bodies and small heads. The side walls present dancers and musicians between small trees. The figures’ eyes are still rendered frontally in the Archaic manner. Their hunting scenes, with light figures against a dark-red ground, are very similar. Each consists of a hunter, a dog, and a stag, and both have two heraldic panthers flanking the gable supports; in one instance the nearly identical motif appears to have been used again
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Deer Hunt, back wall: section with deer-hunting scene on a dark redground gable support, around the middle of the fifth century .. or shortly thereafter.
“flipped,” facing the opposite direction. The staghunt theme reappears in the fourth century in Paestan tomb painting. A rarity in Tarquinian tomb painting is the crude meander frieze above the base of the walls in the Maggi Tomb. The very poorly preserved paintings in Tomb 4170 also compare favorably with this workshop group. The Tomb of the Ship, dating from the midfifth century or soon afterward, was published in 1961, shortly after it was discovered, in a monograph by M. Moretti. It does not appear to have been painted by any known workshop. Its paintings attracted particular attention from the beginning, mainly because of a harbor scene on several levels on the left wall, with a bay ringed by cliffs, a large, two-masted merchant ship with two rudders, a crow’s nest and crew, and several other smaller ships. This scene is bordered on the right
by a large cliff covered with plants and a largescale man—possibly the deceased—gazing down at the bustle in the harbor. The paintings were removed from the tomb walls shortly after their discovery in 1958 and are now displayed in Tarquinia’s Museo Archeologico. The harbor scene is unique in Etruscan tomb painting, a true megalograph (2.75 x 1.05 m) with impressive suggestions of perspective and astonishing landscape elements that some have thought must be based on Greek originals. Traditionally, it has been interpreted as a socioeconomic document, one that underscores the tomb owner’s importance and success as a shipping magnate. However G. Colonna has recently chosen to read it in a much more symbolic sense, as a depiction of the deceased’s journey across the sea and arrival in the hereafter. He compares the characteristically
Tarquinia, Maggi Tomb, back wall: banqueting scene with three klines and deer-hunting scene on a dark red-ground gable support, around the middle of the fifth century .. or shortly thereafter.
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p. 145 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Leopards, back wall: section showing banqueters lounging on klines, cupbearer with oinochoe, and pair of leopards in the gable, ca. 480 ..
pp. 146–47 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Leopards, left wall: procession of youths with instruments, drinking vessels, and other objects, ca. 480 ..
p. 148
p. 149
Tarquinia, Tomb 5513, back wall: section with a
Tarquinia, Tomb 5513, right wall: section with female
reclining male banqueter and his wife, ca. 450 ..
dancer, ca. 450 ..
pp. 150–51 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Triclinium, right wall: right section of the wall with male and female dancers between small trees, ca. 470 ..
p. 152 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Triclinium: detail of the columen with ivy, ca. 470 ..
steep, seemingly stylized bright cliffs, for which there are precedents in the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing (painted two generations earlier), with actual sea cliffs, like those of Canna off the Liparian island of Filicudi. To his thinking, the banqueting and dancing scenes on the back wall and portions of the side walls, with a total of fourteen figures, four klines, and a kylikeion with vessels, some of them painted, and cups suspended above, are taking place in the afterlife in the company of ancestors, as in later Tarquinian and Orvietan tomb paintings from the fourth century. Reclining symposiasts are also depicted in the gables. The wall frescoes of the Tomb of
the Ship include a mixture of Archaicizing elements and those that are definitely Classical, such as the flared skirt in perspective. The banquet and adjacent dancing scenes with the typically elongated serving figures are more conventional, even old-fashioned, whereas the scene of the bay with cliffs and ships is highly innovative. It differs radically from the seascapes in the Late Archaic Tomb of Hunting and Fishing from a good halfcentury earlier. The footrests among the klines, with curved animal feet and sandals placed on them, are an interesting antiquarian detail. The merchant ship is one of the best and most detailed Etruscan ship depictions, its type—
Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Ship, left wall: section with harbor and two-masted ship, around the middle of the fifth century .. or shortly thereafter. Below: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Ship, left wall: drawing (after G. Colonna) of the left wall with harbor and kylikeion, around the middle of the fifth century .. or shortly thereafter.
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though normally not two-masted—having been documented on Greek vases since the Late Archaic period. The Francesca Giustiniani Tomb, from the third quarter of the fifth century, was named after a noblewoman. Its back wall is taken up by a celebratory large-format figural frieze in unusually strong colors, which includes a biga with a charioteer, an aulos player, a richly dressed female dancer in a flared skirt adorned with a diadem, necklace, and bracelets, and a male dancer in a bright blue cloak. The biga could be an allusion to the journey into the hereafter. The gable is still structured with a dark-red gable support, this time flanked by two blue panthers. On the left wall are athletic games, on the right wall dancing scenes with no trace of landscape features like small trees. Querciola I, a large tomb with extremely high walls, is relatively difficult to interpret, particularly since its paintings—especially the lower ones—are badly damaged. In reconstructing it, Ruspi’s watercolor sketches from the 1830s are extremely helpful. The wall frescoes are divided into two continuous figural friezes, one above the other, and a base zone somewhat like those in the
Tomb of the Pygmies (dei Pigmei) and in southern Italian and Etruscan Faliscan red-figure vase painting. The larger upper frieze, consisting of a banqueting scene with dancers and musicians, is altogether traditional. The three-kline banquet on the back wall—with a couple apparently kissing, cupbearers, and kottabos players—extends onto one of the side walls with a fourth kline, and onto the other with a kylikeion. A warrior with a biga is depicted in the middle of the entry wall. The smaller lower frieze appears to be more innovative and animated; it includes hunting scenes, including a boar hunt, and a chariot race with hints of perspective, all enlivened with numerous landscape elements. In the gable the support is merely suggested by a pair of volute ornaments, between which two warriors approach each other leading their horses. The usual heraldic blue panthers adorn the spandrels. The precise reconstruction and interpretation of specific scenes is disputed. J. R. Jannot sees in the iconography a deliberate allusion to the major importance of the ordo equestris and/or the cult of the Dioscuri. Because of the eclectic nature of the paintings, a wide range of dates for the tomb have been proposed, anywhere from the second quarter of the fifth
Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Ship, left wall: right section with servant, kylikeion, and kithara player, around the middle of the fifth century .. or shortly thereafter.
Tarquinia, Francesca Giustiniani Tomb: back wall with harnessed biga, female aulos player, female and male dancers, middle to third quarter of the fifth century ..
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Tarquinia, Querciola Tomb I: nineteenth-century watercolor by Carlo Ruspi of the back wall, the entry wall, and the two side walls with banqueting, music and dancing, and hunting scenes, end of the fifth century ..
Tarquinia, Querciola Tomb I: back wall with remnants of a banqueting scene, end of the fifth century ..
century to the middle of the fourth century. A date near the close of the fifth century now seems most convincing. The relatively small Tomb of the Maiden (della Pulcella), from the late fifth century, is distinguished by a very long rock-cut dromos (passageway) and an architecturally structured and painted loculus for a cremation burial in the center of the back wall. This loculus takes the form of a naiskos, or small funerary temple, with Tuscan columns and suggested architectural terracottas like a palmette akroterion and a columen antepagment with a Gorgoneion, apparently heroicizing the deceased. This unique loculus is flanked outside by musicians playing a kithara and a flute. The painting inside on its back wall, however, presents a most unusual and innovative subject, possibly Attic in origin, with apparent symbolic significance in this sepulchral context. It shows two winged and naked youths—either demons or, more likely, genii like the Greek Hypnos and Thanatos—spreading out a large cloth as though above the burial place. On the side walls are traditional banquet scenes with especially richly appointed klines. Several of the symposiasts are holding such attributes as eggs, lyres, and metal bowls. The incised preliminary drawing has frequently been corrected. Tomb robbers destroyed most of the paintings on the left wall in the 1960s. They cut out the head of a cup-
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Maiden, back wall: aedicula-like loculus with Gorgoneion, flanked by kithara and aulos players, end of the fifth century ..
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bearer, which after detours through Switzerland and Germany was fortunately returned to Tarquinia and is now displayed in its Museo Archeologico. Tomb 3713, whose walls present only largescale male and female dancers in a grove with small branching trees, stands in the tradition of the Tomb of the Maiden. Red tones clearly predominate in these eclectic paintings. Whereas the profile heads still present Archaizing and Early Classical features, there are already influences of High Classicism and the Rich Style in the transparent chitons beneath heavy, dark-red cloaks, in many of the drapery designs with realistic wavy bands, and in the poses of the female dancers’ legs. The crossed-leg motif of the center dancer on the back wall is clearly post-Archaic, seen elsewhere in Etruscan art only in the fourth century. The sloping ceilings on either side of the columen are painted in imitation of architecture, with dark-red beams. Tomb 3716 could have been executed by the same workshop group, owing to similarities in the loculi, the ceiling surfaces, and the small trees. Here the “architrave” takes the form of a crenellated meander. The Tomb of the Cock, which takes its name from the two roosters in the gable of the entry wall, also dates from the period around 400. It presents one architectural innovation: it has a loculus in its left wall. The paintings feature
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Maiden: left wall with banquet scene, end of the fifth century ..
scenes of banqueting, dancing, and music-making. The conventional banqueting scene, with three couples reclining on klines and naked cupbearers, has here been shifted to the right wall. The paintings are distinguished by large, somewhat stiff figures in vivid colors, some of them overly elongated, borrowing from Late Archaic and Early Classical styles. Aside from the loculus, the rendering of the billowing skirt of the female dancer with castanets on the left wall—admittedly not
altogether convincing—would suggest a somewhat later dating. This figure is flanked by a flute player and a Phersu with the typical bearded mask and a short, spotted fur jacket. In contrast to the cruel role he plays in the Late Archaic depictions in the Tomb of the Augurs and the Tomb of the Olympic Games, here he functions simply as a dancer and mime. There is a whole series of other tombs, some rather unimportant and often poorly preserved, Tarquinia, Tomb of the Cock, entry wall: kithara and aulos players flanking the door, bird and rooster in the gable spandrels, ca. 400 ..
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dating from the close of the fifth century and probably the first decades of the fourth century. Among them are the Tomb of the Gorgoneion, the Tomb of the Warrior, and the Tomb of the Pygmies, which will be discussed separately, as well as Tomb 808 (with a banquet of the eastern Greek type in which the man lies on a kline and the woman sits on a chair, with a basin on a pillar and a continuous crenellated meander frieze above), Tomb 1144 (with a loculus and spiral ornaments in the gable as in the Tomb of the Gorgoneion and Tomb 808), Tomb 1200 (with a loculus and two pictorial friezes, one above the other, as in the Querciola Tomb I, including a banquet, dancing, and teams of chariot horses), Tomb 1560 (a four-chamber tomb with large-scale musicians and dancers and a gable support indicated only by double volutes, with two youths with reined horses reminiscent of the gable of the Querciola Tomb I), Tomb 1822 (with three loculi, the one in the back wall in the form of an aedicula), Tomb 2015 (with a large-scale frieze of dancers and musicians), Tomb 3697 (a small tomb with a low continuous bench as in the Tomb of the Warrior and a two-kline banquet on the back wall), Tomb 5517 (with a banquet scene in the gable and a large-figure frieze that includes a dance of armed warriors), and Tomb 6071 (with scenes of banqueting, dancing, and music-making).
The Tomb of the Gorgoneion is distinguished architecturally by a low continuous bench. Instead of a gable support, it presents a Gorgoneion—surely apotropaic or of symbolic sepulchral significance—in the center of the gable, flanked by two large dark-red, spiralshaped palmette-volutes, which had not yet been documented in the fifth century but also appear in the roughly contemporary Tomb 808 and, in combination with the Gorgoneion, in Apulian vase painting as well as on Etruscan sarcophagi and urns generally of a later date. A Gorgoneion also adorns the columen antepagment of the aedicula-shaped loculus in the already discussed Tomb of the Maiden, and in other cultural regions the gables of the Daunian Tomb of the Medusa in Arpi, the Cristallini Hypogeum in Naples, and the naiskos in the famous Thracian Caryatid Tomb at Sveshtari, all of which, to be sure, date from Early Hellenistic times. The Tomb of the Gorgoneion omits the traditional scenes of banqueting, dancing, and music-making; instead, its walls depict a grove of delicate, widely spaced small trees with occasional birds in them. The only figures are a pair of youths with crooks on the back wall, apparently in conversation. This motif is frequently seen on Attic and southern Italian red-figure vases from the fifth and fourth centuries. The somewhat stiff, wooden figures are elongated and similar to those of the Tomb 808.
Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Pygmies, left wall: procession of four horsemen with veiled heads, above the loculus a Geranomachy and krater, beginning of the fourth century .. Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Pygmies, right side of the entry wall: small trees and horseman, blue panther in the gable spandrel above, beginning of the fourth century ..
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Architecturally, the Tomb of the Warrior, with its low continuous bench and wide relief columen, is closest to the Tomb of the Gorgoneion. Some have dated it to the first half, or even the middle, of the fourth century. A banquet scene with two couples reposing on klines amid their servants dominates the back wall; on the left there is a kylikeion with large-format vases suggestive of Attic, southern Italian, and Etruscan shapes that mostly date from the fourth century. Additional subjects are dancers, musicians, boxers, discus and spear throwers, armed dancers, and a highly original team of acrobats. The unsupported gable of the back wall presents a cockfight with flanking heraldic panthers. The large-format figures are somewhat cursorily drawn and present eclectic stylistic features, but they do exhibit a few notable innovations, especially with regard to the heads and eyes in profile. There are also isolated attempts at perspective. An iconographic novelty is the flying genius, a small naked figure with blue wings, in the gable of the entry wall, which somewhat resembles the two winged creatures in the loculus of the Tomb of the Maiden. Tombs 2327 (Bertazzoni) and 3242 (dei Loculi) are most notable for their three loculi; they have frequently been dated to the beginning fourth century. The paintings in Tomb 2327 are unfortunately heavily damaged and are mostly concentrated around the three loculi, each framed as a Doric style door. It is possible to make out fragments of banqueting scenes and checkerboarddesign ceilings. The walls are adorned with musicians and dancers. The traces of painting in the gable are possibly from a hunting scene. Tomb 3242 is very close to Tomb 2327 in its architecture and the arrangement of its paintings. Once again we find three loculi painted with figures. In the loculi and on the walls, there are only depictions of dancers, musicians, and dancing armed warriors between small trees. The gable of the loculus in the back wall, which takes the form of an aedicula, is decorated with dark-red spirals, much as in the Tomb of the Gorgoneion and Tombs 808 and 1144. The highly original Tomb of the Pygmies, recently studied by M. Harari, dates from the period around 400 or shortly afterward. This relative large tomb has two loculi in the rear sections of the side walls. The paintings, in part very poorly preserved, are in some respects more conservative in style and subject matter, in others
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more innovative. The inscribed preliminary drawings are still visible. On the back wall there may have been a second, smaller frieze at the bottom, structured like the one in the Querciola Tomb I. The back wall is filled with a four-kline banquet scene with male participants and servants, while the left wall presents a solemn funeral procession, with three pairs of men and women on horseback, the latter capite velato (veiled). This could also be interpreted symbolically as a journey into the hereafter. Above the left-hand loculus is the unusual scene that gives the tomb its name, a Geranomachy—a battle between pygmies and cranes—in a rocky landscape. It depicts five different clusters of warring pygmies and cranes, the cranes generally being presented as the victors. The pygmies’ helmets and weapons are rendered with chiaroscuro effects. The scene is unique in Etruscan tomb painting and may have been patterned after a Greek original. At first glance it seems humorous, but it doubtless conveyed some sort of death symbolism. In the fourth century we find the motif of the Geranomachy, which had been known since Homer, on Boeotian Kabeiric vases, in tomb paintings in Paestum and southern Russia, and on red-figure Volterran kelebai, which were mostly used as urns. In the loculus itself are painted a youth and two trees, and there are traces of additional male figures and small trees. The large krater immediately to the right can be seen as the sema (grave marker) for the loculus, but more likely it goes with the banquet on the back wall. On the right wall, once again, is a procession with some of the figures veiled and with small trees. Among the figures is an apparitor carrying three rods, and there are possible traces of an inscription. This is apparently a magistrate’s procession like the one on the entry wall of the later Tomb of the Shields (degli Scudi). Above the loculus is another small frieze with traces of figures, including two men in three-quarter view seated on stools, and some kind of animal. There are only a few traces of painting in the loculus itself. The gable of the entry wall is adorned with panthers, the rear-wall gable with a hippocampus and small figures. The Tomb of the Biclinium (del Biclinio) is an unusual case. For a long time its dating swerved back and forth between the second quarter of the fifth century to the middle of the fourth century. Today, though it no longer survives, it can be securely dated to the middle or third
quarter of the fifth century, largely thanks to the research of the Polish archaeologist W. Dobrowolski. Our knowledge of its wall frescoes is entirely based on the Smuglewicz drawings from 1766/67, published by J. Byres, which naturally reflect the style of their time. On the back wall we once again see the motif of the false door, flanked by two servants, a thymiaterion or incense vessel (?), and a kylikeion, but for the first time it is combined with a banquet scene with four klines and tables on the side walls. Here the deceased has apparently already passed through the door and arrived in the hereafter. One of the banquet’s female participants holds a rotulus (scroll) in her hand, another a rhyton (drinking horn). Naked cupbearers and clothed female servers move between the richly appointed klines. The boar hunt depicted on the rotulus recalls the small hunting frieze in the Querciola Tomb I. The gable has a center support flanked by predatory cats. In the valley of the Vezza River, in the border region between the territories of Tarquinia, Volsinii/Orvieto, and Falerii, lie a few painted chamber tombs recently republished by G. Cifani, among them a four-chamber tomb from the midfifth century discovered in 1904 in the Pranzovico area near Grotte San Stefano. Its wall paintings are now largely destroyed; we are therefore obliged to
rely on early watercolors by E. Stefani. The paintings are mainly concentrated in the main center chamber and include such scenes as a banquet, dancing, and athletic games (including the kalpe), for which excellent precedents are found in Tarquinian tomb painting, but which also have parallels in Chiusi in the Tomb of the Monkey and Tomb of the Casuccini Hill. It is possible that Tarquinian workshops were active here in the Vezza Valley, as in Chiusi, in the Late and SubArchaic phase. In its subject matter and ideology, at least, the Tomb of the Blue Demons (dei Demoni Azzurri), which was discovered in 1985—complete with remains of grave goods—beneath the modern road in Tarquinia’s Monterozzi necropolis, belongs to the end of the period discussed in this chapter. Its paintings represent a mixture of traditional and innovative themes, some of which are of almost revolutionary importance not so much for their style but for their novel iconography and the notions behind it. They are to be published by M. Cataldi. Here, for the first time in Etruscan tomb painting, we can quite clearly identify figures belonging to the underworld, even though they are not named in inscriptions. The dating of this very important tomb has ranged between the middle of the fifth century (M. Torelli) and the first half of the fourth century (F. Gilotta).
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Blue Demons, left wall: section with biga, musicians, and dancers, end of the fifth century ..
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p. 165 Tarquinia, Francesca Giustiniani Tomb, back wall: detail of a richly adorned female dancer with krotala, middle to third quarter of the fifth century ..
p. 166
p. 167
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Funerary Bed: section of the
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Funerary Bed: section of the
right wall with two reclining men wearing wreaths,
right wall with a groom and youth with a light blue
ca. 460 ..
horse, ca. 460 ..
pp. 168–69 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Black Sow: section of the back wall with two doves beneath banquet klines, ca. 450 .. or shortly thereafter.
pp. 170–71 Tarquinia, Maggi Tomb: section of the back wall with animatedly gesturing banqueters and cupbearer, around or shortly after the middle of the fifth century ..
pp. 172–73 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Ship, section of the back wall: banqueting scene with couples lounging on klines and cupbearers, beneath them footstools with sandals, around or shortly after the middle of the fifth century ..
p. 174
p. 175
Tarquinia, Francesca Giustiniani Tomb: section of the
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Maiden: section of the right
back wall with a male dancer in a short blue cloak,
wall with a female banqueter lounging on a richly
middle to third quarter of the fifth century ..
adorned kline, end of the fifth century ..
p. 176 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Cock, left portion of the left wall: dancing Phersu with mask, female dancer with krotala, and aulos player, ca. 400 ..
p. 177 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Blue Demons, section of the right wall: blue-skinned demon of death and bearded serpents in a rocky landscape, end of the fifth century ..
pp. 178–79 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Blue Demons, section of the left wall: procession with biga, dancers, and musicians, end of the fifth century ..
p. 180 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Blue Demons, section of the right wall: demon of death with dark-red skin grabbing a woman, end of the fifth century ..
According to Cataldi, the paintings were probably only executed around 430/20 (terminis ante quem), some time after the tomb was created. They were done on very thick plaster strengthened with nails, with almost no preliminary drawing. The painting workshop responsible for them could be the same one that painted Querciola Tomb I. The conventionally structured back-wall banquet with four klines (three with pairs of men and one with the married couple) is to be understood as the ultimate goal in the hereafter, so to speak, toward which the figures on the side walls are moving. The very poorly preserved paintings on the entry wall show either funeral games— taking place in the here and now—or (according to Cataldi) a rocky landscape with a stag hunt, a young warrior, and possible remnants of a serpent’s head (a mythical hunt or Herakles battling with the Lernean hydra?). As in old Caeretan tombs, it is possible to distinguish a left-hand male side and a right-hand female side in the Tomb of the Blue Demons. On the left wall we see the deceased man’s journey into the hereafter on a biga (in terms of iconography, like that in the Francesca Giustiniani Tomb). He is accompanied
by musicians and dancers, much as in a funus triumphalis. To some extent the scene is a precursor of the magistrates’ processions seen in later Tarquinian tomb paintings and on the so-called Sarcophagus of the Magistrate from Cerveteri. On the right wall the deceased wife has arrived in the underworld and is being greeted by her ancestors in a landscape. Iconographically, the older woman is based on traditional depictions of Demeter, the younger follows the pattern for Persephone. The river Acheron is symbolized—for the first time in Etruscan tomb painting—by the Greek Charon on his skiff with an oar, in a scene reminiscent of Attic painting, especially those on fifth-century white-ground lekythoi. Four blue- or blackskinned demons of frightful appearance populate the rocky, three-dimensional landscape of Hades, which appears to have been based on Attic precedents like Polygnotos’s famous Nekyia, or Hades landscape, in the Lesche (clubhouse) of the Cnidians at Delphi from the second quarter of the fifth century. The demon with a blue flesh tone and serpentine beard could be a reminiscence of the frightening blue-skinned Eurynomos in that nekyia, and according to M. Rendeli, the younger
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Blue Demons, section of the right wall: two demons of death in a rocky landscape, the left one with blue skin and serpents, the right one with dark skin and wings, end of the fifth century ..
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winged demon or genius may represent Hypnos. Personifications like Hypnos and Thanatos attending the corpses of heroes are documented in Greek art since the Late Archaic period. Such novel subjects probably reached Etruria Padana from Athens in the fifth century by way of Spina, as numerous depictions on Felsina steles from the second half of the fifth century suggest. In the later fifth century and especially in the fourth century, Etruria was subjected to various new religious and eschatological influences from Greece, mainly of a Dionysian, Eleusinian, Orphic, or Pythagorean nature. Several experts would like to see in the iconography of the Tomb of the Blue Demons allusions to some mystery religion, probably Dionysian, revealed only to initiates. The painted pinakes so highly regarded in Cerveteri in the Archaic period virtually disappear in the fifth century, though isolated finds— almost all of them in Cerveteri—show that the genre did not die out completely. The fragment of a small clay plaque from the middle of the fifth century painted with a dancing figure—probably a votive image—which was found next to the northwest gate of ancient Tarquinia, is especially worthy of mention. Red-figure vase painting was of little importance in Etruria in the fifth century, doubtless in part because of the considerable drop in imports of Attic red-figure pottery after 480/470 .. Attic imports now arrived in Italy primarily by way of the central (Numana) and upper Adriatic, through the harbor cities that served as emporia, Spina and Adria, which with their mixed populations of Etruscans, Greeks, and Venetii had begun to flourish in the late sixth century. Thanks to them, the most important Attic red-figure vases from the Early to High Classical periods, like those of Hermonax and the Niobid and Penthesilea Painters have come mainly from the necropolises of northeast Italy, especially from Spina. From there such wares were marketed to Felsina/Bologna and to other centers in the Padana. A huge bowl from Spina by the Penthesilea Painter, seventy-two centimeters in diameter, showing the Dioscuri before an altar in the center and the labors of Theseus around the edge, is deserving of particular notice. This is but one of hundreds of fifth-century Attic redfigure vases from the tombs of Spina that form the collection of the Museo Archeologico in Ferrara. This high-value Attic export pottery was
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impossible for Etruscan potters and vase painters to match, either technically (firing and glazing) or artistically. Yet the style and subject matter of these Attic vessels definitely influenced fifthcentury Etruscan tomb painting, especially in Tarquinia, as we will see. Athens continued to be the leading center for Greek vase painting up to the turn from the fifth to the fourth century. The Rich Style vases of the Meidias Painter, some of which have also been found in Etruscan tombs, can be seen as a last culmination. Most notable is the famous hydria from Populonia, with a depiction of Aphrodite and her attendants. We find such large-format Attic red-figure vases from the close of the fifth century elsewhere in Italy, primarily in Numana and Spina, in Campania, in the Tiber Valley centers, and in northern Tyrrhenian harbor centers bordering on CeltoLigurian territories like Populonia and Aleria. In the fourth century the center of red-figure vase production then shifted for good to the Greek colonies in southern Italy, as we will see in the next chapter. In Etruria (mainly in Orvieto) in the first decades of the fifth century, also in the workshops of Etruscan-dominated northern Campania, especially Capua, black-figure vases of relatively modest quality and clearly indebted to Attic prototypes continued to be produced. Especially worthy of mention are the vessels from the period around 480 by the Dancing Satyrs Painter, whose repertoire was mainly made up of Dionysian figures. We are indebted for the earliest and most important Etruscan red-figure vases to the workshop of the Praxias Painter, who worked in Vulci in the second quarter of the fifth century and produced mainly amphorae. He was apparently a Greek metic, perhaps from Cumae or Rhegion in southern Italy, who signed an amphora discovered in Vulci in the Chalcidic alphabet with “Arnthe Praxias.” These were not true red-figure vases, to be sure, for the figures are painted rather than left the color of the clay. This overpainting technique is found in Etruria up into Early Hellenistic times, around 300. The often deliberately isolated and large-format figures of the Praxias Painter, whose incised preliminary drawings reveal considerable draftsmanship, recall to some extent those of the famous Berlin Painter. We even find less important representatives of the Praxias Group in the third quarter of the fifth century, as for example in Tomb 45 of the Osteria necropolis in Vulci.
Only in the last two decades of the fifth century are there significant innovations in style and subject matter, mainly of a Dionysian nature. In Vulci and Orvieto, especially, we again find vase painters of a certain importance. They were strongly influenced by the vase painting of Attica, though their imitations were highly simplified. Among them are the Pitt Rivers Painter, the Perugia Painter, and Sommavilla Painter, as well as the higher-quality Argonaut Group. Around 400 the Diespater Painter, who had migrated either directly from Athens or from the PanHellenic colony of Thurioi in southern Italy, emerges as the first important representative of the school of red-figure vase painting in Falerii that would become so prominent in the fourth century. The eponymous vase, an extremely highquality stamnos from the necropolis at Falerii Veteres/Cività Castellana, depicts on different levels Zeus between Ganymedes and Athena with
Eros, framed by large palmette-volute ornaments. With the founding of the colony Thurioi in 444, which was largely backed by Athens, numerous Attic potters and vase painters appear to have migrated to Magna Graecia, some probably even into the Faliscan region of Etruria, where they found a new field of activity and a rich new market. Prominent among them were several followers of the Meidias Painter like the Meleager and Erbach Painters. Surely it is in this context that we are to understand the presence in Etruria of the Greek painter Metron, apparently from Athens originally, who probably established a workshop in Vulci in the last quarter of the fifth century and who signed a kylix found in Populonia “Metru menece.” In the next chapter we will return to the school of Faliscan red-figure vase painting that was so prominent during the first two generations of the fourth century.
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Blue Demons, section of the back wall: banqueting scene with lounging couple and aulos player, end of the fifth century ..
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The Great Changes The Late Classical Period (–/ ..)
The period known as the Late Classical period in Greek culture and art history, one associated with superb artists in the realm of sculpture, painting, and architecture, was a time of major changes in Etruria as well. It was only then that influences from Greek Classical art finally prevailed, in painting as well as other arts. On the international and pan-Italian scenes, Etruria played an ever smaller political role in the fourth century. The period saw the Romans capture and destroy, in 396, the once vital southern Etruscan metropolis of Veii; numerous additional military skirmishes between an increasingly powerful Rome and various Etruscan cities, above all Tarquinia; several incursions by the Gauls, especially into the Chiusi region in interior Etruria; plundering along the Tyrrhenian coast by the Syracusans, notably of the shrine at Pyrgi in 384; and the loss of Etruria Padana. Imports of Attic pottery virtually ceased. Moreover, we know of social unrest in a number of Etruscan cities, notably Arezzo. At the same time, it is possible to discern a kind of economic, cultural, and artistic resurgence in a number of Etruscan metropolises— Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Vulci, Falerii—with a redefinition of the relationship between the city and its chora, or surrounding countryside. In fact, it was in the fourth century that various northern and northeastern Etruscan cities like Volterra, Arezzo, Cortona, and Perugia really came into their own as important economic and art centers. Orvieto/Volsinii and Falerii Veteres attained particular prominence in this period. To an increasing degree, a cultural-artistic “koine” was developed over the course of the fourth century in central Italy (Etruria, Latium, Campania), which will be discussed in greater detail in the last chapter. As for art and craft production in Etruria in the fourth century, one can point to the
definitive establishment of minting; to highquality relief and painted sarcophagi, usually with lid figures from Cerveteri, Vulci, and Orvieto, then after mid-century mainly from Tarquinia; tomb sculptures from Chiusi; high-quality bronze sculptures (like the head from Lake Bolsena in the British Museum and the head from Cagli in the Marches), mainly from workshops in Arezzo and Orvieto; and greater numbers of higher-quality bronze mirrors (from Vulci and elsewhere) and cistae (especially from Praeneste) ornamented with figural engravings. We also note a definite resurgence of urban building, with the construction of new city walls or the restoration of existing ones, the erection of increasingly monumental temples (for example the Ara della Regina in Tarquinia), and ever more luxurious and detailed tomb architecture (especially in some of the aristocratic Caeretan hypogea from the second half of the century, which emphasize the burial of the tomb’s owner). Roof terracottas reappeared on a number of Etruscan temples (the Ara della Regina in Tarquinia, with its famous team of winged horses; the temple at Celle, near Falerii; and the temple at Pyrgi). And of course the very rich traditions of tomb painting and particularly redfigure vase painting continued. The most important studies of late Etruscan tomb painting of the fourth and third centuries from the last three decades are those by H. Blanck, F. Coarelli, G. Colonna, M. Cristofani, F. Gilotta, A. Maggiani, F.-H. Massa-Pairault, A. and M. Morandi, A. Naso, F. Serra Ridgway, M. Torelli, C. Weber-Lehmann, and the present writer. Their main interests have been in reconstructing the history of the gentry and exploring possible historical connections, establishing a more precise chronology, and deciphering the symbolism relating to death and the afterlife.
Facing page: Vulci, François Tomb, right wall of the “atrium”: detail of Vel Saties, wearing a wreath and ceremonial attire, and of the young Arnza with bird, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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Right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Gorgoneion, back wall: two youths in conversation in a grove of small trees, gable with Gorgoneion and palmette-volute ornaments, beginning of the fourth century .. Below left: Tarquinia, Tomb 2327 (Bertazzoni Tomb), back wall: painted loculus flanked by two female dancers, beginning of the fourth century .. Below right: Tarquinia, Tomb 3242, back wall: loculus painted with dancers and musicians, beginning of the fourth century ..
The paintings of Tomb of Orcus (dell’ Orco) I are the first in Tarquinia, or for that matter in Etruria, that can rightly be considered “Classical,” though the precise dating of the tomb is still disputed. Yet it is possible that a number of tombs displaying a more conventional style and more traditional subject matter, like the Tomb of the Gorgoneion, the Tomb of the Warrior, the Tomb of the Pygmies, and Tombs 2327 and 3242, which were discussed in the preceding chapter,
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were still being created in the first decades of the fourth century. We have to assume that for a time in the last decades of the fifth century and first decades of the fourth, both traditional and more innovative subject matter and both conservative and more progressive styles were pursued simultaneously. There are a limited number of painted Tarquinian tombs from the second and third quarters of the fourth century; the main ones are
the grand aristocratic tombs Orcus I and II, the Tomb of the Shields, the Ceisinie Tomb, and the Tomb with Pilaster and Female Figure (con Pilastro e Figura di Donna). In the Orvieto/ Volsinii area there are also the two Golini tombs and the Tomb of the Hescanas, which probably dates from the waning fourth century; in Vulci the famous François Tomb; in Sarteano near Chiusi the recently discovered Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga (della Quadriga infernale), as well as isolated tombs in Blera and near Bomarzo. The patrons and occupants of these large aristocratic painted tombs were a relatively small number of noble families, some of them interrelated, that held the influential political and religious offices and controlled politics, the economy, and commerce in what was still a class-conscious and hierarchical society. Also important in any reconstruction of the history of Etruscan painting in the Late Classical period are a number of painted sarcophagi, most notably the Amazon Sarcophagus and Sarcophagus of the Priest from Tarquinia. In contrast to the fifth century, red-figure vase painting from the Faliscan regions and a few Etruscan centers once again provides us with important information as well. The arrangement and composition of paintings in these newer tombs are in many respects freer and less organic than in preceding periods, in part as a result of the tombs’ architecture. In tombs of the gentry from the Late Classical phase, with flat ceilings and mostly without benches like the tombs Orcus I and II in Tarquinia and Golini I and II near Orvieto, paintings generally fill the entire height of the walls above a base zone, but can be interrupted by architectural or painted elements like doors and windows and can be subdivided into individual scenes or isolated groupings. The gable is now no longer treated separately but rather incorporated into the wall composition. In multichamber tomb complexes like the Tomb of the Shields and the François Tomb, figural paintings are concentrated in the main central chamber. The condition and the heterogeneity in style and subject matter in late Etruscan tomb painting—at times even within the same tomb— generally do not allow the sort of identification of workshop connections and painting groups possible in the painting of the sixth and fifth centuries. The leading painting workshops continued to be centered mostly—in the third century
solely—in Tarquinia while workshops in other places tended to be of only local significance and active for only a limited time. Whether the paintings in Vulci’s François Tomb are to be attributed to some trendsetting Tarquinian workshop remains to be seen. It is possible to identify certain similarities between fourth-century tomb painting in Chiusi, Orvieto, and Tarquinia. Also, the precise dating of many late Etruscan painted tombs remains a puzzle to this day, especially those from the waning Late Classical and High Hellenistic phases; assigning dates to Early Hellenistic tombs is generally easier. Images of the deceased and their ancestors become much more common and are more easily identified beginning in the fourth century than in the tomb painting of the preceding centuries. The well-known large, aristocratic painted tombs in Tarquinia, Orvieto, and Vulci furnish the best examples. It was this same period that saw the creation of the extensive Etruscan family and clan archives reflected in the period of the early Roman Empire in the famous Elogia Tarquiniensia, which have been published by M. Torelli. They document the importance of the aristocratic gentes that reconstituted themselves over the course of the fourth century following the socalled “seculo buio” (dark age). The Roman annalists surely drew on these archives. Moreover, from various Etruscan inscriptions we get hints of ceremonies in honor of the “nacnvaiasi,” or “avis”— ancestors—that apparently took place in tombs. In this connection it is also important to mention the parentatio, in which a son or grandson or some other descendant might transfer the mortal remains of a father or grandfather to a newly built tomb. The famous François Tomb in Vulci, from the third quarter of the fourth century, contained the bodies and grave goods from the tomb of the family founder, some four generations back, which lay above it. The turn from the fifth to the fourth century saw a fundamental change in Etruscan tomb painting, especially with respect to iconography, ideology, and sepulchral symbolism. A few decades later we find changes in style and painting technique as well. We have already seen indications of such changes in the late-fifth-century Tomb of the Blue Demons, discussed in the previous chapter. As a rule, the images in Etruscan tomb painting from the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods are far more concerned with
Tarquinia, Museo Archeologico: ends of the Sarcophagus of the Priest from Tarquinia with scenes from an Amazonomachy, ca. 330/320 ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, back wall of the main chamber: section with Larth Velcha and Velia Seithiti at a banqueting table, serving woman with fan, and long genealogical inscription, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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death and the afterlife than those of earlier periods, which were—at least outwardly—more realistic in their depiction of the here and now and for the most part more cheerful. They now include depictions of the deceased taking leave of his relatives, the journey—on foot, on horseback, in a biga or cart, by ship—to the underworld. These frequently include images of typically Etruscan demons like Charun and Vanth as potent reminders that death is universal and inescapable. The passage into the hereafter, sometimes symbolized by a round-arched gate— like actual gates found in such cities as Volterra, Perugia, and Falerii Novi—can be made either alone or in the company of others. There the deceased is frequently awaited by his or her ancestors. Until well into the third quarter of the fourth
century, members of the prominent gentes still chose to have themselves portrayed at banquets, but now these banquets lack their earlier joviality; they are now clearly set in the beyond, or Hades. The underworld is indicated either by the presence of dark clouds and demons, as in the Tomb of Orcus I, images of its rulers Aita/Hades and Phersipnei/ Persephone, as in the Tomb of Orcus II and the Orvietan Golini Tomb I, or by a rocky, marshy landscape, as in the Tomb of Orcus II. The participants at the banquet are generally the person who commissioned the tomb and his ancestors, at times shown to be expecting the arrival of a newly deceased member of the clan. In some instances only the men still recline on klines, while the women sit at the foot end. In the Tomb of the Shields, the tomb builder’s
parents are even shown twice, once at the banquet and again as though enthroned, thus doubly honored and exalted. In the Tomb of Orcus II, the deceased were depicted in a banquet scene now only partially preserved, gazing at a nekyia of Homeric stamp, with a number of Greek heroes, underworld gods, and Etruscan demons. Vel Saties, the owner of the famous François Tomb in Vulci, also had himself surrounded by Greek heroes and mythological figures. With such imagery the tomb owner and his clan clearly wished to identify themselves with the culture and thought of Greece, to underscore the importance and antiquity of their lineage by suggesting Greek descent. In this same tomb, which has depictions of battles between victorious Vulcians and their allies and other Etruscans dating back some 200 years, Vel Saties also pointed to the glorious military triumphs of his forefathers. Typical of later Etruscan tomb painting is a greater emphasis placed on the individual and the individual personality than was evident in the earlier painting of the sixth and fifth centuries. We see this in the numerous inscriptions, for example, most of them genealogical. Also the images are more like portraits, a quality most apparent in the faces of the deceased in the Tomb of the Shields, Vulci’s François Tomb, and later, in the third century, the Tomb of the Meeting (del Convegno). Now faces are depicted not only frontally and in profile, but often in three-
quarter view, and they can express such emotions as solemnity or sorrow. Although the people depicted are often identified by name, these are still not portraits in the strictly “photographic” sense, but only common contemporary types, as we also find them in other Etruscan art genres, for example the profile heads on Volterran kelebai, in bronze sculpture, the heads of figures on the lids of stone sarcophagi and urns, and in terracotta votive heads. Inscriptions, often preserved only in fragments, if at all, were generally painted in black or red, less often incised. They become a common and important element of Etruscan tomb painting beginning in the mid-fourth century. Much the same can be said of the sarcophagi that began to be produced, mainly in Tarquinia, at this same time. Frequently inscriptions also appear on the walls of tomb chambers that have not been painted; as a rule these can be shown to have belonged to the classe intermedia rather than the aristocratic elite. In a number of tombs there are even isolated Latin inscriptions that were apparently added in connection with later burials. The inscriptions generally include the name and rank of the deceased, their father’s name and frequently their mother’s as well, any political and religious titles, providing a sort of cursus honorum, and their age at death. Among the magistracies mentioned, which were reserved exclusively for members of the leading aristocratic
Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus II, left wall: section of the nekyia (Hades landscape) with Agamemnon and Tiresias and a small tree with small black figures, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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Florence, Museo Archeologico: Amazon Sarcophagus from Tarquinia, detail of one of the ends with Amazon, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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clans, we find the zilath, zilath cechaneri, purth, maru, cepen, camthi, and even zilath mechl rasnal (= praetor Etruriae). Many inscriptions are of considerable length, as in the Tomb of Orcus I and the Tomb of the Shields, amounting to virtual eulogies. With the help of these genealogical inscriptions we are able to ascribe a number of tombs to specific clans, like the Murina, Velca, Pinie, Curuna, Anina, and Pumpu in Tarquinia, the Satie in Vulci, and the Leinie, Vercna, and Hescana near Orvieto. Because they are often only fragmentary, such attributions can be disputed. The Tomb of Orcus, for example, was formerly assigned to the Spurina (M. Torelli), but according to a new reading it seems more likely that it belonged to the Murina (M. Morandi). In a number of the very extensive tombs, some of them
incorporating several dozen burials, members of other families—generally related through marriage—were apparently accommodated as well, as in the Tomb of the Shields. Inscriptions often document the continued used of tombs over several generations, in some cases as many as five. From the sarcophagi, paintings, and inscriptions in Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Anina Family, it is possible to reconstruct a precise genealogy spanning at least three generations. In addition to the deceased and their family members and ancestors—the members of earlier generations are often shown awaiting the arrival of the newly deceased—mythological figures, predominantly gods and heroes and less frequently the demons of death, are identified by name. Servants, slaves, and other persons of lower social status are only
rarely named. They are identified in Orvieto’s Golini Tomb I, an interesting exception that appears to confirm what the ancient sources tell us about the relative freedom of Volsinii’s servant class. It is typical of the image of the hereafter presented in late Etruscan tomb painting, especially its banqueting scenes and magistrates’ processions, that social distinctions and hierarchies are perpetuated even in death, that the earthly privileges of the aristocratic ruling class are transferred, so to speak, to the afterlife. The major Etruscan tombs and tomb paintings from the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods have a distinctly aristocratic aura. They glorify the clan in question and the political and military achievements of its ancestors. They also point up the relationships between the aristocracies of the various Etruscan cities resulting from a shrewd policy of intermarriage. Genealogical inscriptions and depictions of family members from different generations that emphasize lineage, titles, and achievements reveal a virtual obsession with the gens and an ancestral cult that to some extent resembles that of the early Romans as described by Polybius (6.53). At this time the main idea behind all tomb painting was the celebration of the family; the tomb owner’s father and his forebears are presented as heroes, his own high social, political, military, and/or religious standing is proclaimed, and with either friezes of weapons or separate depictions of them, emphasis is placed on the ability of the gens to defend itself. Included in the programs of some tomb paintings, as in the François Tomb in Vulci and the Giglioli Tomb in Tarquinia, are allusions to the decisive military encounters between Rome and the southern Etruscan cities, especially Vulci and Tarquinia, in which—though in coded form—anti-Roman sentiments and propaganda are evident. And it must be remembered that it was Rome that ultimately prevailed in such encounters. The last of Etruria’s tomb paintings were created at a time when the nation had been subjugated and was being gradually Romanized, facts that could hardly have failed to influence their subject matter. The iconographic changes in late Etruscan tomb painting just outlined are unmistakable. Realistic content now gives way to imaginary scenes; subject matter relating to the underworld and the afterlife comes to predominate, and along with the many genealogical inscriptions and
“ancestral galleries” of almost individualized “portraits,” is eloquent testimony to a new orgoglio gentilizio and pronounced cult of ancestors. What remains to be explained is the degree to which a new spirituality and new beliefs from Greece and Magna Graecia stood behind these pictorial changes. Elements of OrphicPythagorean teachings about transmigration and the cleansing of souls through mortification and purification have often been suspected in figural friezes like those in the Tomb of the Cardinal (del Cardinale), the Tartaglia Tomb, and the Orvietan Tomb of the Hescanas. Such notions of possible punishment in the hereafter are at times blended in with illustrations of the punishment meted out to mythical figures like Sisyphus. The depictions of black, wingless “little souls” in a small tree in the nekyia of the Tomb of Orcus II, later referred to as “animulae” or “eidola” in Virgil (Aenead 6.706ff.), which according to Pythagorean doctrine were destined for reincarnation, could point in this direction. In many cases the tomb could now be considered an image of the afterlife, so to speak, peopled by gods, heroes, and demons. The concept of the “realm of shades,” the Greek Hades with its inhabitants, is of course Greek in origin, and based in the Homeric tradition. The banquet, still seen up into the third quarter of the fourth century, is now clearly taking place in the hereafter, and it is thus to be understood as a banchetto eterno. Some scholars, like M. Torelli, feel that the banquets of the sixth and fifth centuries were set in the afterlife as well. Prefigurations of these new concepts can be seen in the Tomb of the Blue Demons from the later fifth century. At first these innovations may have reached the Padana from Attica by way of Spina, and thus come to Etruria, but in the fourth century we must assume that much that was new came from Magna Graecia. The subjects that appear to be cruel and bloodthirsty at first glance were formerly interpreted too simplistically, as indications of a general political, social, and economic decline and a consequent pessimism and fear of the hereafter. But they are not necessarily signs of a fundamental religious change. On the katabasis eis Adou, the journey into the underworld that is now depicted so frequently, generally undertaken in a biga, it appears that trials of various kinds had to be withstood and obstacles overcome before ultimate bliss, presented as having mainly Dionysian features, was finally attained.
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F. Serra Ridgway, for example, sees even in Etruria’s late period an altogether positive, hopefilled belief in the afterlife, part Elysium and part Tartarus, and a changeless and just cosmic order. The final goal was eternal, heroic life in the hereafter in the company of gods and ancestors. It is possible to divide the iconographic subjects and motifs that appear in later Etruscan tomb painting into three basic groupings. First there are the elements taken over from Greece and Magna Graecia, most notably the nekyia, mythological subjects, and motifs like Typhon and the vine goddess. Then there are the specifically Etruscan elements: the banquets, the journey into the hereafter, demons, magistrates’ processions, historicizing scenes, and genealogical inscriptions. Finally, there are those elements that can be seen as expressions of a larger artistic and cultural koine. Here one thinks mainly of ornament and botanical decor. Of course many paintings blend Greek and Etruscan features, for example in mythological scenes combining Greek gods and heroes and Etruscan demons of death. Most prominent among the Greek motifs is the nekyia, with underworld gods and heroes, as in the Tomb of Orcus II. It was probably not based directly on the famous Nekyia by the Athenian painter Nikias, but rather on a southern Italian painting or even several paintings from Magna Graecia. This is suggested by comparison with pictures on Apulian vases, for example those by the Dareios Painter. The faces, especially, are like those in Apulian vase painting, tilted slightly downward and rendered in three-quarter view, with curly, wiglike hair that looks almost baroque. Another very popular subject in late Etruscan painting is Achilles’ slaughter of the Trojan captives in honor of the dead Patroclus. Patterns for this were surely found in Greek painting, especially that of Magna Graecia (“grandes picturae,” Pliny, Nat. Hist. 35.132), that have been lost. But there are echoes of this famous subject in literature and in other art genres, in tomb and sarcophagus painting, in vase painting, in cista and mirror engravings, and in sarcophagus and urn reliefs. Most scholars presume that the original pattern for the sacrifice was a painting from Magna Graecia, probably Tarentum, from the mid-fourth century; the rendering of the Patroclus figure with its bandages is typical of the art of Magna Graecia. Among the many reflections of it in Etruria one could point to the François Tomb
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in Vulci, the Sarcophagus of the Priest from Tarquinia, depictions on vases (a Faliscan stamnos in Berlin, the Patroclus Krater in Naples) and cistae (the Révil Ciste in London, British Museum), sarcophagus reliefs (from Torre San Severo, near Orvieto), and urn reliefs (Volterra). Of course there were Etruscan changes and additions, for example the inclusion of death demons, that served to nationalize the Greek subject matter. There was also probably a pattern dating to the third quarter of the fourth century from Magna Graecia, again probably Tarentum, for Laius’s rape of Chrysippus and Laius before Apollo at Delphi. Reflections of this subject are documented in Etruria on cistae (Cista Barberini) and vases (four from Apulia and a Faliscan one), but not in tomb painting. The Argonaut episode with the Bebrycians is also documented on the famous Cista Ficoroni from Praeneste, but not in tomb painting. Even more popular in Etruria—especially in sepulchral art—was the Amazonomachy; although it is not documented in tomb painting, it prominently appears on painted sarcophagi (like the Amazon Sarcophagus and the Sarcophagus of the Priest from Tarquinia) and sarcophagus reliefs (the Sarcophagus of Velthur Partunus from Tarquinia). Specifically Etruscan features of later tomb paintings are the demons of death, mainly Charun and Vanth, found in numerous tombs. It was formerly thought that the earliest certain depiction of Charun is the large-scale figure in the Tomb of Orcus I, from the second quarter of the fourth century. Here the demon, with a hooked nose, serpentine locks of hair, wings, a short loincloth, boots, a hammer, and bluish skin—the color of decomposition—already presents his typical Etruscan features. After this, depictions of Etruscan death demons multiply in funereal art, from the second half of the fourth century down into the second century in tomb painting (largeand small-format depictions) and Etruscan redfigure vase painting (for example the Vanth Group from Orvieto, the Clusium-Volaterrae Group, and Caeretan vessels), in sarcophagus, urn, and tomb-facade reliefs, and in the form of stone sculptures (Charun statue from the Caeretan Tomb of the Blue Demons [dei Demoni]), bronze statuettes, and terracotta masks. Since only a few of these Etruscan demons are identified by inscriptions—the main names in addition to Charun are Tuchulcha and the female
Vanth—we cannot identify a number of them with certainty. We must assume that there were additional Etruscan death demons whose names we do not know. That there were several types for Charun alone is proved by inscriptions next to the four Charun figures guarding the false doors in the Tarquinian Tomb of the Charuns (dei Caronti). Charun occasionally appears in Etruscan sepulchral art divorced of any direct context; otherwise he appears as a herald of the hereafter in mythological and battle scenes and at the deceased’s leave-taking from his relatives, as an attendant to the dead or psychopompos, as a guardian of the gate of Hades on his arrival in the underworld, in the hereafter itself, and in the retinue of Aita/Hades. We see this multiplication of functions especially over the course of the third century, leading in the second century to an ever greater variety in the Charun iconography, including his diverse attributes. The female Vanth, generally winged and attractive, with a short belted chiton that leaves her breasts exposed and with a torch as an attribute, often serves the same or similar functions, especially that of psychopompos. The much less frequently docu-
mented Tuchulcha has especially terrifying features, with a bird’s beak, ass’s ears, and serpents. A valuable study by I. Krauskopf has shown that demons and genii of various kinds and functions were already a part of the Etruscan pantheon in the Archaic and Classical periods, though they were only rarely depicted. When they were shown they took a different form. Winged demons and genii of a “benign,” youthful appearance already appear in tombs from the later fifth and early fourth centuries, as in the Tomb of the Maiden and the Tomb of the Warrior, then in the fourth century in the Tomb of the Shields (one with a diptych) and the Tomb of Orcus II (as servants at a banquet in the hereafter). Comparable images are found on Etruscan bronze mirrors. Chiusan tomb sculpture from the late fifth century also occasionally includes winged female demons or genii together with the deceased. The beginnings of the Charun iconography in Etruria can be traced back to the close of the fifth century, interestingly enough in the Etruscan northeast, more precisely Felsina/Bologna. On the typical relief-ornamented Felsina grave steles, we occasionally see a winged, youthful demon of an Tarquinia, Tomb of the Warrior, entry wall: acrobats and dancing warriors framing the door; in the gable, a winged “genius” and a panther, first quarter of the fourth century ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb of the Warrior, back wall: banqueting scene with two couples lounging on klines, a cockfight and two panthers in the gable, first quarter of the fourth century ..
obviously Etruscan mold, who is then replaced by a wingless older man with an oar and frequently with a cap and torch as well. On steles, the latter clearly functions as an escort for the deceased, but with oar and cap he corresponds iconographically to the Greek Charon, even though his skiff is never shown. Apparently he is a somewhat altered version of the Greek Charon, who was very often pictured, mainly as a peaceful old ferryman— Charon geraios pothmeus—on Attic white-ground lekythoi from the second half of the fifth century (admittedly almost never exported to Etruria) used in the cult of the dead. It has already been mentioned that Greek influence was particularly strong in northeastern Italy in the fifth century, that is to say Etruria Padana, mainly by way of the Adriatic emporia Spina and Adria. The Tomb of the Blue Demons in Tarquinia, from the last decades of the fifth century, whose discovery in 1985 greatly expanded and revised our knowledge of Etruscan demonology, has already been discussed. The paintings on its right wall, which are clearly set in the hereafter, are especially instructive. There—for the first and only time in Etruria—we see the Greek Charon with an oar in his skiff as ferryman across the river Acheron,
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as well as four demons of death of the Etruscan mold—again for the first time in Etruria— frightful-looking creatures with blue, brownish, or black skin, some winged, some armed with serpents. Whereas the Charon iconography with skiff still presents a Greek-Attic signature, the four demons are typically Etruscan, even though we cannot attach names to them, as there are not yet any inscriptions in the tomb. Thus the Tomb of the Blue Demons, which is clearly older than the famous Tomb of Orcus I with its large-scale depiction of Charun, and also older than the wellknown Etruscan red-figure vessel in Munich in the form of Charun’s head, serves as an invaluable source for the rise and development of demon iconography in Etruria, which accordingly was not a fourth-century phenomenon after all, but had its roots in the fifth century. An early study on Charun, who like no other Etruscan demon represents death itself and also probably new eschatological thinking in Etruria, is the Belgian scholar F. De Ruyt’s monograph from 1934, which is still valid today. In a seminal recent study, the Bolognese Etruscologist F. Sacchetti has considerably expanded and deepened our knowledge of Charun iconography in Etruria. We now
know seven paintings of Charun in which he is identified by inscriptions, as well as forty-five probable ones from twenty-four different tombs in Tarquinia, Vulci, and Orvieto dating from the later fifth century to the closing third century. Another typically Etruscan subject is the socalled magistrate’s procession. In it we are shown a high official accompanied by togati, insignia bearers, musicians, and sometimes demons. Its iconography is rooted in the fourth century, but it truly came into its own only in Hellenistic times, which is why I postpone a more detailed discussion of it until the next chapter. Landscape elements play a considerably smaller role in later Etruscan tomb painting than in many tombs from the sixth and fifth centuries. Now there are no longer depictions of groves and decorated trees. A few isolated trees, together with reeds and rocks (and black clouds), may be included in Hades landscapes, as in the Tomb of Orcus II. Late Classical and Hellenistic tomb painting in Etruria makes use of numerous ornamental friezes and decorative elements of various kinds, some of them adopted from or influenced by
architectural ornament and often similar to ornaments on contemporary vase painting. We find them applied to the tops and bases of walls, pilaster capitals, false doors, coffered ceilings, and the tombs’ sarcophagi. The ornamental repertoire is considerably richer than in tombs from the seventh through early fourth centuries, where striped friezes predominate. Now it is rare to see a multistripe frieze adorning the top of the wall, as in the Orvietan Golini Tomb II and Tomb of the Hescanas. A 1967 essay on the ornamentation of the François Tomb at Vulci by M. Cristofani showed that a thorough examination of ornaments can help one make considerably more precise observations regarding the provenance and adoption of individual motifs and accordingly even the date of the tomb painting. Cristofani noted the strongly southern ItalianApulian components in the François Tomb and, based on these, dated its paintings to the third quarter of the fourth century, whereas earlier writers had thought it much later, some even placing it in the Late Hellenistic period. To summarize, it can be said that a number of ornamental forms still widely used in earlier Etruscan wall Left: Vulci, François Tomb, main chamber: original ornamental frieze around the top of the walls, third quarter of the fourth century .. Below: Vulci, François Tomb, frieze with scale pattern and female head (nineteenth-century facsimile by Carlo Ruspi), third quarter of the fourth century ..
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p. 197 Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus I, section of the right wall: profile head of the “lovely” Velia in front of dark clouds, second quarter of the fourth century ..
p. 198
p. 199
Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus II: detail of the right wall
Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus II, back wall: detail with the
with profile head of Theseus in the underworld, third
three-headed Geryon wearing armor, third quarter of
quarter of the fourth century ..
the fourth century ..
p. 200 Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus II, back wall: detail with profile head of the serpent-haired underworld goddess Phersipnei/Persephone, third quarter of the fourth century ..
p. 201 Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus II, right wall: detail of the kylikeion with metal vessels, third quarter of the fourth century ..
p. 202
p. 203
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, right side of the back
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, left portion of the
wall of the main chamber: detail of the banqueting
right wall of the main chamber: section of the
scene with small serving woman with fan, third
banqueting scene with kithara player, third quarter
quarter of the fourth century ..
of the fourth century ..
p. 204 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, left portion of the right wall of the main chamber: section of the banqueting scene with profile head of Velthur Velcha crowned with a wreath, third quarter of the fourth century ..
painting no longer appear in tomb paintings after the second quarter of the fourth century, namely checkerboard and circle patterns, friezes of pomegranates, lotus-bud and lotus-palmette friezes, hooked meanders, and climbing ivy. Motifs like the wave frieze, at times enlivened with dolphins and interrupted by palmettes, dogtooth friezes, rosettes, ribbons, and wreaths were, however, taken over into later tomb painting. In Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Typhon (del Tifone), to be sure, the wave frieze does not crown the base zone, as was common, but fills the upper part of the wall. In the waning Late Classical and Early Hellenistic periods a variety of ornamental forms never before seen come to enrich Etruscan painting. Among these are ashlar or incrustation patterns in imitation of architecture, bucrania, female heads with floral decor, the console frieze, dentils (occasionally in perspective), Doric, Ionian, and Lesbic cymatia, three-dimensional meander friezes, three-dimensional scale designs, draped fabric, and grapevine friezes. It is only in the third century that vine and garland friezes, rosette friezes, friezes of Doric metopes, miniaturist figural friezes, and crenellated designs appear. Most of these were common in a number of other genres not only in Etruria but also in other Mediterranean cultures, and thus are part of the artistic and cultural, Greek-influenced koine that will be discussed in the last chapter. Some motifs, like friezes of female heads, friezes of fighting animals, three-dimensional meander friezes, and scale patterns were adopted from southern Italian, specifically Apulian, painting and vase painting, apparently from wares exported from Tarentum. The Doric metope frieze is documented in the southern Italian region—mainly in vase painting—beginning in the fourth century; in Rome in the third century on the sarcophagus of Scipio Barbatus; and in Etruria in tomb architecture and in sarcophagus and urn reliefs in the third and second centuries. Much the same is true of the denticulation borrowed from architectural ornament. Cymatia of the Doric, Ionian, and Lesbic types derived from Greek architecture and painting adorn walls, coffered ceilings, sarcophagi, pilaster capitals, and false doors in numerous Tarquinian tombs from the late fourth and especially the third century. The only place where we find a three-dimensional, perspective meander frieze showing the clear influence of Apulian vase painting is in Vulci’s François Tomb.
Also unique to this famous tomb are a perspective console frieze, a three-dimensional scale design, and women’s heads with floral decor. These ornaments also have precedents in Apulian vase painting. Greek monumental and panel painting, virtually all of which has been lost, underwent decisive change in the fourth century and made enormous progress. We know this mainly from the literary sources, but it can also be seen in Macedonian tomb paintings, some of them of the highest quality. Painting abandoned its former flatness and its more draftsmanly, additive character and now employed such new techniques as shading, hatching, chiaroscuro, highlights, dots of color, and a considerably richer and more sensitive palette. With these tools it was able to create a greater sense of space and verisimilitude. Famous painters like Nikosthenes, Nikias, and Apelles are associated with these innovations, which were mainly introduced in the Greek motherland. But Tarentum had also become an important center of Greek monumental painting, and with the beginning of Hellenism in the Alexandrian era it would be joined by other centers in the eastern Mediterranean region, such as Alexandria and Pergamon. Various literary sources note the increasing importance of many cities in Magna Graecia—especially Tarentum and Syracuse—as centers of art, including painting, in Classical and Hellenistic times. Plutarch, for example (Brut. 23) tells of a painting in Velia/Elea in southern Italy showing Hector’s taking leave of Andromache and his child that moved Brutus’s wife Porcia to tears. Livy (27.16.7), Plutarch (Fab. 22), and Florus (1.13.27) describe the immense art treasures, including famous paintings, that fell into the hands of the Romans after their conquests of Tarentum in 272 and Syracuse in 212. The painting of Tarentum, especially, appears to have been a major influence on techniques, style, iconography, and pictorial cycles as far north as central Italy and Etruria. Some reflection of the large-format Greek painting of the Late Classical period and Early Hellenism has survived on the facades and walls of several royal and princely Macedonian tombs discovered only in recent years. These will be discussed in detail in the last chapter. Painters in Etruria had already used fresco technique during the Archaic period, but in the second quarter and especially the middle of the fourth century they began applying their pigments
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to a much thicker and coarser layer of plaster. In contrast to older tomb paintings, the plaster, consisting of three layers, could now be two to three centimeters thick. Inscribed preliminary drawing, especially of figures, is considerably less common than in the sixth and fifth centuries. It is no longer true preparatory drawing, but only serves to roughly block out the later painting. Inscriptions, however, were very often inscribed before being painted. The only detailed preliminary incised drawing for figures is found in the wall frescoes of the Tomb of Orcus I, still from the first half of the fourth century. Fine outline drawing, which was previously common, now generally disappears. Instead, painters worked with thicker outlines, dark hatching, or pure color: that is, a subtler gradation of colors including blended pigments with an eye toward greater three-dimensionality. Beginning in the mid-fourth century, Etruscan wall painting thus presents a number of technical and stylistic innovations that it doubtless owed to Greek painting and likely took over from Magna
Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus I, right side of the back wall: detail with the winged death demon Charun, second quarter of the fourth century ..
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Graecia, especially Tarentum. The adoption of various iconographic motifs from Magna Graecia at this same time would suggest as much. These developments were not altogether consistent and continuous, for in roughly contemporary tombs one often sees different painting techniques and styles, some of them more conservative and some more innovative. Whereas the painting in Tarquinian tombs from the closing fifth century and even the early fourth century is still to some extent rooted in the Sub-Archaic in terms of technique, style, and to some extent iconography, the Tomb of Orcus I, from the second quarter of the fourth century, finally breaks with that tradition for good. One indication of this is its use of a dark background for the first time. This was intended to suggest the dismal clouds of Hades, but it also lends greater three-dimensionality to the figures placed in front of it. In this phase Etrurian painting still lacks true chiaroscuro. The paintings of the Tomb of Orcus I still show influences from Classical Greek monumental painting of the clos-
ing fifth century, associated with the names of such masters as Parrhasios, Apollodoros, and Zeuxis. Somewhat later we do find a skillful use of chiaroscuro effects in the Tomb of Orcus II, the François Tomb at Vulci, and especially in the tempera paintings on the famous Amazon Sarcophagus from Tarquinia, which will be discussed separately below. The new painting techniques and stylistic trends taken over from the Greeks manifest themselves in Etruscan painting in different ways. The Tomb of the Shields in Tarquinia, for example, still presents a relatively conservative style that emphasizes outlines and internal drawing and makes virtually no attempt at chiaroscuro. Flowing lines and clearly separated, posterlike colors predominate. The François Tomb in Vulci and the Tomb of Orcus II in Tarquinia, by contrast, exhibit by a more innovative, threedimensional painting style that makes use of perspective foreshortening, chiaroscuro effects created by hatching, specific light sources, and a delicately nuanced palette. The simulation of lighting effects is especially apparent in the ornamental friezes on the upper part of the walls of the François Tomb, which employ axonometric perspective. The light source and the position of the viewer have been shifted to the center of the room. We find this same principle at work somewhat later in the dogtooth and rosette frieze of the Tomb of the Typhon. The animal frieze just below the ornamental one in the François Tomb seems more draftsmanly, by contrast, with thick outlines softened by shading. The Tomb of Orcus I was discovered near Tarquinia’s modern cemetery in 1868, and for a long time the dates assigned to it varied widely. It is now generally considered to date from the second quarter of the fourth century. The tomb chamber, with a gabled roof, relief beams, and originally three loculi, still follows the architectural scheme seen at the turn from the fifth to the fourth century. It was probably in the first third of the third century that the tomb was linked to the younger Tomb of Orcus II by way of a connecting passage (called Tomb of Orcus III), whose ceiling is in part decorated with coffers, in part with simple beams. This construction occasioned a number of architectural changes in both tombs, even changes to the paintings. The paintings in Orcus I depicted banquet scenes, now only partially preserved, which were clearly set in the hereafter, as indicated by the dark clouds in the background
and the large winged figure of a blue-skinned Charun. In the loculus in the back wall the tomb’s founder, “. . . urinas,” reclined on a kline at a banquet with others. He held the high office of “zilath mechl rasnal,” and his name is now thought to have been “Murinas,” not “Spurinas,” as proposed by M. Torelli. “[R]avnthu [Th]efrinai” is probably the grandmother of the two children. On the left wall are fragments of a painting of a magistrate’s procession dating from the renovation of the tomb. M. Morandi’s new reading of an inscription on this wall (“Murin . . . Larth zilachnce”) has made it possible to ascribe the tomb to the gens Murina, but members of other families were also buried in it, like Arnth Velcha, the husband of the lovely and richly adorned Velia depicted on the right wall. Her profile head is the most famous of all Etruscan female portraits, one that is included in every history of Etruscan art. M. Torelli saw in the center figure in the banquet scene, now no longer visible, the famous Velthur Spurinas, as the tomb’s founder—together with his wife and perhaps his son and grandsons—who was not only “zilath mechl rasnal,” or “praetor Etruriae,” but also the figure who led a Tarquinian fleet contingent in support of Athens against Syracuse in 414/413. Torelli thereby arrived at a historically based date for the tomb of the closing fifth century, or around 400. Today, for various reasons, this can no longer be maintained. The painting and inscription on the left wall refer to the tomb’s rebuilder in the first half of the third century, when it is certain to have belonged to the gens Murina, a “gens nova” well known to us from Volsinii, Chiusi, and Perugia and allied by marriage with the gens Curuna. It is likely that the Murina were the owners of the Tomb of Orcus I from the start, meaning that the family tomb of the much more famous gens Spurina must be sought elsewhere. Torelli argued that the painter of this outstanding tomb was either a Greek— perhaps from Attica—or a painter from Magna Graecia who was influenced by the art of Attica and fully aware of the innovations in Greek painting from the last decades of the fifth century, that is the time of Zeuxis (who probably came from southern Italy or Sicily but who also worked in Ionian Asia Minor and in Macedonia). The later Tomb of Orcus II is now generally dated to the third quarter of the fourth century. The painting in its large, roughly square chamber with a hip roof, relief beams, and pilasters depicts
Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus I: detail of the back wall with underworld banqueting scene and genealogical inscription, second quarter of the fourth century ..
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a nekyia with gods of the underworld, Greek heroes, and Etruscan demons, most of them identified by inscriptions. Included are scenes from the Odyssey showing Odysseus and Achilles in the underworld, with the “hinthial Teriasals” (shade of the seer Tiresias) to some extent representing the Greek prototype of an Etruscan seer and haruspex. Hades is depicted as a rocky, swampy landscape of reeds inhabited by large serpents, with a dark, cloudy sky. It is further populated by Achmemrum/Agamemnon, Eivas/Aiax, These/Theseus, and Peirithoos—guarded by the demon Tuchulcha—Sispes/Sisyphus, Herakles, the enthroned rulers of the underworld Aita/ Hades and Phersipnei/Persephone, a three-headed monster (a hydra, or more likely Cerberus), and the three-bodied Cerun/Geryon. A small black “soul,” what Virgil calls an “animulae” or “eidola,” perches in a little tree. A kylikeion with splendid gilt-bronze vessels and two youths, one with wings and accordingly probably a genius— perhaps Eros or Hypnos and Thanatos—indicate that the banqueting ancestors, unfortunately now lost, resided in this heroic ambience in the Homeric mold and thus participated in Greek culture in Elysium. Kylikeia had been traditional features of Etruscan banquets since the Late
Archaic period. We also find such a kylikeion set with precious vessels in a tomb in Nola, in Campania, from the second half of the fourth century. The tomb’s entrance is flanked by Herakles, who is abducting Cerberus from Hades, and Theseus, the Athenian hero, who could be an allusion to the alliance between the Tarquinia of the Spurina and Athens. The depiction of nekyia in the Tomb of Orcus II must have been patterned after paintings and vase paintings from Greece, most likely Magna Graecia. The painting style is distinguished by chiaroscuro effects and a delicately nuanced palette. The “animulae” would seem to indicate that the paintings express Orphic-Pythagorean notions about the afterlife. The aristocratic family that owned the tomb apparently wished to emphasize its link to Greek “ancestors” and hence to underscore its ancient lineage and its affiliation with Greek culture. M. Torelli presumed that the founder of this tomb was a grandson of Velthur named Avle, who distinguished himself in battles with Rome in 358 and 351. The paintings in Orcus III, the section connecting the two Orcus tombs, are now considered by some to have been painted around the same time as those in Orcus II, and not later, as was
Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus II, loculus in the right wall: detail with blond youth and kylikeion with metal vessels, third quarter of the fourth century .. Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of Orcus II: detail of the right wall with winged death demon Tuchulcha and Theseus in the underworld, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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Tarquinia, Museo Archeologico: end of the sarcophagus of Larth Alvethna painted with battle scenes, last quarter of the fourth century ..
Below left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, back chamber: back wall with painted shields, third quarter of the fourth century .. Below right: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, main chamber: back wall with underworld scenes, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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generally held by earlier scholars (M. Cataldi, for example, dated them to the end of the third century). Their violent depiction in a niche of the blinding of “Cuclu” (Polyphemus) by “Uthuste” (Odysseus) and his comrades is distinguished by a very heavy black outlines and broad areas of shading. It attests to the popularity of the Odyssey myths in late Etruscan sepulchral art, especially Volterran urn reliefs. The Tomb with Pilaster and Female Figure and the Ceisinie Tomb must have been created at roughly the same time as the Tomb of Orcus II. Neither of them survives. The former had traces of large-scale figures, among them a richly bejeweled woman who can be compared favorably with female profile heads in the Tomb of the Shields. Among its inscriptions there was even a later one in Latin. The four-chambered Ceisinie Tomb can be compared in type and iconography with Orcus tombs and the Tomb of the Shields. Its paintings are known only from the eighteenth-century Smuglewicz engravings published by Byres. Their grapevine frieze and demons are reminiscent of Orcus I, their serpent gable of Orvieto’s Golini Tomb II. Of particular interest are the largeformat pilaster figures, a youth and two demons armed with serpents. The Tomb of the Shields, from the third quarter of the fourth century, was discovered in 1870, but to this day it has not been properly pub-
lished and documented. A thorough study is soon to be presented by A. Maggiani. The nineteenthcentury drawings by G. Mariani are important for our knowledge of numerous details. It is a spacious four-chamber tomb with a cruciform ground plan, connecting doors and windows, and a hip roof with columen and crossbeams in the center chamber, where the wall paintings are concentrated. A number of genealogical inscriptions, some relatively long, ascribe the tomb to the gens Velcha, which distinguished itself in military conflicts with Rome. However, isolated members of other clans like the Aprthnai and Camna were buried here as well. Danielson (1932) has reconstructed a genealogical table spanning three generations. The figural compositions are symmetrically arranged and depict family members at different life stages and from different generations. The tomb’s founder, Larth Velcha, and his father, Velthur Velcha, are each portrayed twice with their wives Velia Seitithi and Ravnthu Aprthnai: the father and mother are shown once at a banquet, the other time gloriously enthroned. As though singling him out for veneration by her grandchildren and other descendants, the wife points a finger at her husband. Velthur Velcha is presented with a naked torso and holding a scepter, following the standard iconography of Zeus-Tinia, and is thus further exalted as a worthy ancestor. The banquet scenes in the back section
of the tomb are set in a heroic hereafter. Only the men lounge on klines; the women are shown seated in front of the opulently set tables and surrounded by servants and musicians. In the front of the tomb there are multifigured processions, most notably Larth Velcha’s departure for the beyond in a kind of processus triumphalis. From his attendants it is clear that he is a zilath, or high magistrate. There are also musicians and runners, namely two cornicines (horn players), two liticines (trumpeters), lictores, and a man carrying a folding chair. M. Morandi has recently published more precise readings of some of the inscriptions, with minor revisions. The text on the diptych held by a winged genius—probably the genius of the family and symbol of the continuity of the gens—indicates a sacnisa (ritual of sacrifice), or some other sort of sacred rite, was performed here in the tomb, “thui eith suthith,” apparently by the tomb’s founder. The continuous frieze with shields and inscriptions in the back chamber symbolizes the clan’s ideals. The tradition of placing or hanging shields in tombs goes back to the late Ice Age and is found in such early painting as that of the Campana Tomb at Veii. The painting style is primarily draftsmanly, with posterlike colors and vivid outlines. There is relatively little shading except for the women’s flesh tones. Its coloring may be described as tetrachromatic. M. Torelli sees stylistic precedents mainly in the Campanian
region. Fragments of Larth Velcha’s sarcophagus, identified by an inscription, and of two other sarcophagi are incorporated into the masonry of Tarquinia’s lovely medieval church, Santa Maria di Castello. Three painted chamber tombs in the Porano area south of Orvieto/Volsinii have been known since 1863 and 1883, respectively: the Golini Tombs I and II and the Tomb of the Hescanas. Their aristocratic owners, the Leinie, Vercna, and Hescana, who were probably interrelated, presumably had their residences in this lovely region outside the city of Volsinii. In recent years A. E. Feruglio and F.-H. Massa-Pairault have once again examined the style, iconography, and ideology of the wall paintings in these tombs. The paintings of the two Golini tombs were detached from the walls in 1950 and have been reassembled in tentlike structures in the Museo Nazionale Archeologico next to Orvieto’s famous cathedral. There is now general agreement about the dating of the three tombs. Golini Tomb I dates from the middle of the fourth century (or shortly before), Golini Tomb II somewhat later, from the third quarter of the fourth century, and the Tomb of the Hescanas from the closing years of the fourth century. The two Golini tombs were probably executed by the same painting workshop, though the paintings of Golini I are of distinctly higher quality.
Orvieto, Golini Tomb I, left side of the chamber, right portion of the entry wall: scenes of preparation for an underworld banquet, with butcher shop (nineteenth-century watercolor), middle of the fourth century ..
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Orvieto, Golini Tomb I, left part of the chamber, left portion of the back wall: scenes of preparation for an underworld banquet, with baking oven (nineteenth-century watercolor), middle of the fourth century ..
The wall paintings of the two Golini tombs, highly realistic in style, provide fascinating insights into everyday social and public life in Etruscan Velzna/Volsinii in the Late Classical period. As usual, they glorify the values of the aristocratic ruling class, but at the same time inscriptions expressly identify the lower-class servants. This appears to be a reflection of the social upheavals that the literary sources tell us took place in the last decades of Etruscan Volsinii. Their chief scenes are (a) the reditus, or arrival in the underworld, of newly deceased members of the gens Leinie or Vercna riding in bigas, in some instances accompanied by a female demon, and with symbols of their rank (for example, that of haruspex in Golini Tomb II); (b) the preparation for the banquet (only in Golini I); and (c) the banquet with ancestors in the underworld. In Golini I, the banquet is also taking place in the presence of the divine underworld rulers Aita (Hades) and Phersipnei (Persephone). It is the preparation for the banquet, including depictions of a butcher shop and a large baking oven, which provides us with interesting details about everyday Etruscan life. In Golini Tomb II, a procession of togati with wind instruments is of special interest. Members of a full five generations of the gens Leinie are represented in Golini I, almost all of them identified by inscriptions. The inscriptions also include numerous official titles, including the
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extremely high-ranking “zilath mechl rasnal,” or praetor Etruriae. F.-H. Massa-Pairault has interpreted the pictorial programs of the Golini tombs as illustrations of a kind of “good government,” or “concordia” between the polis’s different social classes. The fragmentary warrior figures in the gable of Golini II could represent Trojan War heroes, among them possibly the two Aiaxes as mythical Greek ancestors, as in the François Tomb in Vulci. Iconographic and stylistic comparisons are provided by the painted clay plaque from the temple at Celle, in Falerii Veteres (mid- to third quarter of the fourth century); for the script of the elogia and the black clouds in the background, by Tarquinia’s Tomb of Orcus I; for the presence of the underworld rulers and the cloak of Aita/Hades, by the Tomb of Orcus II; for the profiles of the female heads, by Orcus I and the Tomb with Pilaster and Female Figure (Tarquinia); for the serpents in the gable, by the Ceisinie Tomb (Tarquinia); and for the procession of apparitores, by the scene on the entry wall of the roughly contemporary Tarquinian Tomb of the Shields. The typically Etruscan and wholly un-Greek iconography of the magistrate’s procession, with togati, apparitores, and musicians, appears in a series of third-century Tarquinian tomb paintings (Bruschi Tomb, Tomb of the Meeting, Tomb 5512, Tomb of the Typhon) and in the third and second centuries, as M. Cristofani and more recently
A. Maggiani have detailed, in the reliefs on numerous southern Etruscan sarcophagi, and northern Etruscan urns. The importance of the magistrate figure is also reflected in roughly contemporary tomb paintings in southern Italy, for example in the Spinazzo necropolis at Paestum and in Daunian Arpi (pinax in the Tomb of the
Medusa). For the underworld banquet with ancestors, we have splendid parallels in the Tomb of the Shields in Tarquinia and the Tomb of the Triclinium in Cerveteri. Toward the end of the fourth century a painted banqueting scene appears for the first time in the Greek sphere on the templelike facade of a monumental chamber
Above: Orvieto, Golini Tomb I, left side of the chamber: section of the left wall with scenes of preparation for an underworld banquet, middle of the fourth century .. Below: Orvieto, Golini Tomb II, left wall: section with procession of togati, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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Right: Orvieto, Tomb of the Hescanas, left portion of the entry wall: harnessed biga (original and computer reconstruction), end of the fourth century .. Below: Orvieto, Tomb of the Hescanas, right wall: journey to the underworld with female death demons (original and computer reconstruction), end of the fourth century ..
tomb, namely in Aghios Athanassios, near Thessaloníki, in Macedonia. It remains to be seen whether those high-quality, colorful paintings, which are to be published by M. TsimbidouAvloniti, represent a nocturnal aristocratic symposium with hetairoi or a banquet set in the afterlife. In this same temporal and iconographic context, one might also refer to the cupola paintings in the famous Thracian tomb at Kazanlak, in Bulgaria (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). In any case, the pictorial programs of Macedonian and Thracian tomb paintings from the second half of the fourth century are quite clearly dominated by gods, underworld figures, and heroic cycles. One thinks, for example, of the ceiling paintings in the Thracian Ostrusha Tomb in Shipka. There are a number of close parallels between the iconographic programs of the Golini Tomb I and the Tomb of Orcus I in Tarquinia. A. Maggiani has even suggested that the two tombs (and possibly the later Tomb of Orcus II as well) were executed by the same painter. In his opinion,
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certain northern Etruscan epigraphic peculiarities seen in Orcus I and II support his assumption that Orvietan painting workshops were also active in Tarquinia. Two wholly different scripts appear in the Orvietan Golini Tomb I. The one that is used in the inscriptions above the higher-quality banquet scene with ancestors very closely resembles that of the elogia in Orcus I. Magianni feels that the chief painter in Golini I came from northern Etruria, possibly the Chiusan region, then after moving to Volsinii tried to conform to the writing conventions of his wealthy patrons in the composition of the elogia. H. Rix had already noted the presence of North Etruscan, probably Chiusan scribes in Orvieto/Volsinii. In any case, there is no denying that it was these Orvietan tomb paintings, few as they are, that set certain precedents for how specific iconographic formulas are later worked out, which were useful in glorifying the gentes of aristocratic patrons. The wall frescoes in the Tomb of the Hescanas are the least known of the Orvietan
tomb paintings, also the least well preserved. This tomb, discovered in 1883, was used over a very long time. In contrast to those of the two Golini tombs, its paintings are still in situ, but they are badly faded and in some places destroyed. Thanks to the most recent restoration (1998–2000), and with the aid of new computer technology, the architect R. de Rubertis has managed to produce new color reconstruction drawings that clearly surpass in fidelity those of D. Cardella from 1893. These were recently published by A. E. Feruglio. The wall frescoes, executed somewhat later than those of the Golini tombs (end of the fourth century) and of lesser quality, quite obviously present different stages in the journey to the underworld. It is possible to identify, among other features, a biga carrying the deceased, several female death demons, including winged figures and one holding a scroll containing the fatum of the deceased, a group of three apparitores, two
men kissing, a purification scene including the sacrifice of an animal on an altar, and a banquet with ancestors. Some of the figures are identified by name and official titles like “zilath,” and represent members of the noble Hescana family, some of them portrayed twice. This “continuous narrative” is one of the earliest representations of the journey into the underworld in Etruscan tomb painting and emphasizes the values of the aristocratic family that owned the tomb. The group of Orvietan tomb paintings was greatly enriched with the sensational discovery of an additional painted chamber tomb in the fall of 2003, even though this new tomb—called the Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga—is not in the territory of Orvieto but that of Chiusi, namely in the Pianacce necropolis near Sarteano. For the discovery and publication of this tomb, which is unique in many respects, we are indebted to Alessandra Minetti, the director of Sarteano’s
Sarteano, Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga: section of the left wall with red-haired demon on a quadriga, last third of the fourth century ..
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Sarteano, Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga: section of the back-wall gable with hippocampus, last third of the fourth century ..
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Above: Orvieto, Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga: section of the left wall with sea frieze, last third of the fourth century .. Below: Orvieto, Museo Faina: red-figure ropehandled amphora from the Vanth Group with death demon, last third of the fourth century ..
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Museo Archeologico. Since the summer of 2005, the tomb has been opened to the public on specific days. Its animated and colorful paintings survive only in fragments, in fact only on the left wall and the left side of the back wall. Their iconography and style, and the remnants of grave goods now housed in the Sarteano museum, suggest that they date from the last decades of the fourth century. The preliminary drawings were not always followed in the course of painting and were repeatedly revised. The images clearly refer to the afterlife, and they include (from left to right) a fragmentary winged figure; the eponymous quadriga with two griffins, two lions, and a demon of uncertain gender with fiery red hair and light skin in front of a black cloud; two men lounging on klines at a banquet, the older, bearded one tenderly caressing the younger; a young man in a red-bordered tunic holding a wine sieve (colinum); and a huge serpent with three bearded heads and a flamelike tail. The left side of the back-wall gable is filled with a large blue-and-red hippocampus, for which there are precedents and parallels in Tarquinian tomb painting and South Etruscan sarcophagus reliefs, especially those of a Tarquinian mold. The figures are not identified by inscriptions, but they are definitely inhabitants of the underworld. The two men on klines may represent the deceased and an ancestor. The red-haired charioteer is unique in Etruscan demonology, and despite its light flesh
tone it has been interpreted by a number of Etruscologists as a variant form of Charun. The black cloud in the background, symbolizing the underworld and serving to enhance the figure’s plasticity, we know from the Tomb of Orcus I in Tarquinia of few decades earlier. There are parallels for the monstrous serpent in the gable of Golini Tomb II, and even more clearly on several red-figure Orvietan vases from the Vanth Group dating from the last decades of the fourth century, the iconography of which is dominated by demons and other denizens of the underworld. Close study of the style and iconography of the new Sarteano tomb reveals that two different painters were at work, perhaps a master and his apprentice. It also suggests that they may have been vase painters somewhat inexperienced in large-scale painting. In any case, the workshop in question was certainly not either of the ones responsible for the two Golini tombs or the Hescana family tomb. Nevertheless, this tomb underscores the close historical and cultural relationship between Chiusi and Orvieto/Volsinii even in the period after the great Porsenna, “king of Chiusi and Velzna” (Pliny), and in terms of chronology represents a remarkable novelty in tomb painting in the territory of Chiusi, for virtually all the region’s other examples date from the Late and Sub-Archaic phase. Among the small group of painted tombs in the Vezza Valley, in the border region between the
Orvieto, Museo Faina: red-figure columnkrater from the Vanth Group with quadriga and hippocampi, last third of the fourth century ..
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p. 221 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, right portion of the left wall of the main chamber: detail of the bearded head of Velthur Velcha in three-quarter view, third quarter of the fourth century ..
pp. 222–23 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, main chamber, right portion of the left wall: detail with the enthroned ancestors Velthur Velcha and Ravnthu Aprthnai, third quarter of the fourth century ..
p. 224 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields, right wall of the main chamber: detail of the banquet scene with head of Ravnthu Aprthnai in three-quarter view, third quarter of the fourth century ..
p. 225 Orvieto, Golini Tomb I, right part of the chamber, left wall: section with profile head of a youth, middle of the fourth century ..
p. 226
p. 227
Orvieto, Golini Tomb I, left part of the chamber, right
Orvieto, Golini Tomb I, left part of the chamber, left
wall: section of the scene of preparation for a banquet
wall: section of the scene of preparation for a banquet
with a servant at the drink table, middle of the fourth
with a servant at the table, middle of the fourth
century ..
century ..
p. 228 Sarteano, Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga, left wall: section with three-headed bearded serpent, last third of the fourth century ..
p. 230 Sarteano, Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga: section of the left wall with red-haired demon in front of dark clouds, last third of the fourth century ..
p. 229 Sarteano, Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga: section of the left wall with an older and a younger man reclining at a banquet, last third of the fourth century ..
p. 231 Vulci, François Tomb, “atrium,” left portion of the back wall: detail with the Theban fratricide of Eteocles and Polynices, third quarter of the fourth century ..
pp. 232–33 Vulci, François Tomb, main chamber: section of the top continuous frieze with three-dimensional meander, fighting animal scenes, and doves and rosettes, third quarter of the fourth century ..
pp. 234–35 Florence, Museo Archeologico, Amazon Sarcophagus from Tarquinia: section of the front side with battle between a Greek warrior and a mounted Amazon, third quarter of the fourth century ..
p. 236 Vulci, François Tomb, “atrium,” right wall: detail of the young Arnza with bird, third quarter of the fourth century ..
territories of Tarquinia, Volsinii/Orvieto, and Falerii, there is also a chamber tomb from the first half of the fourth century that was discovered before 1832 in the Pian Miano area, near Bomarzo, and is generally referred to as the Grotta Dipinta (Painted Grotto). Its walls were mainly adorned with a frieze of waves with leaping dolphins and a central palmette, also hippocampi. It also had protomae and serpents, somewhat caricatured. Some of these motifs, well known from Tarquinian tomb painting, are also found on the sarcophagus (of the wooden chest type) of Vel Urinates that was found in the same tomb and is now in the British Museum in London. Urinates was an important member of the family that owned the tomb, which is also documented in Castel d’Asso, Chiusi, Perugia, and Volterra. Two adjacent chamber tombs in the Casetta necropolis at Blera have similar wall paintings that probably date from the first half of the fourth century. The Grotta Dipinta, known already in the nineteenth century, is distinguished by an unfluted center column. In both tombs the walls are divided into a lower band of red, a black frieze of waves against a light ground that runs outward from a red-and-black lotus blossom in the center of the back wall, a tall light-colored strip, and a striped frieze at the top. It is still possible to see preliminary scoring for the ornaments, and the prints of strings used in making the stripes. These are the only painted tombs in the South Etruscan rock-tomb region. The tomb discovered in Vulci in 1857 by Alessandro François and named after him is unquestionably one of the most exceptional monuments of Etruscan tomb painting from the waning Late Classical period. Soon after its discovery most of the paintings, which were concentrated in the central T-shaped main room (anticipating the later floor plan of the Roman atrium and tablinum) were detached from the walls, and
until just recently they were preserved in the Villa Albani in Rome (Torlonia private collection). With financial support from the German Bucerius Foundation, they were recently thoroughly restored and presented to the public for the first time in exhibitions in Hamburg and subsequently in the Castello at Vulci. Because of their stylistic importance, and even more their iconographic and ideological significance, these paintings, dating from the third quarter of the fourth century and filled with figures and numerous identifying inscriptions, have had tremendous coverage in the scholarly literature, especially in the last twenty-five years. Major studies by F. Coarelli and M. Cristofani have sought to place the works in their historical, cultural, and temporal context. Coarelli, for example, sees the scene in which Trojan prisoners are slaughtered by the victorious Greeks under Achilles in tribute to the fallen Patroclus as an allusion to conflicts between Rome (Trojans) and (Vulcian) Etruscans (Greeks), specifically the killing of Roman prisoners of war in Tarquinia’s forum in 357. The matching painting opposite that scene from mythology is based on history, recalling inter-Etruscan conflicts a full two hundred years before, in the sixth century. The victors are not all clearly identified as Vulcians by inscriptions; they probably represent an alliance of mainly Vulcians (Aulus Vibenna) and Chiusans (Larth Ulthes), while the conquered apparently represent an alliance between Tarquinia and Volsinii, with warriors recruited from Volsinii, Sovana, Falerii (?), and Rome. This cycle also includes the freeing of Caile Vipinas, whom we know from Roman sources as Caelius Vibenna, after whom the Caelian Hill was named. Here we see a deliberate juxtaposition of prestigious Greek “ancestors” with glorious EtruscanVulcian forefathers and their respective military triumphs. According to B. D’Agostino, a parallel is drawn between the tragic and fatal duel of the two Theban brothers Eteocles and Polynices and the
Above: Blera, Painted Grotto II: section of the continuous wave frieze (original and drawing), first half of the fourth century .. Below: Blera, Painted Grotto II: ground plan, cross section, and longitudinal section, first half of the fourth century ..
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Top left: Vulci, François Tomb, main chamber: detail of the continuous top frieze with scale pattern, third quarter of the fourth century .. Top right: Vulci, François Tomb, back chamber: back wall with painted imitation of ashlar masonry, third quarter of the fourth century .. Below: Vulci, François Tomb, main chamber: reconstruction drawing of the “atrium” and “tablinum” with wall paintings, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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duel between Cneve Tarchunies and Marce Camitlnas. Altogether, an ingenious network of connections and pairings is established between the symmetrically arranged figures and groupings. The Achilles-Agamemnon alliance against the Trojans can be read as a symbol of omonoia or concordia—as opposed to discordia—and thus as a typically Greek, ethical virtue. Other figures and events stand for specific human virtues as well. For example, Vel Saties and his aristocratic Vulcian family clearly wished to distance themselves from these tragic epic and historical scenes, and to be seen instead on a par with the paired Greek heroes Nestor and Phoenix, virtual symbols of wisdom and initiative or eloquence—Nestor of skill at divination. The ancestor Vel Saties thereby underscores his knowledge of Greek culture and Homer’s Iliad. He is not presented as conqueror
of the Romans wearing the toga picta, as was previously maintained, but rather in the Greek manner, dressed in a richly embroidered purplish himation. His small son Arnthza (formerly taken to be a servant), who is also splendidly dressed, appears in two places, once next to Vel Saties with a bird on a string and again (together with the tomb’s founder) to the right next to the door. Other Greek mythological figures depicted, in addition to Nestor and Phoenix, are Eteocles and Polynices, Sisyphus, Amphiaraus, Aiax, and Cassandra. The pattern for the sacrifice of the Trojans must have been a painting, probably from Magna Graecia. Certain parallels can be seen on the roughly contemporary Sarcophagus of the Priest from Tarquinia, on bronze cistae, and on Apulian red-figure vases, especially works by the Dareios Painter. Many of the figures in the
Vulci, François Tomb: section of the continuous top ornamental frieze with three-dimensional meander and fighting animals (nineteenth-century facsimile by Carlo Ruspi and original), third quarter of the fourth century ..
François Tomb bear a strong resemblance to those in Apulian red-figure vase painting, which underscores the close relations between Magna Graecia and Etruria during the second half of the fourth century. C. Weber-Lehmann prefers to think of literary sources as the pattern for the Trojan sacrifice. In terms of style and technique, it is interesting to note that the figures in this scene and in the historical battle scenes are rendered three-dimensionally, modeled with hatching, and thus seem more innovative. The Etruscan-style demon figures, by contrast, with their precise outlines and a two-dimensional application of color, are clearly more conventional. Of particular interest are the continuous ornamental friezes in the “tablinium,” portions of which are still in situ. Some of them project a distinct three-dimensionality, thanks to the use of perspective and the simulation of lighting from the side. The animal frieze includes a rich variety of animals and fantastic creatures on varying base lines. They fall into eleven different groupings, suggesting that they were based on separate patterns. Some are patterned after the same prototypes as numerous depictions on Apulian redfigure vases (for example, those of the Iliupersis and Lycurgus Painters) from the second and third quarters of the fourth century. The actual tomb chamber behind the T-shaped main room is painted in the Greek manner in imitation of ashlar or masonry, something rarely seen in Etruria before this time.
The famous Amazon Sarcophagus (Sarcophagus of Ramtha Huzcnai) from Tarquinia, in the Archaeological Museum in Florence, dates from roughly the same time. Its tempera paintings on marblelike alabaster, of outstanding quality, depict battles between Greeks and Amazons. They were probably executed by a workshop in Magna Graecia, possibly Tarentum, as several scholars, including T. Dohrn and P. Moreno, have proposed. An Etruscan noblewoman from Tarquinia was interred in it. In a brilliant publication, H. Brecoulaki recently analyzed the features of this unique monument that link it to the painting of Magna Graecia, its unusual elements, and its importance for the history of Greek painting in general. For example, there are clear similarities in technique between the Amazon Sarcophagus and a marble basin painted with Nereids riding hippocampi in the Getty Museum in Malibu. It comes from southern Italy, possibly Tarentum, and dates from the second half of the fourth century. Both were executed in tempera on alabaster or marble using unusual pigments. To some extent the pinkish ground in both paintings anticipates a feature that would become common in the third century in various polychrome vase-painting genres in Apulia (Arpi, Canosa) and Sicily (Centuripe). In highly nuanced colors,
Florence, Museo Archeologico, Amazon Sarcophagus from Tarquinia: end with scene of a battle between two Amazons and a Greek warrior, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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Rome, Museo di Villa Giulia: fragment of a painted clay plaque from the shrine at Celle, near Falerii Veteres/Cività Castellana, with profile head of a youth, middle of the fourth century ..
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the paintings on the Amazon Sarcophagus display chiaroscuro effects, shading, and highlights, that is to say, the most recent innovations in Greek painting at the time. Based on these relatively well-preserved tempera paintings, we can retrace the sequence of steps that produced them as described by Pollux in his Onomasticon. First came the preliminary drawing establishing the precise placement of the figures. This consisted of hypotyposis (outline drawing), hypographé (brushwork), and skiagraphé (the addition of shadows). This was followed by the chrosai or epichrosai, that is, the flat application of the drawing to the ground. Then the colored drawing was modeled by apochrosai, or shading. The final step was the phaitrynein, or application of highlights, what Pliny calls splendor. The fact that these sarcophagus paintings are of considerably higher quality and more progressive than contemporary tomb paintings suggests that they were executed by a Greek, probably from Magna Graecia, as is also indicated by specific iconographic details. Other painted sarcophagi were apparently produced in Tarquinia in the second half of the fourth century, like the Sarcophagus of the Priest (from the inscription “Laris Partunu”), which came from the Partunu Tomb, discovered in 1876, and has recently been republished by H. Blanck. The restoration of 1985/1986 allowed him to undertake a detailed appraisal of the tempera paintings on the chest of the sarcophagus, which is made of Parian marble. The lid, presenting a reclining bearded man in Late Classical style, is virtually identical to two sarcophagus lids from the necropolis of Ste. Monique in Carthage, and it was therefore originally probably intended for a Phoenician. The Etruscan painting, subsequently applied in Tarquinia, depicts two very popular subjects of later Etruscan funereal art: an Amazonomachy and Achilles’ slaughter of the Trojan prisoners, with the addition of Etruscan demons of death. These paintings seem
somewhat more conservative in style and technique than those of the Amazon Sarcophagus and the François Tomb. R. Fleischer has determined that the chest and lid did not originally belong together and that the paintings were executed in two stages. Representative of the pinax genre, documented mainly in the Archaic period and particularly in Cerveteri, is the fragment of a clay plaque from the Faliscan shrine at Celle, near Falerii Veteres (Cività Castellana), that was discovered in 1857 (now in Rome, Museo di Villa Giulia). It is painted with a delicate profile head of a young man in the typical Late Classical style with a large eye rendered in profile. There are roughly fifty additional fragments of painted clay plaques that apparently adorned the (interior) walls of the temple, probably elements of friezes. They present isolated figures and floral motifs against a dark background. The paintings are comparable to profile heads in the Orvietan Golini Tomb I, but it is also possible to see influences from Magna Graecia. Like Golini Tomb I, they date from the mid-fourth century. Red-figure vase painting in Etruria was of much greater importance in the fourth century than in the preceding one, especially in the Faliscan region. It was greatly stimulated by the presence of émigré potters and vase painters from Attica and Magna Graecia (among them followers of the Meidias Painter, such as the Meleager and Erbach Painters), more in interior centers like Falerii, Orvieto, Chiusi, and Volterra than in coastal cities like Cerveteri and Tarquinia. The style and subject matter of these Etruscan and Faliscan red-figure vases were at first still influenced by Attic precedents, but soon began to be patterned after works from southern Italy. We know that Magna Graecia and especially the wealthy cultural and art center of Tarentum exercised an increasingly strong influence on Etruria over the course of the fourth century. The most important scholars of Etruscan and Faliscan red-figure vase painting from the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic periods are B. Adembri, J. D. Beazley, M. Cristofani, M. Del Chiaro, F. Gilotta, M. Harari, M. Martelli, M. Pasquinucci, and G. P. Pianu. A number of red-figure vases, mainly from the decades between 360 and 340, present obvious reflections of monumental Greek painting in subject matter, style, and technique. To be sure, these
Tarquinia, Museo Archeologico: side of the Sarcophagus of the Priest from Tarquinia, with painting of an Amazonomachy, ca. 330/320 ..
are more apparent in Italiot, especially Apulian, vase painting than in that of Etruria and Falerii (or even Attica). Notable earlier studies on this subject, so important for the history of painting, are those by E. Langlotz and T. Dohrn; the most recent one was published by N. Hoesch. Among these reflections are the incorporation of landscape elements (ground, boulders, cliffs, trees) and architecture (temples, naiskoi, peristyles); the use of linear perspective in the depiction of buildings; a tendency to stack figures in depth on varying base lines; more clearly differentiated picture planes, foreshortening, overlapping, and varied points of view (skenographia); the use of bright opaque colors such as red, brown, white, yellow, and gold—at times on top of a black glaze—for added three-dimensionality; the rendering of metal objects with thinned varnish, white, and yellow; shading and modeling by means of hatching; highlights; distinct anatomical details, features of age, and expressions of emotion; and especially a tendency toward evident pathos in poses and physiognomies (ethographia). Despite their different supports and mediums, the (lost) panel painting and the vase painting are somewhat similar in their fundamental principles. The center of fourth-century red-figure vase painting in central Italy was unquestionably Falerii, where we know that the Attic-influenced Diespater Painter was employed beginning as early as around 400. Notable among his successors are the Villa Giulia 1755, Aurora, and Nazzano Painters, who were more influenced by the painting of Magna Graecia. Faliscan red-figure vessels produced by the first two generations, roughly between 400 and 360, were even exported; we find them, for example, in Populonia, Liguria, and the upper Tiber Valley. One superb example is a volute krater in the Villa Giulia by the Aurora
Painter, a second-generation master from the second quarter of the fourth century, depicting the abduction of Cephalus by the goddess Eos and the boxing match between Peleus and Thetis, as well as animals fighting on the neck of the vase that betray the influences of Apulian vase painting. Among the other highly ambitious subjects we find antics of the Olympian gods, including Herakles, such as the contests between Athena and Poseidon or Apollo and Marsyas, the Argonauts, the slaughter of the Trojan prisoners, and Bellerophon and the Chimaera. Four large vessels that can be attributed to the Perugia Painter, who worked in the tradition of the Attic Talos Painter, present mythological subject matter similar to that of the Faliscan vases. One of his most prominent successors is the Sommavilla Painter, who created large, theatrical compositions. It is not always easy to determine where these painters had their workshops, especially since they probably worked in different places at different times. However it is possible to identify a group of roughly thirty vessels notable for their Attic influences and eclectic stylistic features that were produced in Vulci in the first half of the fourth century. From the second quarter of the fourth century it is also possible to isolate another group of roughly twenty vases with paintings on Apollonian, Dionysian, underworld, and funerary subjects, some of them with highly animated scenes like the punishment of the Giants, Perseus battling with the Gorgons, and the struggle between Arimaspeans and griffins, with increasingly obvious influences from Campanian vase painting, evident for example in their floral decoration. The most prominent single personality is the Settecamini Painter (working near Orvieto), from the mid-fourth century, who mainly depicted Greek myths.
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Facing page: Rome, Museo di Villa Giulia: Faliscan red-figure volute krater by the Aurora Painter from Falerii Veteres/Cività Castellana with fighting animals (top) and the rape of Cephalus by Eos/Aurora on a quadriga, second quarter of the fourth century ..
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Beginning in the middle of the fourth century, Faliscan vase painting became increasingly standardized, with a consequent loss of quality. The iconography itself was reduced to only a few subjects of a predominantly Dionysian nature— prominently satyrs and Maenads—as well as profile heads and large birds. Its cursive, sketchy style is aptly referred to in scholarship as “Fluid.” A few workshops specialized in small plates (Faliscan Genucilia pottery), small skyphoi, and bell kraters (the Full Sakkos Group), and oinochoae (the Faliscan Barbarano Group). In addition, there are the red-figure vases in the sovradipinta technique, like the Sokra and Glàukes groups. The Sokra Group takes its name from a cylix signed by a Greek metic with the name “Sokra[tes].” It was probably Faliscan craftsmen who, soon after the middle of the fourth century and especially in the last quarter of the century, developed the virtual mass production of red-figure vases, also in Cerveteri, and enjoyed considerable commercial success, in part thanks to exports (as far as Aleria on Corsica and the western Mediterranean). As in Falerii, Dionysian subjects, winged female figures, and profile heads predominated. Best known is the so-called Torcop Group, which specialized in oinochoae (the “Form VII” in imitation of metal). Their production of Genucilia plates, frequently with female profile heads, also followed Faliscan models. In addition, we find overpainted red-figure vessels like those of the so-called Fantasma Group. Of particular interest is a red-figure Caeretan skyphos from the third quarter of the fourth century, on which a man and woman are taking leave from each other in the presence of Charun; the couples’ heads closely resemble those of certain figures in the contemporary Tarquinian Tomb of the Shields. Red-figure vases were also produced in Tarquinian workshops, the majority of them resembling Caeretan examples. Even at the beginning of the fourth century a number of vessels had been produced there with mythological subject matter in the Attic style. From the second half of the fourth century we find a group of relatively ambitious, largeformat vases (kraters and stamnoi) of an exclusively funerary nature in Vulci. They often present mythological subjects, generally tragic and violent ones, and demons, like the Alkestis
and Turmuca Groups and the works of the Mainz Painter. The demons on them are often grotesque. Their painters demonstrated their skill at foreshortening and three-quarter views, also at the use of hatching and polychromy, all of which reflect the achievements of large-scale Greek wall and panel painting. With the Vanth Group, Orvieto offers typical, somewhat “baroque” subject matter filled with funereal symbolism including underworld creatures, as well as other vases from the Settecamini tombs and those of the Painter of the Florence Centauromachy, whereas its normal ceramic production was apparently influenced by Faliscan and Chiusan imports and precedents. Among the subjects on Vulcian and Orvietan vases from the third and last quarters of the fourth century we find the Amazonomachy and Centauromachy in addition to underworld scenes with Hades and Persephone, demons, and serpents. In northern Etruria, following a period in which red-figure vases were more clearly Attic in style, most notably those of the Argonaut Group from the first half of the fourth century (a cylix from the Siena area is signed “Pheziu Paves”), production is dominated beginning in the midfourth century by the Clusium-Volaterrae Group, whose vases, including kraters, kylikes, kantharoi, and even figural vessels like duck-shaped askoi, were intended for an upmarket clientele and were also exported, for example to Populonia, Aleria, and Etruria Padana. The painters of this workshop, among them the Sarteano and Montediano Painters, first worked in Chiusi—preferring Dionysian and erotic subject matter—then mainly in Volterra, where in the last decades of the fourth century and in the early third century they are especially known for their chaliceshaped kraters, so-called kelebai, which were generally used as urns for ashes, and whose iconographic repertoire included mythological subjects (the Geranomachy, for example) and funereal symbolism. Among these artists the Hesione and Montebradoni Painters stand out in terms of quality, with their chiaroscuro effects and hatching. Among the less talented artists are the Asciano and Monteriggioni painters, the painter of the Tuscan Column, and the Nun Painter, who mainly employed the popular motif of profile heads.
Final Flowering and Conclusion The Early and High Hellenistic Period (/–End of the Third/Beginning of the Second Century ..)
This period saw the last, decisive conflicts between various Etruscan cities—above all Tarquinia—and the Romans. These wars, which flared up repeatedly, were finally concluded by the capture and destruction of Orvieto/Volsinii Veteres in 265/64 and of Cività Castellana/Falerii Veteres in 241, with subsequent forced resettlement of the population to Bolsena/Volsinii Novi and Santa Maria di Faleri/Falerii Novi. Etruscan territories were confiscated, Etruscan cities were forced to join in federation with Rome, various Latin colonies were founded along the Tyrrhenian coast—Cosa as early as 273—and slavery and latifundia culture became more widespread. The region’s economy continued to be based on agriculture and, in some parts of Etruria, especially Arezzo, smelting and metalworking. Some of Etruria’s princes collaborated with the Romans, leading to social upheavals like those in Volsinii and Arezzo. Political and social tensions came to a head in events like the Senatus Consultum de Baccanalibus of 186, which outlawed Bacchic rites. The period also saw the last galley raids on Etruria (Battle of Talamone in 225). The Second Punic War was a crucial event for Etruria as well, as many Etruscans fought on Hannibal’s side against the Romans (documented, for example, by an inscription in a Tarquinian tomb). In North Etruria especially, we can see from the mass production of relief urns that the lower classes (ex servi) were on the rise. In general, the cities of northern and northeastern Etruria took on increasing importance. The process of Romanization—and in terms of language Latinization—proceeded more rapidly in southern Etruria than in the north. One result was that the leading Etruscan gentes, particularly those of Tarquinia, would become members of the ruling senatorial class in Rome.
In the Hellenistic period, major influences on the art of Etruria first came from Magna Graecia, but then in the second century the art of Asia Minor (Pergamon) took on greater importance. Rome became increasingly influential in this regard as well. In the Early Hellenistic phase, a number of the motifs and subjects employed can be seen as elements of a “koine.” In Etruscan art we now find “individual portraits” in painting, bronze, and clay, as well as a flowering of relief art on sarcophagi in southern Etruria (especially in Tarquinia and its territory; the most productive center is Tuscania, though a few examples are also seen in Chiusi) and on urns in the north (especially Volterra, Chiusi, and Perugia). Examples of stone sculpture, most of it of a sepulchral nature, are found mainly in Chiusi, Volterra, and Cerveteri. Notable works from the genre of sculpture are closed terracotta gables and high-quality roof terracottas from temples of the Early and High Hellenistic period in Arezzo, Chianciano, Volterra, Vetulonia, Populonia, Luni, Talamone, Falerii Veteres, and Civitalba in the Marches. Much as in Latium and northern Campania, we also see a flourishing production of votive terracottas, especially anatomical pieces and votive heads. Bronze casting enjoyed a last flowering in northern Etruria in the form of votive statuettes, some of them with a tendency toward elongation and abstraction (the Ombra della Sera from Volterra), large statues like The Orator of Trasimeno, mirrors and cistae (especially in Vulci and Praeneste), and vessels, some of them adorned with figures. Architecture continued to be generally conservative in nature, rejecting the use of opus caementicium, which had been invented in Campania in the third century. The last Etruscan city walls were built at this time (Perugia), and existing ones (mostly in opus
Above: Tarquinia, Giglioli Tomb: section of the left wall with a shield with an amphora as episema (sign or badge), around 300 .. or shortly before. Facing page: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Typhon: detail of the pilaster with ornamental friezes on the capital and winged Typhon, end of the third century ..
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Rome, Museo di Villa Giulia: patera from the Pocala Group from Capena with depiction of war elephant, ca. 280 ..
quadratum or opus polygonalis) were restored. In some places they were strengthened with roundarched gates adorned with sculpture (Volterra, Perugia, and Falerii Novi). Oppida (Roman-style towns) and fortifications like those at Poggio Civitella near Montalcino were constructed to protect Etruria from increasing pressure from Rome. In residential architecture we now find atrium and peristyle houses, as in Roselle and Vetulonia. A unique example of sacred architecture is the terraced shrine with a temple and theater in Castel Secco, near Arezzo. Early Hellenism again saw the development of monumental and richly executed tomb architecture, in Cerveteri (large hypogea with emphasis on the main burial), the southern Etruscan rock-tomb area (Norchia, Castel d’Asso, Sovana) with cubiculum, porticus, and temple tombs, and in northern Etruria with barrel-vaulted tombs (Chiusi, Perugia, and Cortona) and tombs imitating houses (Volumni Hypogeum near Perugia). Etruscan tomb painting enjoyed a last, splendid flowering in Early Hellenism, especially
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in Tarquinia, before dying out over the course of the second half of the third century. For a long time the last Tarquinian tomb paintings proved especially difficult to date, owing to their poor state of preservation or complete destruction, their heterogeneous styles, and in many cases the absence of adequate and firmly dated material in other realms of Etruscan and Greek art for comparison. Scholars have arrived at widely divergent dates for a number of tombs like the Tomb of the Typhon. Some tomb paintings were even assigned to the second half of the second century or the years around 100—among them Vulci’s François Tomb—although by that time the Romanization of Etruria was largely complete. This uncertainty was the result of overreliance on stylistic criteria. More recent studies since the 1980s, particularly those by G. Colonna and F. Serra Ridgway, have considered not only style and iconography, but also tomb architecture and types, sarcophagi, inscriptions, and grave goods, especially pottery and coins. Thanks to them we can now with considerable assurance date the demise of Etruscan
tomb painting to the second half of the third century, or the period before the Second Punic War (Hannibal’s War). Of course many tombs belonging to the Etruscan gentry were used for additional burials and tended by relatives for a long time after that event. In the last two decades only a few tombs have been published with a complete inventory of their grave goods, even though none has been discovered fully intact. In some instances the wall paintings were not produced in a single effort, but rather at different times. The most recent studies have shown, moreover, that discrepancies in style and quality have less to do with chronology than with individual tastes, family tradition, workshop conditions, and the preferences of patrons. We must therefore assume that at any given time paintings were being executed both in a more innovative, threedimensional style and in a more conservative, draftsmanly, virtually monochrome style that emphasized outlines. In some cases we can see both trends within a single tomb, for example, the Tomb of the Typhon. Even today a number of scholars, like M. Torelli, would prefer not to commit to a final dating of the last of the Etruscan tomb paintings from the second half of the third and first half of the second century.
No examples of large-scale painting from Greece or Magna Graecia in the Early and High Hellenistic period have survived. Nevertheless, we know of a number of paintings from the written sources. For example, we are told of a painting in the Athenaion at Syracuse depicting one of the battles of the tyrant Agathocles (r. 304–289), also of a painting from the Early Hellenistic period— probably in Tarentum—by Eutyclides, a pupil of Lysippus, showing a Nike on a quadriga and a Triton seen from the front. Porcia’s emotional encounter with a painting of Hector and Andromache, as told by Plutarch (Brut. 23), was previously mentioned. Cicero’s reports on the despoliation of art under Verres (Verr. 2.2.34; 2.4.1; 2.4.55) imply that there were a large number of paintings and panel paintings in Sicily, and it is evident that immense stores of art, including numerous paintings, fell into Roman hands after the conquest of Tarentum in 272 (Livy 27.16.7; Plutarch Fab. 22; Florus 1.13.27). Of particular interest regarding painting in Rome in the Early Hellenistic period is Pliny’s report that Fabius Pictor decorated Rome’s Temple of Salus in 304/303 with a painting based on the Second Samnite War. The painter and poet Marcus Pacuvius, from Brundisium, was also active in
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Typhon: entry wall and right wall with continuous top wave and rosette frieze, end of the third century ..
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Rome, painting in the Temple of Hercules there on the Forum Boarium. He died in the early years of the second century in Tarentum. In addition to those of Tarquinia, Hellenistic-era tomb paintings are also known in Cerveteri, Vulci, Chiusi, Populonia, and Tuscania. In Latium there are examples in Rome, Ardea, and Tivoli. House-shaped chamber tombs with low hipped roofs and columena, but no benches, were still common in the Early Hellenistic period. An example is the Giglioli Tomb. In the third century this type increasingly gave way to one less influenced by domestic architecture, with a flat ceiling, a continuous bench around the walls, in some cases stepped and with recessed sarcophagi. Examples of this type are the Tomb of the Anina Family, Tomb of the Garlands (dei Festoni), and Tomb of the Typhon. The last Etruscan tomb paintings adorn not only walls, but in some cases ceilings, pilasters, benches, and sarcophagi as well. In many respects their arrangement is freer, less structured than in tombs from earlier periods; occasionally it is limited to only a specific section
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of a wall or the ceiling directly above a burial (as in the Querciola Tomb II). After the Early Hellenistic phase, in which large-scale compositions were still being produced, small-figure and/or ornamental friezes predominate. Painted plaster reliefs and relief friezes like those in the Tarquinian Tomb of Orcus II, Tomb of the Mercareccia, and Tomb of the Sculptures (delle Sculture) as well as in the Tomb of the Triclinium and the Caeretan Tomb of the Reliefs (dei Relievi) are found only in the Early Hellenistic period. Large aristocratic families like the Pinie, Curuna, Vestarcnie, and Pumpu owned spacious chamber tombs that were often completely covered with paintings. Smaller, only partially painted chamber tombs are associated with socalled homines novi (nouveaux riches) like the Anina, Ane, Arnthuna, and Tiu. In this period tomb paintings, regardless of style and quality, are nearly always supplemented with numerous genealogical inscriptions. Many of the most common subjects were already seen the Late Classical phase, including partings, journeys to and arrivals in the underworld, demons, magis-
trates’ processions, weapon and animal friezes, garlands and vines, cymatia, rosettes, and draped fabrics. These are by and large expressions of the cultural and artistic “koine” that will be discussed separately in the last chapter. Of particular interest are animal friezes showing pairs of beasts in combat. These are mainly limited to tomb paintings from the Early Hellenistic period, though there had been precedents, albeit typologically and stylistically distinct ones, in the sixth and fifth centuries. In Vulci’s François Tomb and Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Mercareccia (here in the form of reliefs) they appear above a large pictorial frieze, whereas in the Caeretan Tomb of the Sarcophagi (dei Sarcofagi) and Tomb of the Triclinium they decorate the continuous benches. Animal friezes were widely used in other Etruscan art genres as well, generally as substitutes for botanical friezes, and particularly interesting parallels are found in Apulian vase painting. Among the creatures found in late Etruscan tomb painting are hippocampi, already commonly seen in the gables of Late Archaic tombs in Tarquinia, and chthonic
serpents. Serpents appear either singly or as heraldic motifs, as in the gable of the Orvietan Golini Tomb II. They also serve to characterize underworld landscapes and as attributes for demons of death. Vines and garlands are especially favored in Early and High Hellenistic tomb painting in Etruria. Friezes of green garlands with red ribbons first appear in the Tomb of the Garlands in Tarquinia, there still in combination with large round shields, reminiscent of the older weapon friezes. Smaller-format vines or garlands also adorn sarcophagi, as in the Tomb of the Anina Family, and pilaster capitals, as in the Tomb of the Cardinal. In the ceiling paintings of the Tomb of the Garlands, the vines are combined with small cupids and sea creatures, and thus become “peopled scrolls.” Vines and garlands are common features in other art genres in Etruria and many other cultural regions, and thus represent a definite cultural and artistic “koine” that will be discussed in the last chapter. Apulia and Tarentum were doubtless instrumental in the transmission of such motifs to Etruria. Ribbons and wreaths “hanging” from nails, familiar Tarquinia, Tomb of the Garlands: section of the continuous garland frieze with ribbons (taenias) and shields, ca. 270 ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb 5512: right portion of the entry wall with a group of togati and a winged demon, also a section of the ceiling with a textile pattern, second half of the third century ..
features of numerous sixth- and fifth-century tombs, are only rarely seen in late Etruscan tomb painting. Fabric drapes “hanging” from nails were a prominent feature of Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Tapestry (della Tappezzeria), which has not survived (there in combination with a frieze of grape leaves). They also adorned a sarcophagus in the Tomb of the Anina Family, and perhaps the back wall of the lower chamber in the Tomb of the Mercareccia. Tomb painting in Tarentum and Apulia (Monte Sannace) provides excellent parallels for such painted wall hangings. Ceiling coffering was occasionally suggested by simple color stripes, as in the Tomb of the Typhon, but often it was rendered in greater detail and ornamented with cymatia or small-figure friezes, as in the Tomb of the Garlands already mentioned. Tarquinia’s Tomb 5512 has a most unusual, baldachin-like ceiling painting with a crenellated design, a ridge frieze, and palmettes. In the Caeretan Tombs of the Reliefs and of the Inscriptions, the architecture is emphasized by painting on the pilaster strips separating the wall loculi that imitates columnar fluting. In the loculi of these two aristocratic tombs are klines in painting or relief with graceful sawed legs. Processions of officials or magistrates celebrating the public stature of the deceased are among the more prominent subjects in thirdcentury tomb painting. The magistrate, usually identified by his larger size, the wreath on his
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head, and/or a kind of toga praetexta, is accompanied by togati with wind instruments—most often cornicines and liticines—and such symbols of office as lictors with the fasces, the caduceus, and a folding chair, or sella curulis. Friezes of this type, their sepulchral character apparent from the occasional inclusion of demons of death, were already seen in the fourth century on the entry wall of the Tomb of the Shields in Tarquinia and in the Orvietan Golini Tomb II and Tomb of the Hescanas, also in several sarcophagus reliefs from Caere and Vulci. In the third century the best examples of such processions, either in a single line or two rows, one above the other, are found in the Bruschi Tomb, the Tombs of the Meeting and the Typhon, and Tomb 5512. In the Bruschi Tomb, two trains of togati approach each other as the deceased is received by his ancestors. The procession on the right wall of the Tomb of the Typhon, with togatus figures tightly packed, one behind and on top of the other, even includes two portrayals of Laris Pumpu, along with worthies bearing insignia, musicians, and demons; once he is identified in an inscription as a “cechase,” the second time as “zilath,” or high official. Larger in format and even more impressive is the procession on the left and back walls of the Tomb of the Meeting, which is unfortunately no longer accessible. The white-haired, elderly deceased is clearly emphasized on the back wall, with three lictors striding in front of him and a viator (official mes-
senger) following behind with his sacculus (bag). We see images of magisterial power symbols like the sella curulis in the Giglioli Tomb in Tarquinia and the Caeretan Tomb of the Reliefs. Roman writers like Silius Italicus confirm that these attributes and symbols, which the Romans adopted, came from Etruria, indicating that they originated in Vetulonia and Tarquinia. Appian (Lib. 8.66) points out the Etruscan influences in the makeup and arrangement of Roman triumphal processions. To judge from the monuments, the wholly un-Greek iconography of such processions of magistrates or officials, which has mainly been studied by M. Cristofani, was developed in the fourth century in Etruria, possibly in Tarquinia, then became widely used in the third and second centuries, when we find it in a number of reliefs on southern Etruscan sarcophagi and northern Etruscan urns. Increasingly, such processions are accompanied by demons of death, and the deceased is often shown in a biga or even a quadriga. Processions appear later in Roman tomb reliefs of a propagandistic nature like the Ara Pacis. Among the third-century examples are the relief frieze, originally painted, on the back wall of one of the temple tombs at Norchia and the fragments of small-figure painting on several sarcophagi in Tarquinia’s Giglioli Tomb. We also find certain iconographic and ideological parallels in southern Italian tomb painting from the Early Hellenistic period, in Paestum especially, but also in Capua in northern Campania (the Tomb of the Magistrate [del Magistrato]) and in northern Apulian, Daunian Arpi. In place of the earlier ideal of the warrior and horseman, we now find the paterfamilias and worthy magistrate. A series of painted chamber tombs in Paestum’s Spinazzo necropolis, with true megalographs of remarkable quality, is especially informative in this regard. On the back wall in each tomb, an ancestor welcomes the deceased, or the tomb owner, with a handclasp—the dextrarum iunctio or fides gestus— including women characterized as matronae, while on the side walls processions of dignitaries and figures bearing gifts approach the main scene with horses and mules and even such status symbols as small Maltese dogs. The main figures— often rendered in three-quarter view—are clearly distinguished by gender, age, and rank, and all have individualized features and expressions and give the appearance of portraits, but unlike those of Etruria the subjects are never named in
inscriptions. As a result, unfortunately, it is impossible to identify the gens to which the inhabitants of a given tomb belong, to reconstruct genealogies, or to determine their station. The men wear richly ornamented toga-like garments, cinturones, calcei similar to those of Roman senators, and seal rings. The striking profile head of the “magistrate” in the Spinazzo Tomb I “del Magistrato,” with a bulbous nose and altogether more realistic features than those of roughly contemporary Etruscan magistrate figures, recalls the ancient Roman aristocracy’s preference for the ius imaginum. This typical iconography, unlike that of Etruria in several respects, was the expression of a new ruling class from the period immediately preceding the colonization and Romanization of Paestum. Its images constitute a virtual “pantheon famigliare” or “family portrait album” (A. Pontrandolfo) emphasizing aristocratic values and the hierarchy within the gens. A signed pinax (“Artos pinave”) from the forechamber of the Early Hellenistic Tomb of the Medusa in Arpi, which betrays strong Macedonian influences, depicts—in addition to an eques—a togatus, or magistrate, possibly the tomb’s founder or an ancestor. The only architectural elements included in Etruscan tomb painting from the Hellenistic period are round-arch gates, some of them highly detailed—adorned, for example, with lions’ heads—as in Tarquinia’s Tombs of the Cardinal, Querciola II, and 5636. They are clearly meant to symbolize passageways or entrances into the afterlife, but they are also reflections of actual city gates in the Hellenistic period, such as those of Volterra, Perugia, and Falerii Novi. The same type of gate also appears in a number of Etruscan sarcophagus and urn reliefs from the third and second centuries. Etruscan painting from the Hellenistic period presents various contemporary techniques and styles. Definite three-dimensional effects were created, for example, in the continuous weapon frieze in the Giglioli Tomb, which dates from shortly before or around 300. The weapons “hang” from painted nails, all of them angled toward the center of the wall and illuminated by light from specific angles. Other achievements of large-format Greek painting such as pittura a macchia, a technique of painting with colored flecks that is almost impressionistic, and the addition of white highlights (“splendor” and “lumen,”
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Meeting: section of the back wall with profile head of a togatus, first half of the third century ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb 5636, pilaster in front of the back wall: winged death demon Charun with hammer, second half of the third century ..
according to Pliny Nat. Hist. 35.29) first appeared in certain kinds of vase painting, such as the Gnathia pottery from Apulia and central Italian poculum type, before they came to be adopted in Etruscan wall painting in the first half of the third century. We see them, for example, in the Tarquinian Tomb of the Garlands, whose long rectangular ceiling coffers (lacunaria) are ornamented with pinkish cupids, sea creatures, and vine motifs against a dark-blue ground. This almost Tachist color-fleck technique, with its pinkish macchie and applied white highlights, probably found its way to Etruria by way of Tarentum; it is also seen in the battle frieze on the pilaster capital in the roughly contemporary Tomb of the Cardinal. Highlights were used in several other high-quality Tarquinian tomb paintings from the third century, for example on the demon figures in the Tomb of the Charuns and the Tomb of the Anina Family. Another stylistic trend, which some scholars equate with so-called pictura compendiaria, is represented by the unique, small-figure frieze, roughly fortyfive meters long, now sadly for the most part destroyed, in the Tomb of the Cardinal. It seems compact and illusionistic with its rich shading,
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and in many respects prefigures later Roman painting from around the turn of the millennium. In the very last Tarquinian tombs, which were once dated to the second century, we can distinguish two fundamentally different but contemporary styles. One works mainly with chromatic effects and aims for a pronounced three-dimensionality. It is most impressively employed in the Typhon figures on the center pilaster of the Tomb of the Typhon, and to a lesser degree in the heads of the togati in this same tomb and in the Tomb of the Meeting. In the group of togati stacked vertically in the Tomb of the Typhon there is a hint of illusionistic spatial perspective, and accordingly a new sense of space similar to that found in a number of later Roman reliefs. The other is more draftsmanly, emphasizes outlines and internal drawing, and largely does without pronounced coloring, so that in some cases it is virtually monochrome. This is the style used for the “vegetal” goddess on the back of the pilaster in the Tomb of the Typhon, the very crude Charun figure on the pilaster in Tomb 5636, and the small-figured scenes of the “journey into the underworld” in Tombs 4912 and 5636.
The Tomb of the Mercareccia, right next to the Fondo Scataglini, may already have been known in the Renaissance, and it is deserving of particular attention because of its architecture. It consists of two chambers. The upper one, mainly reserved for the cult of the dead, has a ceiling in the atrium displuviatum form (roof sloping outward rather than inward), benches, and a niche in the back wall. The type of the atrium displuviatum is also reflected in a Chiusan urn (now in Berlin). The lower chamber, with a continuous bench, has a hipped roof with a relief-ornamented columen and perpendicular beams. Unfortunately, virtually nothing has survived of the friezes in relief and the painting. The upper chamber had two relief friezes, a smaller one with fighting animals and a larger one beneath it presenting a procession of people and demons, perhaps the arrival in the underworld. On the back wall of the lower chamber, there was another procession with eight figures bearing insignia, one of them crowned with a wreath—perhaps the deceased—and demons, some of which are identified in inscriptions. Gori published a map of the tomb in his Museum Etruscum, and Smuglewicz’s engravings
of the chambers and friezes were published by Byres. The Tomb of the Tapestry, from the end of the fourth century or beginning of the third, was discovered in the eighteenth century and has since been lost. We only have the early engravings published by Byres and housed in the Martin von Wagner-Museum in Würzburg. The tomb was laid out on two different levels. A false door in the back wall was flanked by a pair of demons with serpents (probably Charun and Vanth). The walls of the upper chamber were painted with draperies suspended from nails, possibly in imitation of baldachins and tentlike pavilions used for funeral ceremonies. The closest parallels for such draperies are in a Hellenistic-era tomb in Tarentum. The Giglioli Tomb, generally dated to the end of the fourth century or around 300, is one of the most important examples of Early Hellenistic tomb painting in Tarquinia. It is a spacious chamber tomb with a low hipped roof, columen, beams carved in relief, and seven sarcophagi of the wooden chest type. The monumental frieze of weapons “hanging” from painted Tarquinia, Giglioli Tomb, back wall: main sarcophagus and weapon frieze, around 300 .. or shortly before.
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Cerveteri, Tomb of the Reliefs; main loculus in the back wall with kline and painted stucco reliefs, end of the fourth century ..
nails and rendered three-dimensionally with intense chiaroscuro effects transforms the tomb chamber into an armory filled with round shields, helmets of the Phrygian type, pectorals, swords with their sheaths, greaves, paludamenta, and wind instruments, all to the glory of the gens Pinie. It has precedents and parallels in tomb painting in southern Italy (Paestum, Egnazia, Tarentum), Macedonia (Vergina, Lefkadia, Aghios Athanassios), and Thrace (Magliz), also in Cerveteri in the famous Tomb of the Reliefs and on the back wall of one of the rock temple tombs at Norchia. The custom of hanging weapons in tombs was already practiced in the Orientalizing and Archaic periods; actual bronze shields were found in tombs in Veii and Narce, and painted ones appear in Cerveteri’s Tomb of the Shields and Seats (degli Scudi e delle Sedie). Vel Pinies, magistrate, paterfamilias, and owner of the Giglioli Tomb, was buried in front of the back wall in the main sarcophagus with a lid figure. Symbols of authority like a sella curulis (or, according to M. Torelli, a capsa or chest containing tabulae of his res gestae), a flagella, a toga praetexta, and litui and other horns underscore his high rank. The shields have episemata (signs or badges) like protomae of wild boars, amphorae, and the letter “A,” and are taken over
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from Tarquinian bronze coinage from the second half of the fourth century (aes grave and aes signatum), which may have been introduced by a member of the gens Pinie. They thus symbolize the city itself and underscore the military virtues and the political importance of the Pinie, who so emphatically identify themselves with their hometown. At the same time, they clearly allude to the historical background, namely military conflicts between Tarquinia and Rome, especially in the years between 311 and 308. Some of the sarcophagi still have traces of painting from several generations down to the third quarter of the third century, showing Ionian cymatia, rosettes, demons (Charun and Vanth), a magistrate’s procession with togati, a biga with a magistrate, and inscriptions. The Bruschi Tomb, ascribed to the gens Ap[u]na on the basis of inscriptions, is now generally dated to Early Hellenistic times, that is, to around 300 or the first decades of the third century. It was formerly thought to be later. Its paintings, long since detached, were recently restored and newly presented in an exhibition in Viterbo in 2004. The paintings present processions of pairs of togati together with a few demons; two of the men identified as officials and a female figure are emphasized by their larger size. The founder
of the tomb is depicted as a magistrate; he is arriving in the afterlife with his train of musicians and lictors and is welcomed there by ancestors identified by inscriptions. Especially striking are a youth on horseback and a woman with a pomegranate. The main figures and groups are fully colored, whereas the togati are rendered mainly in drawing. The base frieze of waves and leaping dolphins is reminiscent of the Grotta Dipinta at Bomarzo and the sarcophagus from Cipollara (ca. 280). The Tomb of the Meeting, which was formerly often dated to the Late Hellenistic period or as late as around 100, can now, thanks to thorough recent studies by G. Colonna, A. Maggiani, and A. Naso, be placed in the first half of the third century. Its architecture, with columen, beams carved in relief, and the absence of benches, tends to confirm this. The tomb’s inscriptions are preserved only in fragments, so that it is impossible to identify the gens of its owners, and unfortunately it cannot be visited. Its paintings depict three separate processions of white togati refer-
ring to three different figures. Dominating the back wall is an older, white-haired man, doubtless the tomb’s founder, who is identified as “Larth Arnthal amce zilath cechaneri,” that is to say a high-ranking official. He is accompanied by two lictors with double axes and lances and a servant with his mantica. Two men crowned with wreaths are especially prominent on the left wall. In addition, there are three togati with fasces and three apparitores. The name “Velthur” appears in two different inscriptions. The attendant figures in the processions—which do not include demons— carry attributes or insignia such as double axes, lances, and rods or virgae alluding to the imperium militiae, and thus doubtless to the historical background, namely the final military skirmishes between Tarquinia and Rome in the first decades of the third century. The Tomb of the Garlands was discovered in 1919 near the Villa Tarantola. Its particular significance for the history of Etruscan painting and painting in general in the Hellenistic period was already recognized by Ranuccio Bianchi
Above: Tarquinia, Bruschi Tomb: section of the right wall with procession of togati (nineteenthcentury watercolor by G. Mariani), beginning of the third century .. Below: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Meeting, left wall: procession of togati, some of them identified in inscriptions, first half of the third century ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb of the Garlands, back wall: garland frieze with ribbons and shields, painted ceiling with lacunaria, ca. 270 ..
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Bandinelli. Its large tomb chamber has a flat ceiling and a continuous stepped bench (for burials both in recessed fossae and in freestanding sarcophagi). The painting techniques employed on the walls and on the ceiling are very different. The garland ornaments—still in combination with shields and above colorfully framed ashlar panels—are more distinctly indebted to the earlier chiaroscuro technique seen in the Giglioli Tomb; their closest precedents are found in Apulia and Tarentum. The two demons flanking the entrance, Charuns with hammers and serpents, are of higher quality. But it is the ceiling paintings in this tomb from around 270 that are deserving of particular attention. They present small putti, sea creatures (kete), and vines placed against the dark blue of the long rectangular, cymatia-framed coffers in a highly impressionistic, almost Tachist technique a macchia. This technique, adopted from Greek painting of the later fourth century, is also found in the battle friezes—also with blue grounds—on the capitals of the Tomb of the Cardinal, in a blueground frieze with bucrania and paterae in a half-
chamber tomb in Monte Sannace, in Peucetian Apulia, and on Pocala ware, a contemporary vasepainting genre from central Italy. The founder and patron of this highly original tomb was probably a member of the influential Curuna family. In its architecture and the styles and techniques used in its paintings, the Tomb of the Garlands stands somewhere between the Giglioli Tomb and the Tomb of the Typhon. The Tomb of the Anina Family lies in the center of the Fondo Scataglini, an abandoned quarry with 175 tombs hollowed out of the rock. Their inscriptions and paintings were recently published. The “square” in front of the main tomb and the “street” leading up to it had no sepulchral significance; they were features of the original quarry. The main tomb has been dated to somewhere between the close of the fourth century and the mid-third century. In any case, this spacious tomb with a three-tier continuous bench with both recessed and freestanding sarcophagi (in limestone, nenfro, and terracotta) and a flat ceiling was created by Larth Anina and used for at
Left: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Anina Family: sarcophagi and back wall with garland friezes and genealogical inscriptions, third century .. Below: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Cardinal: section of a pilaster capital with dark-ground battle frieze and light-ground vine frieze, first half of the third century ..
least three generations. We know this from the paintings and inscriptions executed on the walls and sarcophagi at different times and distinct from each other. According to one inscription, Larth Anina had six graves—probably sarcophagi—constructed for himself and his family. The paintings include a few small-figure images like demons and a procession with a magistrate on a biga between three lictors and a togatus, but mainly consist of botanical and ornamental decorations like vines, garlands with ribbons, rosettes, Doric and Ionian cymatia, dogtooth and crenellated friezes, and painted draperies. The white vine frieze on a red ground on one sarcophagus recalls Apulian Gnathia pottery. The entrance to the tomb is flanked by large-format demons identified by inscriptions as Charun and Vanth, ianitores with the typical attributes of a hammer and a torch, in an almost expressionist style in which the dark outlines are emphasized. These date from the tomb’s creation, and because the entrance was apparently widened at a later date they are not complete. The tomb contained a terracotta sarcophagus for a woman and five cippi with inscriptions and nine without, one of them in the form of a woman’s head. The gens Anina, which was not one of Tarquinia’s old, established noble families but rather among the homines novi—only one member of the third generation, by the name of Larth, held the office of zilath—is also known from inscriptions in the Tomb of the Shields and
from tombs in Cerveteri, Vulci, Chiusi, and Perugia. The Tomb of the Cardinal, which was thoroughly republished by A. Morandi in a 1983 monograph, was first discovered in 1699, then repeatedly reopened in the eighteenth century (in 1780 by the eponymous Cardinal Garampi, among others). It was documented in engravings by the Polish artist Smuglewicz that were published by Byres. For a long time these engravings influenced our reading of the wall paintings, especially the long, small-figured frieze—in many respects leading us astray. The Tomb of the Cardinal is the largest of all Tarquinia’s tombs. It is roughly square (roughly 260 sq m in area), with a continuous bench and a flat ceiling partly adorned with coffers, some of them painted with Doric cymatia. In a second phase the tomb was obviously enlarged and enriched with two additional pilasters, ceiling coffers, and the small painted frieze. It was owned by the gens Vestarcnie, which was closely related to the Spurina. The paintings date from different stages in the third century. The earliest are those on a pilaster capital with a three-dimensional scale design, a battle frieze in the a macchia technique on a dark-blue ground like the ceiling paintings in the Tomb of the Garlands, and a light-ground vine frieze. The small figural frieze with an ocher ground in the right-hand section of the tomb was painted later. With its roughly two hundred figures, it is some
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forty-five meters long, and thus the longest figural frieze in all of Etruscan tomb painting. It constitutes a sort of book of the dead in Etruscan eschatology and includes the largest repertory of demons of death in the most varied guises: reclining, attending the deceased, making menacing gestures, drawing chariots, and even participating in such violent scenes as the “rape of the soul” and “torture.” Here there is obviously a distinction between “good” and “evil” demons. Various stages in the journey to the underworld and the arrival there (complete with the walls and gates of Hades) are shown. Earlier scholars tended to see evidence of Orphic and Pythagorian thinking in these scenes. The style of the frieze varies; in places it is more draftsmanly, in other places it is executed in a more impressionistic stile compendiario of the kind that was widely used in Hellenistic Roman painting. The Tomb of the Charuns, which probably dates from the second quarter of the third century, is of the tomba con vestibulo type on two levels. Its upper room with benches is certain to have been reserved mainly for the cult of the dead, the two lower chambers created for burials. This type Tarquinia, Tomb of the Charuns: relief and painted false door in the form of the Dorc portal (porta dorica), flanked by two death demons identified in inscriptions (Charun), second quarter of the third century ..
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of tomb is relatively common, especially in the Fondo Scataglini, and is also seen in the even earlier Tomb of the Tapestry. The two large false doors in relief and painting in the upper chamber, each of them flanked by winged Charun figures identified by inscriptions, appear above the entrances to the tomb chambers, and represent the later variant of the Doric style door, with architraves curved at the end in the form of owls’ beaks, like those known mainly from South Etruscan rock-tomb facades from the Hellenistic period. The strong coloring of the Charun figures, with their hammer, ax, and serpent attributes, is enlivened by chiaroscuro effects and highlights. Sadly, the original function of these demons, which are precisely identified in inscriptions, is obscure. The Tomb of the Typhon, discovered in 1832 and published in a monograph by M. Cristofani, is one of the largest tombs from the Hellenistic period. Its dating was long disputed, and for a time it was dated to the second century (by Cristofani, for example). When it was discovered, the tomb still contained numerous sarcophagi with figural lids. These are of various dates, from
the third quarter of the third century to the first half of the second century, thus from at least three generations (G. Colonna). Today, based on these sarcophagus types, an earlier dating to the third quarter of the third century is preferred (G. Colonna), and F. Gilotta even dates it to before the middle of the third century. In any case, the Tomb of the Typhon—burial place of the aristocratic Pumpu family—is one of the last examples of a painted tomb in Tarquinia. Architecturally it features a stepped continuous bench, a flat ceiling with coffering suggested by wide intersecting stripes, and a central pilaster with an “altar” in front of it that was originally decorated with paintings (a procession). This “altar” was in fact a pedestal that may have supported the sarcophagus or a reclining figure of the ancestor Arnth Pumpu, as he is named in the large commemorative inscription on the front of the pilaster above. The inscriptions assure us that the tomb was used for further burials down into the first century B.C. and even into the period of the Roman Empire. The gens Pumpu was related to the Sentina and Clevsina and is also documented in inscriptions in Vulci, Chiusi, Cortona,
and Perugia. The paintings are eclectic, both in subject matter and to some extent in style. The wave frieze with leaping dolphins that runs around the upper part of the walls is well represented in Tarquinian tomb painting since the Late Archaic era. Below it is a red-ground frieze of rosettes and another of a dogtooth design. The iconography of the magistrate’s procession on the right wall, with togati, insignia of office, musicians, demons, and inscriptions, clearly originated in Etruria, probably Tarquinia, and goes back to the fourth century. The only truly innovative features are the two eponymous, large-scale Typhons with wings and serpents’ feet on the pilaster, which are slightly different from each other and function as telamones—a novelty in Etruscan art. They are rendered with extreme torsion and dramatic expressions in highly three-dimensional painting with chiaroscuro and highlights. At first glance they recall the High Hellenistic art of Pergamon in Asia Minor, specifically the highrelief Gigantomachy on the famous Pergamon Altar. The Typhon motif goes back to the second half of the sixth century in Etruria, where it is seen on antefixae, bronze ornaments, Felsina Tarquinia, Tomb of the Garlands: section of the ceiling paintings in a macchia technique, ca. 270 ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb of the Typhon, back side of the center pilaster: detail of the winged vine-woman, end of the third century ..
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steles, mirrors, Chiusan and Perugian urns, and in vase painting. In some respects its iconography is the same as that of the Etruscan Triton. We also see Typhons employed as telamones on two terracottas from Volsinii and two Volterran urns. Serpent-footed creatures of a chthonic nature are also seen in the Caeretan Tomb of the Reliefs (beneath the main loculus) and Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Sculptures (relief figure of a Scylla on the back wall). The tendency toward a more emotional, dynamic style evident in the Typhon figures on the center pilaster is familiar, as already mentioned, from High Hellenistic art in Asia Minor, specifically Pergamon (even the sculptures of the great Attalid monument), but it definitely had precedents in the third century. One thinks, for example, of Early Hellenistic Tarentine tomb sculpture and naiskoi reliefs, various Early Hellenistic pebble mosaics in Macedonia (the deer-hunting scene by Gnosis, for example), and architectural terracottas like the Apollo from the temple at Lo Scasato in Falerii Veteres. The vinewoman or goddess depicted on the back of the pilaster is of a totally different character, rendered in a wholly two-dimensional, more draftsmanly, and seemingly Archaic style. The motif of such figures with vines for limbs, probably representing vegetation goddesses, goes back to the end of the fifth century and is especially common in the fourth century. It is well documented in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions; we find it on a red-figure kylix from Vulci (there in a male version functioning as a telamon); on Apulian vessels and Alexandrian Hadra vases; on Greek wooden sarcophagi; in the Lion’s Tomb at Myra, in Lycia; in the famous Early Hellenistic Caryatid Tomb in Sveshtari, in Thrace; in Thracian and Scythian goldwork and toreutics; in Hellenistic architectural ornament in Asia Minor; on marble thrones; and in Roman wall painting in the Second Pompeian style. Both M. Pallottino and M. Cristofani see precedents for it in Archaistic, neo-Attic art as produced in the second century mainly in Asia Minor, especially Pergamon. Of course this would only make sense if one accepts a later, second-century date for the tomb. The presence of such a motif, which first appears in the fourth century, by no means precludes an earlier dating to the third century. According to W. Rupp, the vine-woman in the Tomb of the Typhon could represent the Great Earth Mother, that is the Etruscan goddess Cel Ati, and thus the mother of
the two neighboring Typhons. He sees her image in the Caryatid Tomb at Sveshtari as a symbolic allusion to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, as a mediator between this world and the next—much like Etruscan demons. The female heads that appear so often in vine decor in Apulian vase painting may belong within this same context. The procession in the center of the right wall, with such apparitores as lictors and horn players (cornicines), and replete with attributes like the fasces, double axes, and the lituus, includes demons. Inscriptions give the name “Laris Pumpu” to two magistrates, possibly brothers who were cofounders of the tomb, or perhaps one and the same man holding different offices. The painting stands in the tradition of earlier magistrates’ processions like those in the Orvietan Golini Tomb II and Tomb of the Hescanas and the Tarquinian Tomb of the Shields, Bruschi Tomb, and Tomb of the Meeting, but with its densely stacked figures on different base lines it anticipates the composition of later Roman narrative reliefs. The long dedicatory, religious inscription on the center pillar also names the gens Pumpu. The cornice on the pilaster capital, with grotesque lions’ heads positioned like antefixes, is unique in Etruscan painting. In addition to the large aristocrats’ tombs with more extensive and ambitious painting cycles, there is a series of generally smaller and less important chamber tombs in Tarquinia, a number of them only partially painted, that were once thought to date from as late as the second century but are now generally assigned to the second half of the third century. In the Tomb of the Alsina Family (degli Alsina) there are fragments of a figural frieze with members of the Alsina and Pumpu families identified by inscriptions. Inscriptions on the sarcophagi indicate that three generations were buried here. The paintings in the Querciola Tomb II, which no longer survives but can be attributed to the gens Ane, are documented in a colored drawing by C. Ruspi. Above a wave frieze along the base of the walls they showed Arnth Anes, identified in an inscription, arriving in the underworld attended by demons, and a round-arch gate directly above the main sarcophagus. The tomb probably had a barrel vault of the Macedonian type and was thus the only one of its kind in Tarquinia. The fragmentary paintings on the entry wall in Tomb 5512 (also known as the Double Tomb [Tomba
Doppia] or Tomb of the Anina Family II) present multifigured underworld arrival and encounter scenes—including a dextrarum iunctio—with demons (Charun and Vanth as psychopompoi) and the underworld gate, also a procession of officials reminiscent of the one in the Tomb of the Typhon, with togati, lictors, and musicians densely ranked above one another in frontal view. A long inscription on the left wall names the deceased Vela Péslinei, daughter of Lars, who through her mother and her husband (Velthur Aninas) was related to the better-known gentes Ap[u]na and Anina. A section of the ceiling above the togati and the sarcophagus is painted in the manner of a baldachin, with a fabric or tapestrylike border of crenellated and dogtooth designs and corner palmettes. The side to the right of the door was reworked during a second phase of burials (ca. 280), and the one to the left of the door during a third (middle to third quarter of the third century). The tomb still contained a quantity of grave goods, mostly pottery, including painted Etruscan vessels dating from the fourth century and other objects from the third and second centuries. In Tomb 5636 (second half of the third century) only the right wall and the pilaster are painted. The arrival scene with four figures, demons (Vanth with a torch and Charun), and an arch-shaped underworld gate with lion’s-head fittings on the right wall refers to the hollowed-
out burial directly below. Charun is seated on a block of stone in front of the gate in his function as ianitor. The brothers Laris and Arnth Arnthunas are identified by inscriptions; the latter held the office of “marunuc spurana” for three years. A large-format Charun with wings, serpentine hair, and a hammer, very crudely drawn in a dark brown, decorates the pilaster in front of the back wall. In the Fondo Scataglini, Tombs 4836 (Fondo Scataglini 170) and 4912 (or of the Four Figurines [delle Quattro Figurine]) are also worth mentioning. Tomb 4836, from the turn from the fourth to the third century, has a notable winged male demon. In Tomb 4912, from the middle to the second half of the third century, with remains of grave goods, there is a marked contrast in style between the two vividly colored demons (Charun with a hammer and Vanth with a torch) and the two almost monochrome draped women. The younger woman, accompanied by Vanth, is being received in the underworld by an older woman with Charun at her side. Figures in the Early Hellenistic tomb painting of Canosa, in northern Apulia, closely resemble these veiled women. A wall section with the two right-hand figures was unfortunately stolen. Tomb 5580 dates from the early third century and was enlarged shortly afterward, at which time it was adorned with a painted “tapestry” above the sarcophagus of Thanchvil Anei. Tomb 5203, in the Terreno Maggi,
Tarquinia, Querciola Tomb II, right side of the back wall, left portion of the right wall, and ground plan: underworld gate and arrival in the underworld with two death demons (Charun) armed with hammers (nineteenth-century drawing by Carlo Ruspi), second half of the third century ..
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Tarquinia, Tomb 5636, right wall: section with underworld gate and arrival in the underworld, second half of the third century ..
is distinguished by a very long inscription, a Doric cyma just below the ceiling, and a figural scene on the right wall in which a woman is being menaced by a bird-headed demon, possibly Tuchulcha. A series of Tarquinian tombs from the Hellenistic period, most of them discovered in the nineteenth century, no longer survives, so that we are obliged to make do with early descriptions, engravings, and drawings, which are not always very reliable. Among these were the Tartaglia Tomb (discovered in 1699, from the third quarter of the third century, with paintings apparently similar to those in the Tomb of the Cardinal, divided architecturally by telamones); the Tomb of the Eizenes Family (degli Eizenes, discovered in 1874, from the end of the third century); the Tomb of the Head of Charun (delle Teste di Charun, discovered in 1833, from the third century); the Tomb of the Dancing Priests (dei Sacerdoti Danzanti, paintings with naked dancers and birds between small trees; Gori published an early drawing of them by G. N. Forlivesi in his Museum Etruscum, but mistakenly identified it as having been made in the second chamber of the Tomb of the Mercareccia); and the Tomb with the Procession of Cybele (con Processione di Cibele) and the Tomb with Woman with Diadem and Cymbals, and Man Riding Elephant (con Diadema,
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Cimbali, Uomo su Elefante), with unclear depictions of processions, featuring the goddess Cybele in her lion chariot and a long line of corybantes, documented in an early Forlivesi drawing from the eighteenth century. In another tomb there was apparently a depiction of the goddess Ceres in a chariot drawn by serpents. The so-called Tomb with Ship (Tomba con Nave) presented sea gods on a ship, or more likely a symbolic journey of the deceased across the sea into the afterlife. There are also a number of chamber tombs in Tarquinia that contain inscriptions, sarcophagi, and grave goods, but virtually no wall paintings. These apparently belonged to members of a kind of middle class. A series of Early Hellenistic aristocratic tombs with paintings is found in the Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri, most notably the Tombs of the Reliefs, the Sea Waves (delle Onde marine), the Triclinium, the Sarcophagi, and the Inscriptions. The most interesting one is unquestionably the Tomb of the Reliefs, which was thoroughly republished in 1985 by H. Blanck. It was surely situated deliberately next to the large Tumulus I from the Orientalizing period, and its inscriptions link it to the gens Matuna. The site of several dozen burials, its walls and pilasters are covered with a wealth of colored stucco reliefs on military, domestic, and underworld subjects that
set this splendid hypogeum apart from all other Etruscan tombs. The resting place of the paterand materfamilias in the center back-wall loculus is emphasized with a kline and a footrest. To the left of this is the depiction of a chest with a lock, probably containing the tablets with the ancestral res gestae. On top of it lies a liber linteus (linen book), which was probably meant to suggest the high cultivation of the illustrious deceased in a general sense and more specifically his priestly roles. The flanking busts next to the main loculus probably represent the underworld deities Aita and Phersipnei, not the couple buried in the loculus. The weapon frieze above, with shields, helmets, greaves, swords, and phalerae (military decorations), symbolizes the manly, military sphere and is reminiscent of the painted weapon frieze in Tarquinia’s Giglioli Tomb. The objects
represented on the two pilasters—pieces of furniture, tools, kitchen utensils, vessels, implements, even animals—provide interesting insights into everyday Etruscan life. The Tomb of the Triclinium was painted with animal friezes and banquet scenes with couples reclining in front of round tables, servants, and a kylikeion. The paintings no longer survive and are known only from old drawings by Canina. In their motifs they most closely resemble those of the Tomb of the Shields and the Orvietan Golini tombs. The painting in the Tomb of the Sea Waves is essentially limited to a continuous wave frieze. In the Tomb of the Inscriptions, which belonged to the gens Tarchna, members of at least eight generations were buried down into the Augustan age. The paintings mainly highlight the tomb’s architectural features.
Left: Cerveteri, Tomb of the Triclinium, back wall: banquet scenes with a kylikeion in the center (nineteenth-century drawing by L. Canina), end of the fourth century .. Below: Vulci, Campanari Tomb, section of the back wall: bearded man enthroned with his wife standing in front in a chiton and himation (nineteenth-century drawing), third century ..
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p. 265 Tarquinia, Giglioli Tomb: detail of the left wall with hanging anatomical armor, around 300 .. or shortly before.
pp. 266–67 Tarquinia, Giglioli Tomb: detail of the back wall with hanging paludamentum (cloak), sheathed sword, and shield with a boar’s head as episema, around 300 .. or shortly before.
pp. 268–69 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Meeting, back wall: section of the procession of togati and lictors with inscriptions, first half of the third century ..
pp. 270–71 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Anina Family, entry wall: details of the death demons Charun, with hammer, and Vanth, with torch, flanking the entrance, first half of the third century ..
p. 272
p. 273
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Charuns: detail of the right
Tarquinia, Tomb of the Typhon, left side of the center
wall with the blue-skinned death demon Charun with
pilaster: winged, serpent-footed Typhon serving as a
hammer, second quarter of the third century ..
telamon, end of the third century ..
pp. 274–75 Tarquinia, Tomb 5636, right wall: section with scene of arrival in the underworld framed by the death demons Charun, in front of the underworld gate, and Vanth, second half of the third century ..
p. 276 Tarquinia, Tomb of the Garlands: section of the garland frieze with shield and ribbons “hung” from nails, ca. 270 ..
The only tomb paintings from the Hellenistic period in Vulci are those in the Campanari Tomb and the Tomb of the Dolphin (del Delfino). The spacious Campanari Tomb, discovered in 1833 and distinguished by a column with a figural capital, no longer survives and is known only from early descriptions and drawings. Its large-format paintings presented processional rows of men, women, and children, also a central group of an enthroned man with his wife standing beside him. Some consider these the tomb’s owners; others take them to be the underworld deities Aita/Hades and Phersipnei/ Persephone. The tomb is generally dated to the third century. The Tomb of the Dolphins, discovered in the Necropoli di Ponte Rotto in 1959 and brought to public attention by F. Buranelli, contains only slight traces of a painted wave frieze with leaping dolphins similar to that of the Tarquinian Tomb of the Typhon, and dates from the period of Vulci’s Romanization after 280. In Chiusi the Tassinaia Tomb is the only known tomb with wall frescoes from the Hellenistic period. Its distinguishing features are its hollowed-out structure, low benches, and “Macedonicizing” barrel vault. It has now been re-created inside Chiusi’s Museo Archeologico. Its paintings present a frieze with garlands, ribbons, and a round shield, birds, lunulae (sickle moons), and discus pendants, and two members of the Tiu family identified by inscriptions—a man and a woman, probably the wife and son of the tomb’s founder. “Tius” is Etruscan for “moon,” and the crescent-shaped lunulae are an allusion to the family name. Theophoric names
such as this were especially common in Volsinii. The script and formulation of the inscriptions are South Etruscan in style and suggest that the tomb could have been built by a Volsinian who fled after that city’s destruction in 265/264. The tomb contained a kline-shaped terracotta sarcophagus for the burial of its founder and appears to date from between the middle and the second half of the third century. Among the few North Etruscan examples of painted chamber tombs from the Early Hellenistic period (end of the fourth to beginning of the third century) are the Tomb of the Wave Frieze (del Corridietro or delle Onde marine) and Tomb of the Dolphins (dei Delfini) in Populonia’s Necropoli delle Grotte, which was used between the second half of the fourth century and the mid-second century and also includes a few rock tombs in former quarries. Both chamber tombs are hollowed out of the soft local Arenaria sandstone and contain plain stone benches for burials. The simple motifs of the paintings—wave friezes, dolphins, a ram’s head—and their style link them to southern Etruria, especially Cerveteri (Tomb of the Sea Waves and Tomb of the Sarcophagi) and Tarquinia (Fondo Scataglini). Antonella Romualdi’s hypothesis that the tomb owners came from southern Etruria has been strengthened by the discovery in the immediate vicinity of a fragmentary inscription in the South Etruscan style. An underground space discovered within the ancient precinct of Cerveteri in 1983, which has been researched mainly by M. Cristofani and M. Torelli, provides a unique glimpse of Early
Left: Populonia, Tomb of the Wave Frieze: wall section with red base and black wave frieze, beginning of the third century .. Right: Populonia, Tomb of the Wave Frieze: remnants of painting on the continuous bench, beginning of the third century ..
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Left: Viterbo, Museo Archeologico Nazionale: mosaic from Musarna with meander design and Etruscan inscriptions, second half of the second century .. Right: Populonia: section of a polychrome mosaic with a sea frieze and African heads from the area of the acropolis, end of the second century ..
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Hellenistic Etruscan wall painting of a nonsepulchral nature. In the rectangular hall there is a square niche (roughly 1.80 m tall) with elegant palm trees painted on each of the side walls and on the back wall a small caryatid supporting a mensole between two palmettes. The latter are painted a macchia, mainly in greenish tones. Altogether there are nine inscriptions, some them incised, some painted. The most significant is unquestionably the one that reads “C. Genucio(s) Clousino(s) praif(ectos).” Another one mentions a Rosalia ceremony. One of the graffiti depicts the god Sol on his chariot. We know from the historical sources that the praefectura Caeritum was established in 273 B.C. The C. Genucius Clepsina named in the inscription was consul in 276 and 270, and a representative of the new patrician-plebeian nobilitas to which Q. Ogulnius Gallus belonged. The palm can be interpreted as a symbol of the cult at Delos and the Delian triad (whose cult is documented in Cerveteri by votive terracottas from the fourth century). In Hellenistic painting we also find depictions of palms in Tomb V of the Anfushi necropolis at Alexandria. According to M. Cristofani, the underground space was a cult complex, possibly a balaneion (baths); M. Torelli chooses to see in it a political, commemorative complex that is quite obviously related to the decisive events around 273. Various painted sarcophagi (Tarquinia) and urns (Volterra, Chiusi) also serve to expand our knowledge of Etruscan painting in the Hellenistic
period. In most instances these consist of polychrome reliefs, but there are certainly examples with two-dimensional painting as well, mainly ornamental and botanical in nature. As yet these have received less attention. The only known polychrome mosaics from the second century in Etruria are those from Musarna (with an Etruscan inscription mentioning the gens Alethna) and Populonia (two examples: a fish mosaic and a mosaic with African heads). By the turn from the fourth to the third century vase painting had lost much of its former importance both in Greece and in Italy. Production of red-figure vases ceased in southern Italy and Sicily around 300 and would persist not much longer in central Italy. In these final years we still find last representatives of Volterran kelebai and Genucilia plates with star designs, to which we made reference in the last chapter, as well as some three hundred vessels by the Spina Painter, most of them with Dionysian subject matter. Blackglazed vessels with applied decoration in opaque polychrome (red, white, yellow, gold) began to appear at the same time as these last red-figure vases, and soon they were produced exclusively. Their painting was mostly ornamental and botanical, with fewer figures. The best examples are the Early Hellenistic Gnathia pottery from Apulia, some of which was exported. Black-glazed wares with stamped designs and applied reliefs were also produced in great quantities—especially in Campania—and to some extent they prefigure the
Roman terra sigillata. The most prolific producer was the “Atelier des petites éstampilles.” In central Italy and especially in Rome, we find poculum vessels—mainly plates and bowls—as well as vessels of the Hesse Group, which were produced in a Vulcian workshop in the first decades of the third century (elephant plates, among others), with overpainted figural decoration in rich colors and a macchia technique on black glaze with highlights and votive inscriptions to deities in Latin. This highly innovative vase painting reveals definite Tarentine influences, but abruptly ceased in the second quarter of the third century after the final conquest of Etruscan Vulci and Volsinii by the Romans. At the end of the fourth century a workshop in Vulci had also produced the Etruscan red-figure “Fould” stamnoi, most probably designed for sepulchral use, whose paintings with foreshortening, chiaroscuro, and lighting
effects compare favorably with paintings on a tomb kline from Potideia (Kassandria) in Macedonia. A typical product of South Etruria— that is, the territory around Volsinii and Falerii— in the Hellenistic period is what is called ceramica argentata, meant to look like metal and at times ornamented with reliefs. Of distinctly greater interest in reconstructing the history of painting in Hellenistic Italy are several types of vessels painted in polychrome—mostly in tempera technique—which we know mainly from Centuripe in Sicily (which also produced tondi with especially cloying matte colors), from Lipari, from Daunian Canosa and Arpi in Apulia, and from Alexandria. In terms of painting technique, style, and subject matter, they often show unmistakable influences of large-format painting. The same is true of the painted grave steles from Paestum and from Lilibaeum in western Sicily.
London, British Museum: black-glaze bowl with polychrome overpainting from the Hesse Group from Vulci with seated youth and dog, first quarter of the third century ..
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From Asia Minor to Magna Graecia, from Thrace to Alexandria The “Koine” and the Place of Etruscan Painting in the Art of the Ancient Mediterranean
In its nearly five centuries of development and with its manifold facets, Etruscan tomb painting can no longer be considered as either an isolated phenomenon or a genre exclusively influenced by Greek painting. It must be seen in the context of the history of art in the entire Mediterranean region. It is necessary to consider not only the relevant sources and monuments relating to Greek painting, but also, and especially, original wall and tomb painting in various cultural regions around the Mediterranean from the seventh to the second centuries B.C. In Italy itself these regions are primarily Apulia, Campania, and Lucania, to a lesser extent Calabria/Bruttium, Samnium, and Rome. After Etruscan tomb painting, that of southern Italy constitutes the largest and most informative inventory of wall painting from pre-Roman Italy, with examples from the waning sixth century to the second century .., the majority of them from the fourth and third centuries. Interesting new tomb paintings come to light in Apulia and Campania almost every year. Outside of Italy, tomb paintings are found mainly in the eastern Mediterranean region—Macedonia, Thrace, western Asia Minor (Lydia, Phrygia, Lycia), and Alexandria—and on the Crimea in the region of the Black Sea. Of late the term “koine” has become a kind of buzzword. Any number of archaeologists from different specialties have used it to characterize certain comparable stylistic and iconographic phenomena in specific periods and in various regions around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. For example, many scholars—including Etruscologists—refer to a Late Archaic eastern Greek or Ionian “koine” that extended as far west as Etruria and is clearly reflected, as discussed in chapter 3, in wall, tomb, and vase painting.
In this Late Archaic phase, which was so strongly influenced by the art of Ionia, wall and tomb painting, the often colorful vase painting in the black-figure technique, and other painting genres enjoyed a distinct flowering, both in Etruria and in the eastern Greek region of Asia Minor. Political and military pressures, especially the Persian occupation, forced a number of Ionian artists, particularly painters and potters, to leave their homelands and seek refuge and new working opportunities in South Etruria’s coastal centers. Notable examples of Etruscan painting— or painting executed in Etruria—from the second half of the sixth century, such as the tomb paintings of Tarquinia (the Tombs of the Bulls, the Augurs, the Lionesses, the Jugglers, of Hunting and Fishing, and the Cardarelli Tomb, for example), the Campana plaques and hydriae from Caere, the Campana dinoi, and the “Pontic” vases from Vulci, often compare most favorably with examples of painting along the coast of Asia Minor, from the offshore islands, and in the bordering regions to the east. All of them were either produced by Ionian painters themselves or reflect the powerful influence of Ionian art. Among these eastern examples are wall paintings— often only fragmentary—in Phrygia (the Painted House in Gordion, painted juniperwood panels from a chamber tomb in Tartarli), in Lydia (from a tumulus in Us¸ak, in the Hermos Valley), and especially in Lycia (two chamber tombs in Kizilbel and Karaburun, near Elmali), also painted Clazomenaen sarcophagi, painted clay relief slabs like those from Larisa, and various vase genres like those of the Little Masters (Piccoli Maestri) from Samos. Comparisons can be made in terms of iconography, style, and painting technique.
Facing page: Ankara, Archaeological Museum: wallpainting fragment from a tumulus in Us¸ak in the Hermos Valley (Lydia) with the profile head of a red-haired woman, end of the sixth century ..
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Kizilbel, near Elmali (Lycia), painted chamber tomb: detail with a warrior wearing helmet and armor in a biga, last quarter of the sixth century ..
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The two painted chamber tombs discovered near Elmali in Lycia in 1969 and published by the American scholar Machtheld Mellink are of particular interest. They date from the last quarter of the sixth and first quarter of the fifth centuries, and present depictions of a warrior’s departure on a biga (probably on his journey into the afterlife); a (funeral) banquet; a ship; a scene at court with warriors, officials, grooms, and horses; a hunting scene; a mythological scene with Gorgons, Pegasus, and Chrysaor; an ekphorà (funeral procession); and a battle scene. Their rich iconographic repertoire thus includes both Greek and Asian—notably Persian—elements. Profile heads of the same Ionian mold can be seen in the older Lycian tomb and in Tarquinian paintings like those of the Tomb of the Augurs. A number of lovely profile heads also appear on fragments of painting from the Painted House in Gordion, in Phrygia, and from a tomb in Us¸ak, in Lydia. But in the Late Archaic period we also find such motifs as predatory cats, banquets, ship journeys, and processions in both Etruscan and Ionian painting. The famous Tomb of the Diver (del Tuffatore) at Paestum, discovered in 1968 and published by M. Napoli, comes from the transition phase between the Late Archaic and Early Classical styles, that is the period around 480/470. It therefore still belongs to the southern Italian colony of Poseidonia’s Greek era and is unique in Greek tomb art and painting. The style and iconography of the wall paintings in this stone cassone, or “chest”, tomb, with their animated banquet scenes “al fresco,” were inspired by early fifth-century Attic red-figure vase painting. The motif of a naked man diving into the water, on the ceiling of the tomb, was surely meant to represent the dive into the waters of the Styx, that is, the passage from this life to the next, and recalls the image in the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing in Tarquinia from roughly three decades before, also in a Late Archaic Etruscan bronze statuette from Perugia. The male-only symposium with kottabos players and musical accompaniment may also be understood as taking place in the afterlife. Whereas the style and iconography of the paintings in this tomb are distinctly Attic, burial in painted tombs was at this point a characteristic Etruscan custom. The Etruscans inhabited portions of Campania north of the Sele River, and there are painted chamber tombs in Capua. Some
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scholars therefore assume that the owner of the tomb was a non-Greek, probably of Etruscan descent, who had settled in Poseidonia. One reads in the archaeology literature of a “koine” with regard to burial customs in the ninth and eighth century that includes southern Etruria, Rome, and Latium; a so-called South Etruscan–Latin “koine” for the fourth and third centuries; a “koine” of tomb architecture from the fourth to the second centuries; and a “koine ellenistica italica.” But the most frequent use of the term by far is in connection with the Early Hellenistic period—occasionally Middle or High Hellenism as well—in which a number of different regions, some of them remote from each other, shared a common style and iconography that is seen in such diverse artistic genres as wall painting (especially in tombs, but also in houses, palaces, and temples), mosaics (in both pebble and tessera techniques), vase painting (red-figure, polychrome, and black-glazed), architecture and architectural decoration, terracottas, toreutics, and jewelry (bronze, silver, and gold). This koine encompassed the territories of Macedonia, Epiros, Thrace, southern Russia and portions of Scythia, Asia Minor, Alexandria, Magna Graecia (Sicily and especially southern Italy), and Etruria. Specific iconographic motifs (above all ornaments), forms, and stylistic and technical features can be seen at more or less the same time in all these regions, not to mention ideological and religious elements. It is not always easy to determine where these features originated or how they were transmitted from one region to the next. In any case, the term “koine” should be used with caution. In the following discussion I have somewhat expanded the time frame of “Early Hellenism” to include the century and a half between the midfourth century and the turn from the third to the second century. It was precisely in this period that tomb painting—generally in combination with the development of monumental tomb architecture— came into full flower in a number of regions around the Mediterranean, including southern Etruria, Rome, southern Italy (Apulia, Campania, and Lucania, to a lesser extent Samnium and Bruttium/Calabria), Macedonia, Thrace, southern Russia, Alexandria, and—to a lesser extent—Asia Minor. In most of these areas—significantly, large portions of the Greek mainland are excluded— tomb painting only became common at this
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Thessaloníki, Archaeological Museum, painted stone chest tomb from Aineia/Nea Michaniona (Macedonia): detail with objects “hung” on nails and a vine frieze with a profile female head, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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point. It is only in Etruria and parts of Asia Minor that any significant tradition of tomb painting can be traced back into the Orientalizing and Archaic periods, thus to the seventh and/or sixth centuries. In southern Italy there are only a very few tomb paintings from the late sixth and fifth centuries. On the other hand, the widespread phenomenon of “Early Hellenistic” tomb painting in the larger sense includes not only wall paintings but also painted steles (as in Macedonia, Thessaly, Alexandria, Cyprus, the Levantine coast, and Paestum), sarcophagi and urns (as in Etruria), and polychrome tomb vessels (as in Daunian Arpi and Canosa, Centuripe in Sicily, Alexandria, and Macedonia). And at this same time we also find much more lavish decoration in private houses and palaces, including stucco, painting, and mosaics. From Greece, especially Macedonia, a new type of aristocratic dwelling with andrones, peristyles, and rich decoration was transmitted to other cultural regions like Daunia (Arpi, Salapia), Campania (Buccino), Sicily (Gela), and southern Russia. The tomb-painting repertoire includes (a) architectural motifs (the “zone style” and the structural or masonry style), (b) ornamental botanical motifs, and (c) figural motifs. Needless to say, there is considerable variation in iconography between the individual regions, but it is also
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possible to identify a number of elements and motifs they have in common. Architectural motifs in their various forms are well documented in nearly all the regions in question, both in tomb paintings and in nonsepulchral wall paintings. As yet only relatively few examples are known from Etruria, such as those in the rear chamber of Vulci’s François Tomb and in Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Garlands.1 From the second group, the following motifs enjoyed particular popularity: crenellation motifs,2 imitation draperies,3 vines,4 garlands,5 bucrania, at times combined with rosettes and paterae,6 perspective meander friezes,7 dogtooth friezes,8 and cymatia.9 Widespread motifs from the third, figural group are: weapons and weapon friezes,10 Gorgoneions,11 animal fights,12 the “vine goddess,”13 sea creatures like Nereids (at times with Achilles’ weapons) riding hippocampi or other marine animals,14 female heads, at times combined with vine or flower decor,15 chariot races, some including a Nike,16 seemingly comic scenes with pygmies and geranomachies,17 and various versions of the deductio ad inferos, the journey to the underworld.18 The distribution of these different motifs is summarized at the end of this chapter (see endnotes).
In some instances the entire figural composition shows the varied uses of elements of an Early Hellenistic koine. The figural scene in the lunette of the main chamber in the famous Caryatid Tomb in Sveshtari, in Thrace (northeast Bulgaria), from the period around 300, is divided into male (left) and female (right) sections. The two central figures are specially emphasized: a horseman (with a horn behind his ear, a motif borrowed from the Zeus Ammon and Alexander iconography) is being crowned with a wreath by a tall woman—doubtless a goddess. A procession of four women bearing gifts is lined up behind the “goddess” on the right. Two men are striding behind the horseman on the left; the one in front is an arms-bearer. These are clearly motifs and combinations of motifs of a primarily Greek koine. There are parallels for the horseman on Greek coins and reliefs, as well as in tomb painting in Lucania (Paestum) and Campania (Capua, Nola); for the “goddess” with a wreath, parallels appear again in the tomb painting of Campania and Paestum and on a tomb facade of the Bella Tumulus in Vergina, in Macedonia; for the central group in Campanian, Lucanian, and Samnite tomb painting (called the ritorno del guerriero), in southern Italian red-figure vase painting, and in Alexandrian tomb painting (Tomb I in the Moustafa Pasha necropolis); for the man bearing
arms, on Graeco-Persian gems; and for the female servants, on Greek red-figure vases, especially those from Kercˇ in the Crimea. In Early Hellenism it is also possible to find historical illustration, for example, battle scenes in Macedonian, Thracian, Etruscan, Roman, and Paestan tomb painting, on Apulian red-figure and Daunian polychrome vases, and in terracotta ornaments on Canosan vases. Here one thinks of the tomb in Kazanlak, in Thrace (ceiling paintings in the dromos); the François Tomb in Vulci; the Roman tomb on the Esquiline; Tomb 114 in the Andriuolo necropolis at Paestum; largeformat vases by the Dareios Painter; and a group of polychrome vessels painted in the tempera technique—most of them volute kraters—from Arpi. In addition, a number of innovative stylistic elements and painting techniques derived from Greek monumental and panel painting, most of which has been lost, are now reflected in various Mediterranean regions, for example, the use of chiaroscuro effects, shading, flecks of color (pittura a macchia), dark backgrounds, richer palettes with numerous blended pigments, and more highly developed perspective. The tempera paintings on the famous Amazon Sarcophagus from Tarquinia, the dark-ground ceiling paintings with vines, sea creatures, and putti in the almost impressionistic a macchia technique
Thessaloníki, Archaeological Museum, painted stone chest tomb from Aineia/Nea Mihanióna (Macedonia): detail with objects “hung” on nails and a vine frieze with a female head, third quarter of the fourth century ..
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Sveshtari (Thrace), Caryatid Tomb: lunette painting with hero being crowned with a wreath, ca. 300 ..
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in Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Garlands, and the dark-ground bucrania-and-paterae frieze in an aristocratic tomb (Tomb 8) on the acropolis of Peucetian Monte Sannace, in central Apulia, present clear examples of these advances. We also see them in the later tomb paintings—genuine megalographs—dating from the turn from the fourth to the third centuries in Paestum’s Spinazzo necropolis. In the realm of tomb architecture, the socalled Macedonian type is especially noteworthy. It consists of a tumulus, a temple- or gatelike facade with Doric or Ionian columns or pilasters, subterranean stone-block construction, generally with an antechamber and main chamber, barrel vaulting, stucco and painted decoration on the facade and chamber walls, and stone furnishings like klines and even thrones. It served as the model for the tombs of a number of local elites in various Mediterranean regions after Macedonia, under King Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, had become not only the leading political and military power in the Mediterranean but also a noted center of culture, art, and science that attracted artists, philosophers, and scholars from the entire Greek world. This new type of tomb was adopted in the waning fourth and the third century in Thrace, Illyria, southern Russia, Asia
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Minor, Alexandria, Apulia, Campania, and Etruria (first in Cerveteri and Orvieto/Volsinii, later in the Chiusi, Perugia, and Cortona region), though to be sure all the details of the original pattern were not universally adopted, and numerous variations were possible. The earliest Etruscan example, in the Ripe Sant’Angelo necropolis at Cerveteri, is uncommonly large, and it is distinguished by a double barrel vault of wedge-shaped stones and stucco ornaments. The only Etruscan tomb of this type decorated with wall paintings is the Tassinaia Tomb at Chiusi, which was hollowed out of the local stone. The monumental Tomb of the Medusa in Daunian Arpi, from the first half of the third century, is an excellent example of this process of assimilation. It has an imposing facade, three barrel-vaulted chambers, and rich three-dimensional, painted, and mosaic decorations. It was excavated and published by M. Mazzei. Templelike facades were common elements of Hellenistic, especially Early Hellenistic, tomb architecture, both in built-up and excavated (especially rock) tombs. One thinks mainly of the rock tombs in Norchia (Doric Tombs) and Sovana (Ildebranda Tomb and Pola Tomb) in southern Etruria. In Macedonia and in Apulia and Campania, the interior walls can be structured by either relief or painted half-
columns or wall pilasters. Richly ornamented and sometimes painted stone klines of the same type—with sawed leg shapes—are found in chamber tombs in Macedonia, Thrace, Asia Minor, Alexandria, Apulia, Campania, and southern Etruria (here notably in Cerveteri). Coffered ceilings with relief and/or painted decoration became especially popular after the middle of the fourth century, surely inspired by the work of the Greek painter Pausias, as we see from examples in Greek temple architecture and in chamber tombs in Etruria (Tomb of the Garlands in Tarquinia), southern Italy, and Thrace (for example, the Ostrusha Tumulus at Shipka). Stone doors, at times with painted or bronze decoration, are found in tombs in such culturally far-flung regions as Macedonia, Thrace, Alexandria, Tarentum, Apulia, and Etruria. Corinthian columns appear in Early Hellenistic sepulchral contexts in Thrace (Sveshtari), Peucetia (Ruvo), and Tarentum. The use of caryatids in tombs is seen in Tarentum, Messapia (Vaste), Thrace (Sveshtari), and Rhodes, later in Cyrene as well. The motif of an eagle clutching a bundle of lightning bolts appears on the console molding of the Thracian Caryatid Tomb at Sveshtari (northeast Bulgaria) and on figural capitals from Tarentum and Lecce (Hypogeum in Palazzo Palmieri).
Specific architectural features and decorative forms like column bases, Ionic half-columns, moldings, and rosettes are encountered on both sides of the Adriatic, in Apulia and Etruria as well as Illyria and Macedonia. A great many questions naturally confront anyone who attempts to determine where specific motifs, patterns, and beliefs originated or tries to trace how they were transmitted from one cultural region to the next. For the most part there are no universally valid answers. While it is not always possible to pin down precise sources, the main inspirations clearly came from the eastern Mediterranean region—Athens, Macedonia— and Magna Graecia with its colonial center of Tarentum. Considering the problem of the provenance of specific motifs and the phenomenon of the koine, one is reminded of Goethe’s wise observation in his West-Östlicher Divan: “Wer sich selbst und andre kennt / wird auch hier erkennen: / Orient und Okzident / sind nicht mehr zu trennen” (“Those who understand themselves and others are forced to recognize that Orient and Occident can no longer be distinguished”). Various possibilities can be considered with respect to transmission: imports and exports of specific goods, above all pottery, metals, and textiles; gifts of luxury articles by embassies; the
Sveshtari (Thrace), Caryatid Tomb: detail of the relief frieze, originally painted, with vine-women serving as caryatids, ca. 300 ..
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Paestum, Museo Archeologico: east end of Tomb 4 (1971) in Paestum’s Andriuolo necropolis (chest tomb) with dueling scene and palmette in the gable, last quarter of the fourth century ..
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exchange of pattern drawings; movement by individual tradesmen, artists, and craftsmen; and migrating workshops. For example, the Early Hellenistic mosaics in Daunia appear to have been the work of northern Greek workshops. M. Pfrommer has identified the relatively strong influence of Magna Graecia, southern Italy, and central Italy on Macedonian art with respect to the vine ornaments so common in tomb painting. This is proof that we should not always assume a predominant flow of ideas from east to west. Pfrommer even suspects the presence of Italian metalworkers in Macedonia and the Black Sea region, although they are not documented in the ancient sources. Southern and central Italian decorative forms can be seen in Macedonia, southern Russia, Asia Minor, and Alexandria. Apparently even bronze objects found their way from Magna Graecia to Macedonia, Thrace, and southern Russia. Of course it must be admitted that scholars dispute the provenance of many famous examples of metalworking to this day, one of them being the colossal bronze krater from the Celtic princely tomb at Vix (eastern France). In metalworking and goldsmithing—one thinks of wreaths, diadems, and pendants—there appears to have been a koine that extended from Apulia across Epirus, Macedonia, and beyond. We find similar types of animal-head rhytons in Thrace, southern Russia, and southern Italy, but not Macedonia. Textiles, some of them produced in eastern Asia and Persia, are certain to have played a large role in the transmission of ornamental motifs. Unfortunately, our knowledge of ancient textiles from the Mediterranean region, especially Etruscan textiles, is still very limited. A number of the motifs found in the gilt terracottas applied to Tarentine sarcophagi, in mosaics, and in wall painting appear to have been based primarily on textile designs. Crenellated friezes are an obvious example. We often find crenellated friezes—in combination with other ornaments like dogtooth friezes and comb designs—in painting on tomb ceilings. In effect they form a kind of baldachin above a burial spot. Such tapestry-like designs, generally with dark-red merlons around a blue or light-colored field, adorn the ceilings of chamber tombs mainly from the third century in Tarquinia (Tomb 5512), in Rhegion in southern Italy, in Lefkadia in Macedonia (Tomb of Lyson and Kallikles), in Alexandria, and on Mount
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Wassurinsky in southern Russia. Indications that the crenellated frieze motif originated in weaving are the mention in the middle of the fourth century of a “chitoniskos pyrgotos” in the shrine of Artemis Brauronia on the Acropolis in Athens, also that of a “pyrgota” on the baldachin of the ceremonial tent of Ptolemy II. In addition to the ceiling paintings mentioned, the crenellated motif appears in Tarquinia on several sarcophagus lids and on a Graeco-Italian amphora, in Egypt on a wooden sarcophagus from El Faiyûm and on fragments of painted stucco from Alexandria. In Greek mosaics, however, we only find crenellated designs beginning in the later third century and especially the second century. The typical woven border design has there been translated into arrangements of tiny stones. Events like the military campaigns of Alexander the Great in the East and Alexander the Molossian and Pyrrhus into Magna Graecia must certainly have contributed greatly to the creation of this cultural and artistic koine. The motif of the weapon frieze, for example, only became truly popular in southern Italy (and subsequently in Etruria as well, as in Tarquinia’s Giglioli Tomb and Caere’s Tomb of the Reliefs) after Alexander the Molossian’s expedition (in the 330s). In the Early Hellenistic period, Magna Graecia and its leading cultural center of Tarentum played an important intermediary role in the transmission of motifs and patterns between different parts of the Greek world and Etruria and Rome/Latium. This has been demonstrated on the basis of the painted ornamental friezes and the architectural botanical frieze in Vulci’s famous François Tomb. The impressionistic ceiling paintings in Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Garlands, from the first half of the third century, also appear to owe a great deal to the art of Tarentum and Apulia. The phenomenon of a primarily Greek-influenced koine or a “Grecized oikumene” is mirrored on a politico-cultural level in the fact that the multinational embassy that called on Alexander the Great in Babylon in 324 included Lucanians and Bruttii from Italy. In some regions, Apulia, Macedonia, and Thrace among them, a kind of religious koine, or “koine cultuelle,” was developed as well, especially with respect to Dionysian cults. MacedonianEpirotic funerary customs like cremation burials in bronze hydriai ornamented with gold wreaths are also partially documented in Tarentum and in Basilicata (Armentum).
To summarize, we can justifiably speak of a kind of cultural and artistic koine, especially in the Early Hellenistic epoch and even beyond, that encompassed various central and eastern Mediterranean regions as well as the Black Sea area. It was not limited solely to tomb and wall painting, but also informed other art genres, not to mention certain cultural and religious practices. This koine included not only Greek territories, cities, and colonies but also other peoples and cultures in contact with the Greek world, if only their social elites. It thus remained a “linguaggio dei ceti dominanti” (language of the dominant classes). The period’s general political and economic development, highly international in scope, doubtless contributed greatly to the propagation and diffusion of this koine. For all its common features, one must be wary of sweeping generalizations; it is essential that one take into account the many differences between cultures, artistic genres, and eras. Many features appear as early as the Classical period and persist into High or even Late Hellenistic times. In any case, one can assert that antiquity had never before seen a koine of such magnitude and importance.
As I have already noted in my introduction, the last two to three decades have brought a wealth of new discoveries of painted tombs— especially in Macedonia and Thrace—that have enormously increased our knowledge of preRoman monumental painting, especially from the Late Classical and Early and High Hellenistic periods—and in many cases they have shed new light on Etruscan tomb painting as well. Almost annually, important, even exceptional new finds come to light that tend to bring to painting, so long neglected by scholars, the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, many of the tomb paintings recently brought to light have been published either not at all or only in a cursory manner, and for Macedonian and Thracian tomb painting we have nothing resembling a corpus of documentation and thorough summary. Since the death in 1993 of the famous Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos, to whom we are indebted for so many magnificent discoveries and publications of Macedonian royal and princely tombs, many of them painted, no leading scholar of his rank has stepped forward to take his place. The number of monumental Macedonian chamber tombs, often richly ornamented and
Above: Vergina (Macedonia), so-called Tomb of Eurydike: architecturally structured back wall and marble throne painted with an underworld quadriga, third quarter of the fourth century .. Below: Lefkadia (Macedonia), Petsas Tomb: reconstruction of the two-story tomb facade with relief and painted decoration (watercolor drawing), ca. 300 ..
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Aghios Athanassios (Macedonia), Great Tumulus: detail of the dark-ground frieze of the painted tomb facade with banqueting scene, end of the fourth century ..
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some of them containing luxurious grave goods (bronze weapons, silver vessels, gold jewelry, golden larnakes, textiles, and ivory objects) has now grown to more than eighty, most of them in Vergina—Macedonia’s ancient capital of Aegae—Lefkadia, Dion, Pella, Amphipolis, and the Thessaloníki region. They date from between the third quarter of the fourth century and the beginning of the second century, and were the burial places of the royal family, leading aristocratic clans, and military leaders. Figural paintings tend to be concentrated on the facade and the interior walls and ceilings, but in some instances they also adorn stone klines (as in a tomb in Potideia with fighting animals and Dionysian motifs and another at Amphipolis) and thrones (as in the “Tomb of Eurydike” in Vergina). One of Manolis Andronikos’s dreams came true in 1977, when he located a group of tombs beneath a large tumulus in Vergina, most still intact, with extremely rich grave goods from the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic periods; he was able to ascribe the most important one with all likelihood to King Philip II. As for the paint-
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ing, the extremely high-quality frieze on its Doric facade deserves special attention. The beginnings of perspective and spatial effects in its depiction of a hunt with many figures—probably including Alexander the Great—in a winter landscape are most impressive. The paintings in the nearby Tomb of Persephone present—in a kind of pictura compendiaria—the dramatic abduction of Persephone by Hades, lord of the underworld, in his chariot. Some archaeologists have attributed these superb paintings to the well-known Greek painter Nikosthenes. A tomb facade from the “Bella Tumulu” is dominated by large-scale figures, a goddess (or personification?) crowning the heroicized inhabitant of the tomb with a warrior’s wreath. A prominent monument in Lefkadia is the long-known Petsas Tomb, with its two-story facade (similar to that of the roughly contemporary Lagrasta Hypogeum II in Canosa, in Daunian northern Apulia) adorned with relief friezes and large-figure paintings. These depict a kind of deductio ad inferos with Hermes Psychopompos leading the deceased to the underworld judges. On the templelike facade of the so-called Palmette
Tomb, a reclining couple is depicted as though at a banquet in the gable, and the unique ceiling painting in the antechamber presents aquatic plants against a turquoise background—perhaps symbolizing the Elysian Fields. Most of these tomb paintings are of exceptional quality and reveal a proximity to the great Greek painters of the middle and later fourth century like Nikosthenes, Philoxenos, Nikias, and Apelles. The most noteworthy of the monumental tombs in the vicinity of Thessaloníki is the one from the end of the fourth century with a temple facade that was excavated in the large tumulus at Aghios Athanassios in 1994. It is soon to be published by M. Tsimbidou-Avloniti. The colorful, very well preserved paintings on its facade include a tall frieze (35 cm) of a nocturnal symposium with six men lounging on klines and listening to the sounds of the cithara and flute while a young servant pours them wine. Groups of armed men and horsemen with torches approach from either side. The dark background emphasizes the banqueters’ colorful garments. This is the first painting of a banquet in Greek tomb art. On either side of the
tomb entrance there are also two young men, nearly life-size, painted in a style that almost reminds one of the famous Tuscan Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca. There are a number of chamber tombs, mostly from the fourth and third centuries, both in Thrace (now for the most part in Bulgaria) and on the Crimea in the northern Black Sea region, the majority of them built of stone blocks and covered by tumuli. They consist of a dromos and one or more round or rectangular chambers, and they have cantilevered vaulting, or pseudocupolas. The Macedonian-style barrel vault is also seen occasionally. Because the “barbarian” cultures of the Thracians and Scythians were widely Hellenized, many of these tombs were adorned with wall paintings, the earliest of them from the beginning of the fourth century. The panel and incrustation style in imitation of architecture was especially popular, one that became increasingly widespread in the Greek and Greek-influenced world beginning in the fourth century and can be considered a precursor of the so-called First Pompeian Wall Style. Particularly noteworthy
Aghios Athanssios (Macedonia), Great Tumulus: detail of the dark-ground frieze of the painted tomb facade with horsemen and men carrying torches, end of the fourth century ..
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among the (as yet) relatively few figural Thracian tomb paintings are those in a tomb at Magliz with a frieze of Panathenean prize amphorae, palmettes, and weapons; those in the famous tomb at Kazanlak, with banquet and procession scenes in the painted cupola; the lunette painting in the
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Caryatid Tomb at Sveshtari, already described, with its goddess crowning the heroicized tomb owner on horseback; and the small mythological scenes, female heads, flowers, and vines in the ceiling coffers of the Ostrusha Tomb in Shipka. The multichamber tomb at Sveshtari is imposing
Kazanlak (Thrace), chamber tomb: detail of the painted cupola with banqueting scene, ca. 300 ..
because of its rich interior architecture and decoration, with numerous relief and painted caryatids, a Doric frieze, and a small naiskos with a Gorgoneion in the gable. By contrast, the Ostrusha Tomb—a houselike structure built of two monoliths beneath a tumulus seventy meters
in diameter—is best known for its outstanding ceiling paintings, with a rich iconographic program largely based on the myth of Achilles and Dionysian motifs. These elegantly decorated lacunaria make one think of the well-known fourth-century Greek painter Pausias, who was
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Roshava Chouka, near Haskovo (Thrace), tumulus tomb: two details of the cupola painting with hunting and battle scenes, end of the fourth century ..
credited by the ancients as having invented ceiling painting. These depictions of Greek myths and heroes demonstrate the high degree of Hellenization of the Thracian ruling class in the second half of the fourth century. This is also amply evident from the often astonishingly rich grave goods, attesting to its wealth and power, made of electron, gold, silver, and bronze, some of them the work of local Thracian artists, some imported from Greece. The most recent discovery in the realm of Thracian tomb painting was made in 2002/2003. In a monumental tumulus—called Roshava Chouka—in the vicinity of Haskovo
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in southern Bulgaria, the renowned Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Kitov excavated a tomb consisting of a dromos, antechamber, and tholoslike round main chamber containing astonishing frescoes from the late fourth century. These dynamic, colorful paintings shaded with hatching in the “cupola” of the main chamber present battle and hunting scenes with horsemen, hunters on foot, dogs, boars, and stags. The figure of a naked hunter recalls the stag hunt on the deer-hunting mosaic by Gnosis in Pella and various late Etruscan urn reliefs. Stag hunts are also presented in tomb paintings in Paestum. As status symbols
for royalty or the aristocratic elite, hunting scenes are also found in Macedonian and Etruscan tomb painting, on grave steles and sarcophagi in eastern Greece and Asia Minor, as well as on Thracian silver and bronze vessels and gold jewelry. The city of Alexandria, founded in the north of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 331, very soon became one of the leading art and cultural centers of the Hellenistic world. The city’s famous panel paintings have all been lost, but fragments of tomb painting have been preserved in its extensive necropolises. Their tomb complexes, generally arranged around subterranean, peristyle-like courtyards, are mainly decorated with architectural, ornamental, and botanical paintings. Figural scenes like the one on the facade of Tomb I in the Moustafa Pasha necropolis are relatively rare. The painting of a landscape with palm trees in one of the tombs in the Anfoushi necropolis is also deserving of special interest. Grave steles, most of them painted with warriors and horsemen, colored mosaics in both the pebble and tessera techniques, and some of the polychrome Hadra vases also help us to reconstruct the history of Alexandrian painting. In Italy, southern Italian tomb paintings— as yet less well known and not all adequately published—constitute the second-largest and most important complex of monumental painting from the pre-Roman period after those of Etruria.
They are found in Apulia, Campania, and Lucania, fewer in Samnium and Bruttium/ Calabria. There is a distinct concentration of them in the gulf regions of Naples, Salerno, and Tarentum and their surroundings. The main Apulian sites are Canosa and Arpi in Daunia, in the north; Monte Sannace, Gravina, and Ruvo in central Peucetia; and Egnazia and Rudiae in Messapia, in the south. In Campania there have been finds in the Gulf of Tarento region, in Naples, Cumae, Capua, and Nola. Finally, the largest concentration of painted tombs in southern Italy, some 120 discovered to date, is found in Paestum, in Lucania. A large number of Paestum’s tomb paintings have now been published in a compendious work by A. Pontrandolfo, A. Rouveret, and M. Cipriani, and R. Benassai has recently published a fine book on the tomb painting of Campania and Samnium. For Apulia, however, we are still dependent on F. Tiné Bertocchi’s comprehensive study from the 1960s. Most of southern Italy’s painted tombs lie in regions inhabited by native Italian peoples; the only noteworthy tomb paintings from the Greek colonial metropolises are those of Tarentum and Naples. The cities established in southern Italy by the Romans, who had different burial customs, have no tomb paintings. We see, then, that southern Italian tomb painting was a phenomenon primarily associated with the indigenous Italic peoples, predominantly those of
Left: Tarento, Museo Archeologico: detail of a painted kline from a Tarentine chamber tomb with palmette, third century .. Right: Kazanlak, Archaeological Museum: wallpainting fragment with palmette from a chamber tomb in Magliz (Thrace), end of the fourth century ..
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Campania-Lucania and Apulia. It was practiced from the waning sixth century down to the second century B.C., but especially flourished during the second half of the fourth and first half of the third centuries—or in the same period that produced the most important tomb paintings in Macedonia, Thrace, and southern Russia. The earliest—Late Archaic—examples come from Tarentum and Ugento in Apulia, Capua in Campania, and Paestum in Lucania, all of them centers strongly influenced by Greeks or Etruscans. In Apulian paintings, ornamental and botanical motifs predominate; the northern ones tend to be largely figural. Of the latter, the Tomb of the Diver, discovered in Paestum in 1968 and dating from around 480/470, when Poseidonia was still dominated by Greeks, is an outstanding example that has already been discussed in another context. The last tomb paintings date from the second century—the High to Late Hellenistic periods—and are found in Tarentum. In southern Italy, in contrast to Etruria, frescoes—and occasionally tempera paintings—decorate not only chamber tombs but also smaller types like halfchamber tombs, stone cistae, cassone, and sarcophagus tombs, occasionally even fossa tombs. In Campania and Lucania—also in Paestum— cassone tombs clearly predominate. Their
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facades as well as their interior walls are often decorated with paintings. The rich iconography of southern Italian tomb painting can be subsumed under five main headings: architectural motifs, ornamental and botanical motifs, antiquaria, objects, and figural motifs. The last-named can be subdivided into three groups: animals; gods, demons, and mythological creatures; and figural scenes. As already noted, figural paintings are found mainly in tombs in and around Paestum and in northern Campania (Capua, Nola), and are thus limited to necropolises of the eastern Italic, Samnitic peoples. In Apulian tombs, by contrast, architectural, ornamental, and botanical motifs predominate, although in the last few years the number of figural examples in Daunia has increased. In contrast to Etruscan tombs and southern Italian redfigure vases, southern Italian tombs only very rarely have depictions of Greek myths. Their main subjects have to do with the cult of the dead or the funeral games held in honor of the deceased, like chariot races, boxing and wrestling, and bloody duels that in many respects seem to be precursors of Roman gladiatorial games. Tombs for men often present different themes than tombs for women. Typical of the former are hunting scenes,
horsemen and warriors, and especially the ritorno del guerriero, the victorious homecoming of the tomb owner, heroicized as a warrior and eques, with his trophies. Such scenes were probably also meant to symbolize triumph over death. Typical feminine subjects are the prothesis, that is, the laying-out of the deceased on a kline, perhaps beneath a baldachin, surrounded by mourners and bearers of gifts—a motif known in Greek art since the Geometric period—and scenes from the oikos, that is the female, domestic sphere, in which the deceased, at times assisted by a serving woman, is depicted at her toilet or spinning wool, as on numerous Attic grave steles. Funeral games, both bloodless and bloody, are found in both male and female tombs. Some scenes, with or without the appearance of demons, quite obviously refer to the journey into the underworld. In Tomb 114 of the Andriuolo necropolis at Paestum, dating from around 330/320, we find what may be a depiction of a historical event, namely the battle between the Lucanians of Paestum and the Tarentines led by Alexander the Molossian, in which the tomb owner lost his life. It is set in a mountainous landscape complete with a herd of cattle. Unusual subjects are the Geranomachy—the seemingly humorous battle between pygmies and cranes
(also presented in Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Pygmies)—and scenes involving the phlyax, a comic actor who frequently appears on Paestan vases (for example, those of Asteas) and who reflects the importance of theater and farce in southern Italy. Naturally there are considerable differences in style and quality of the tomb paintings, perhaps owing to the period in which they were produced, the specific topography, and/or their subject matter, not to mention the activity of different painters and workshops. The older examples in Paestum are more like colored drawings, whereas many of the later paintings clearly show the influence of innovative Greek styles and techniques such as shading, chiaroscuro effects, flecks of color, highlights, an expanded palette, and attempts at perspective. In this connection one ought to mention a group of painted chamber tombs in Paestum’s Spinazzo necropolis from the turn of the fourth to the third centuries. There, large-format wall frescoes—true megalographs— include processional scenes and pictures of men clasping hands (the dextrarum iunctio), in which the deceased is identified as a togatus and thus a worthy official, much as in certain Etruscan tombs from the later fourth and third centuries—for example, the Tomb of the Meeting in Tarquinia— or on the painted and signed pinax in the
Tarento, Museo Archeologico: painted gableshaped lid of the Tarentine Sarcophagus of the Athlete, beginning of the fifth century .. Following pages: Paestum, Museo Archeologico, Tomb 123 “Taranto” from Paestum’s Spinazzo necropolis: section of the right wall with matron and horseman, ca. 300 .. or shortly thereafter.
297
Left: Paestum, Museo Archeologico, Tomb 87 from Paestum’s Spina-Gaudo necropolis: detail of the north long side with prothesis scene, ca. 340/330 .. Right: Paestum, Museo Archeologico, Tomb 87 from Paestum’s Spina-Gaudo necropolis: detail of the west end with Nereid on a hippocampus, ca. 340/330 ..
300
antechamber of the Tomb of the Medusa in Daunian Arpi. Increasing numbers of new discoveries are being made in southern Italy, in contrast to Etruria, and a well-illustrated overview of the region’s tomb painting on the lines of the present volume is certainly needed. In September 2003, for example, the archaeologist Marina Mazzei, since unfortunately deceased, excavated a chamber tomb in Arpi, near Foggia—the so-called Tomb of the Nike (della Nike)—with a dromos, a houselike facade with gable, and a tomb chamber with barrel vault. It dates from the waning fourth or early third century. Of particular interest is the painted decoration in tempera on the gable of the facade: a victorious cavalryman—apparently a Daunian from Arpi—with lance, helmet, and shield, is being crowned with a wreath by a hovering winged Nike, a vanquished foe collapsed at his feet. Both the iconography of this unique facade painting and the way tempera was applied to the reddish ground compare favorably with contemporary polychrome vases from Canosa and especially Arpi, which we know largely thanks to Mazzei. One could postulate that this dramatic scene reflects the historical reality of the Second Samnite War and the Battle of Ausculum (Ascoli Satriano) between the Romans and Pyrrhus, in which Daunian soldiers, including Arpians, fought on the Roman side. Finally, let us look at Rome itself, where only very little painting from the middle and late repub-
FROM ASIA MINOR TO MAGNA GRAECIA, FROM THRACE TO ALEXANDRIA
lican era has survived. According to the literary sources (Pliny Nat. Hist. 35.19; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 16.6), narrative paintings were already known in Rome in the waning fourth century. In 304/303, for example, C. Fabius Pictor painted scenes from the Second Samnite War in the Temple of Salus. The painting of triumphs, mainly for propaganda purposes, with a continuous narrative of battles, victories, sieges, and city conquests generally arranged in friezes, one atop the other, is documented beginning in 264. Among the more splendid examples of Roman tomb painting are the fragments preserved in the tomb on the Esquiline Hill of one Q. Fabius (Max. Rullianus?) from the first half of the third century. They present— probably much like triumphal painting that has been lost—episodes and especially battle scenes from some conflict, once again probably from the Second Samnite War, and are distinguished by their friezelike arrangement and hierarchical figural proportions, as well as a kind of pittura a macchia with highlights and chromatic effects. The celebratory, commemorative character of these paintings is wholly un-Greek; it has much in common, though on different subject matter, with the processions found in so many Etruscan tomb paintings. The much cruder paintings of the Arieti Tomb and the small-figure paintings on military themes on the facade of the Scipio tomb on the Via Appia date only from the second century. One must, therefore, view the phenomenon of Etruscan tomb painting—especially the later
examples from the Late Classical and Early to High Hellenistic periods—against this larger cultural background, even though many of its features, particularly those specific to funerary customs and ideology, are uniquely Etruscan. Many qualities of Roman painting—especially the genres of tomb and triumphal painting— had their roots in earlier Etruscan art. Massimo Pallottino, for example, saw the “transition”
from Etruscan to Roman painting, which is equally saturated with elements of Greek painting, not so much as a distinct break as a kind of evolution. As Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli emphasized, elements of Etruscan art and painting lived on in Roman folk art, and even contributed to the development of the art of late antiquity, which was not as heavily dependent on Greek models.
Foggia, Museo Civico Archeologico, Tomb of the Horsemen (Tomba dei Cavalieri), a half-chamber tomb from Arpi, back wall with two horsemen, end of the fourth century ..
FROM ASIA MINOR TO MAGNA GRAECIA, FROM THRACE TO ALEXANDRIA
301
Endnotes
1
The widespread appearance of paintings that imitate architecture (South Etruria, Apulia, Sicily, Macedonia, Greece, Delos, southern Russia, Asia Minor, Palestine, Alexandria) has been comprehensively treated in recent years by A. Andreou, Griechische Wanddekorationen (1989) and P. Guldager-Bilde, “Aspects of Hellenism in Italy: Towards a Cultural Unity?,” Acta Hyperborea 5 (Copenhagen 1993), pp. 151–77.
2
The crenellation motifs are discussed elsewhere in the text.
3
Painted draperies “suspended” from painted nails are common; they are found, for example, in the tomb painting of Etruria (Tarquinia: Tomb of the Tapestry, Tomb of the Anina Family), Campania (Capua), and Apulia (Tarentum, Monte Sannace, Egnazia).
4
Vines are found in the tomb painting of Macedonia, Thrace, southern Russia, Apulia, Campania, Calabria, and Etruria, also in mosaics, on Apulian red-figure and Gnathia vases, on Etruscan mirrors, sarcophagi, and terracotta plaques, in architectural friezes (Ildebranda Tomb in Sovana, Lattanzi Tomb in Norchia), in tomb reliefs in Etruria and Apulia (Palmiere Hypogeum at Lecce), and in Macedonian, Thracian, and southern Russian toreutics.
5
The garland motif, typologically somewhat younger than the vine motif, is found, for example, in numerous tomb paintings of southern Italy (Naples, Nola, Sarno, Paestum, Reggio Calabria, and Tarentum), Etruria (Tarquinia, Chiusi), Macedonia, Aegina, southern Russia, and Alexandria, also on Hadra vases, in mosaics, and in Etruscan sarcophagus and urn reliefs.
6
Bucrania are mainly found in tomb paintings and architectural friezes—both sepulchral and sacred— in Thrace (Kazanlak, Sveshtari), Macedonia (Aghios Athanassios), Apulia (Tarentum, Monte Sannace, Brindisi), Etruria (Cerveteri, Tarquinia), Greece, and Asia Minor (Epidauros, Samothrace, Pergamon, Chersonesos, Callatis), also on Hellenistic altars, in Greek pebble mosaics, on Apulian red-figure vases, Tarentine vessels in precious metals, Etruscan urn
302
FROM ASIA MINOR TO MAGNA GRAECIA, FROM THRACE TO ALEXANDRIA
chests, Etrusco-Italic architectural terracottas, and Scythian metal objects. 7
Perspective, three-dimensional meander friezes are found in tomb painting in Etruria (Vulci), southern Italy (Paestum, Tarentum), and southern Russia (Anapa).
8
Painted dogtooth designs, at times in perspective, we know from the tomb painting of Etruria (Tarquinia, Cerveteri), southern Russia (Mount Wassurinsky), Thrace (Kazanlak), and Alexandria, also from Apulian vase painting, and—in stucco—Apulian chamber tombs (Arpi, Rudiae).
9
Of the three types of cymatia, the Ionian version is most common in tomb painting; examples of it are seen in Macedonia, Thrace (Kazanlak, Shipka), southern Russia, Etruria (Tarquinia, Vulci), and southern Italy (Capua, Nola, Paestum).
10
Depictions of weapons are most often seen in tomb painting, as in Macedonia (Lefkadia, Vergina, Aghios Athanassios, Tragilos), Thrace (Magliz), Apulia (Tarentum, Egnazia), Lucania (Paestum), and Etruria (Tarquinia, Cerveteri, Chiusi), but we also find them in architectural reliefs as in Dion in Macedonia, in Termessos in Asia Minor, in Canosa in Apulia, in Norchia in Etruria, and in Pergamon.
11
Gorgoneions—in painted and relief forms—most often decorate the centers of gables on tomb facades or in tomb chambers, as in Tarquinia (Tomb of the Gorgoneion), Naples (Cristallini Hypogeum), Daunian Arpi (Hypogeum of Medusa), and Thracian Sveshtari (naiskos in the Caryatid Tomb). They also appear as episemata on shields in tomb painting of Apulia (Egnazia) and Macedonia (Aghios Athanassios), on the gables of Paestan grave steles, on Alexandrian loculus plaques, on clay antefixae (especially in Tarentum), on the volutes of Apulian kraters, as clay ornaments on tomb vases (Canosa), on coffered ceilings (as in Perugia’s Hypogeum of the Volumni), and on Etruscan urns and sarcophagus chests, etc.
12
Animal fights generally show wild animals and fabulous beasts as victors—lions, panthers, bulls, griffins— and deer, stags, and horses as the vanquished. Such scenes frequently appear in a sepulchral context and are generally thought to symbolize the inexorability of death, the creation and extinction of life. They are frequently found in tomb painting in Etruria (Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Vulci), Samnium (Alife), Campania (Capua), Lucania (Paestum, Pontecagnano), and Macedonia (Potideia), on Etruscan sarcophagus and urn reliefs, in mirror and cista engravings, on gilt terracotta decor on Tarentine and southern Russian sarcophagi, on Faliscan, Etruscan, Apulian, and Kertschan red-figure vases, on Alexandrian hydriae, in Greek, Macedonian, Alexandrian, and Apulian mosaics, and on Thracian and Scythian gold and silver objects.
13
The motif of the “vine goddess” appears in manifold forms in painting, sculpture, and reliefs, as, for example, in Tarquinian tomb painting (Tomb of the Typhon), in Sveshtari’s Caryatid Tomb in Thrace, in Macedonian mosaics, on Greek marble thrones, on Thracian and Scythian metal vessels, on southern Russian grave steles and gold reliefs, on Apulian red-figure vases, and on southern Italian bronzes.
14
The motif of Nereids riding on sea creatures, which goes back to Aeschylus, is found in tomb painting in Paestum and Thrace (the coffered ceiling in the Ostrusha Tumulus at Shipka), in mosaics in Macedonia and Daunia, on gilt terracotta ornaments of Tarentine and southern Russian sarcophagi, on Apulian redfigure and polychrome vases, on vessels of the Lipari Painter, and on a polychrome marble bowl—probably Tarentine—in the Getty Museum in Malibu.
15
Female heads, at times in vine decor or chalices of acanthus leaves, appear in tomb painting in Etruria (Vulci: François Tomb), Macedonia (Néa Michaniona), Thrace (Shipka: Ostrusha Tomb), and southern Russia (Bliznitza Tomb), also on Thracian metal vessels, in Etruscan mirror engravings, in southern Italian and Etruscan figural capitals (from the Campanari Tomb in Vulci, for example), on Etruscan architectural terracottas, in southern Italian tomb friezes (Palmieri Hypogeum at Lecce), on Etruscan red-figure vases (a Volterran krater by the Hesione Painter) and Volsinian relief vases, and especially frequently on Apulian redfigure and Gnathia vases.
16
We know such chariot races from the tomb painting of Macedonia (Vergina: Prince’s Tomb), Thrace (Kazanlak, Magliz), and Paestum, from Apulian redfigure, polychrome, and Gnathia vases, from blackglazed and Thracian silver vessels. The motif of the Nike in a biga or quadriga is especially common in tomb painting in Paestum and in Apulian vase painting; it is also documented in the form of terracotta statuettes.
17
Geranomachies are documented in tomb painting in Tarquinia in Etruria, in Paestum, and in southern Russia, on Beoetian Kabeiric vases, and on red-figure Volterran kelebai. 18
Hellenized versions of the deductio ad inferos with Hermes Psychopompos are found, for example, in tomb painting in Macedonia (Lefkadia: Petsas Tomb), Tarentum, Daunia (Arpi, Canosa), Samnium (Isernia), and southern Russia. In Etruscan tomb painting and tomb art, as well as in a few instances of Paestan tomb painting, local versions that include demons predominate.
FROM ASIA MINOR TO MAGNA GRAECIA, FROM THRACE TO ALEXANDRIA
303
Appendixes
Tomb Painting
C = Cerveteri O = Orvieto V = Veii Ch = Chiusi T = Tarquinia
Other Etruscan Painting
700
Orientalizing Period
Italo-Geometric vases T. of the Ducks (V); T. of the Dogtooth Frieze (C); Mengarelli T. (C)
650 T. of the Painted Animals I (C); T. of the Painted Lions (C); T. of the Ship I (C) Painted T. (Magliano in Toscana)
600
Painted roof terracottas from Acquarossa and Murlo (1st palace) 620–550: Etrusco-Corinthian vases Swallow Painter in Vulci
Campana T. (V); T. of the Panthers (T); T. of the Hut (T); T. of the Marchese (T)
Archaic Period
Painted Caeretan Boccanera plaques
550
T. of the Red Lions (T); T. of the Bulls (T); T. of the Tritons (T); Bartoccini T. (T); T. of the Mouse (T); T. of the Frontoncino (T); T. of the Augurs (T); T. of the Inscriptions (T); T. of the Lionesses (T); T. of the Jugglers (T); T. of the Olympic Games (T); T. of the Dead Man (T); T. of Hunting and Fishing (T); T. of the Pulcinella (T); T. of the Baron (T); T. of the Bacchantes (T); Cardarelli T. (T); T. of the Hunter (T)
Pontic vases Painted Caeretan Campana plaques Caeretan hydriae Campana vases Micali Painter
“Classical” Interim Period
Sub-Archaic Period
500
450
T. of the Painted Vases (T); T. of the Old Man (T); T. of the Whipping (T.); T. 5591 (T); T. of the Bigas (T)
Painted clay plaques from Veii-Portonaccio Painted urns from Tarquinia
T. of the Monkey (C); T. of the Leopards (T); T. of the Triclinium (T); T. of the Casuccini Hill (C)
Beginning of Etruscan red-figure vase painting Praxias Group
T. of the Funerary Bed (T); F. Giustiniani T. (T); T. 5513 (T); T. of the Black Sow (T); T. of the Deer Hunt (T); Maggi T. (T); T. of the Ship (T)
End of Etruscan black-figure vase painting
T. of the Maiden (T); T. of the Blue Demons (T); T. of the Cock (T); T. 3713 (T)
400
350
T. of the Gorgoneion (T); T. 808 (T); T. of the Pygmies (T); T. 2327 (T); T. 3242 (T); T. 3697 (T); T. of the Warrior (T)
4th century: Faliscan red-figure vase painting
T. of Orcus I (T)
Faliscan red-figure Aurora Krater
Golini T. I (O); Golini T. II (O); François T. (Vulci); T. of the Shields (T); T. of Orcus II (T); T. of the Reliefs (C); T. of the Infernal Quadriga (Sarteano);
Amazon Sarcophagus from Tarquinia 2nd half of the 4th century: Etruscan red-figure vases in Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Vulci, Orvieto, Chiusi, and Volterra Sarcophagus of the Priest from Tarquinia
Giglioli T. (T)
Painted clay plaques from Falerii Veteres
T. of the Cardinal (T; 1st phase); T. of the Inscriptions (C); T. of the Garlands (T)
Pocola vases Hesse Painter Ceramica argentata Black-glaze pottery
300
Hellenistic Period
250
T. of the Anina Family (T); T. of the Charuns (T); Bruschi T. (T) Tassinaia T. (C); T. of the Typhon (T); T. 5512 (T); T. 5636 T. of the Meeting (T)
200 Painted urns from Chiusi and Volterra
150
100
306
CHRONOLOGY
Other Monuments of Etruscan Art
700
7th and 6th century: Chiusan canopic jars
Historical Events Introduction of Etruscan script
Orientalizing Period
Beginning of Etruscan chamber tomb architecture (Cerveteri, Populonia)
650
Gold jewelry and bronze articles from Cerveteri and Praeneste (princes’ tombs) Beginning of large Etruscan sculpture (Cerveteri) Mid-7th to beginning of the 5th century: Bucchero pottery Tumulo del Carro in Populonia Montagnola Tomb in Quinto Fiorentino Ivory pyxis from Chiusi (Pania Tomb)
600
Archaic Period
Hippocampus rider from Vulci Grave stele of Avle Tite from Volterra “Loeb” bronze tripods Rock tombs in Blera, San Giuliano, and Tuscania Terracotta husband-and-wife sarcophagi from Cerveteri Terracotta sculptures from the Portonaccio temple in Veii (Vulca of Veii)
Sub-Archaic Period
500
450
Beginning of Etruscan influence in Campania and Etruscan kingship in Rome
Nenfro Centaur from Vulci Tomb of the Shields and Seats in Cerveteri “Step-stones” from Tarquinia Roof terracottas from Murlo (2nd palace)
550
Emigration of Demaratos from Corinth to Tarquinia Beginning of the Etruscan thalassocracy
6th century: political, economic, and cultural flowering of Tyrrhenian Etruria and emporia like Gravisca and Pyrgi
540: victory of the Etruscan and Phoenician fleet against the Phocaeans in the Battle of Alalia (Corsica)
Beginning of Etruscan colonization of the southeastern Po plain 509: end of the Tarquin kingship in Rome
Chiusan urn and cippus reliefs Small bronzes from Vulci Roof terracottas from temples in Falerii, Arezzo, and Satricum The Capitoline bronze she-wolf
Thefarie Veltanas “king” of Caere Etrusco-Phoenician cult community in Pyrgi
Terracotta high relief from Temple A in Pyrgi
453: Syracusan plundering in Corsica and Elba 430: Death of Lars Tolumnius, King of Veii, in battle with Rome
474: Syracusan defeat of the Etruscans in the sea battle off Cumae: political and economic crisis in Etruria’s coastal cities
“Classical” Interim Period
Bronze candelabrum from Cortona Mater Matuta — tomb statue from Chianciano, near Chiusi Terracotta figures from the Belvedere and S. Leonardo temples in Orvieto
400
The Mars of Todi, bronze statue (Orvietan workshop) Bronze Chimaera from Arezzo
423: Capture of Capua by the Samnites: ultimate loss of Campania 415/413: Contingent of Tarquinian ships supports the Athenians against Syracuse
396: Conquest and destruction of Veii by the Romans; Gaulish incursion into Italy; loss of Etruria Padana 384/383: Syracusans plunder Pyrgi 353: Caere is defeated by Rome 351: Tarquinia is defeated by Rome; 40-year truce
350 Cista Ficoroni from Praeneste Terracotta high relief with winged horses from the Ara della Regina temple in Tarquinia Roof terracottas from the Scasato temple in Falerii (Apollo of Falerii)
300
From 311: Resumption of conflict between Rome and the Etruscan cities 308: Subjection of Tarquinia 302/301: Social unrest in Arezzo 295: Roman victory near Sentinum against Etruscans, Gauls, Samnites, Umbrians
End of the 4th to 2nd century: Tarquinian stone sarcophagi
3rd century: rock-facade tombs in Norchia, Castel d’Asso, and Sovana
294: Destruction of Roselle 280: Vulci falls 273: Founding of the Latin colony of Cosa 265: Destruction of Volsinii Veteres (Orvieto); founding of Volsinii Novi on Lake Bolsena 241: Destruction of Falerii Veteres; founding of Falerii Novi
3rd–2nd centuries: anatomical votive terracottas in South Etruria
225: Victory of Romans and Etruscans over the Gauls near Talamone
3rd–2nd centuries: round-arch gates in Volterra, Perugia, and Falerii Novi
218–202: Second Punic War; a number of Etruscans support Hannibal
2nd century: barrel-vaulted tombs in Chiusi, Perugia, and Cortona Tomb of the Volumnii near Perugia
196: Slave revolt in Etruria
3rd to beginning of the 1st century: urns from Volterra, Chiusi, and Perugia in alabaster, limestone, and terracotta, some with relief
Hellenistic Period
250
200 Economic flowering of the North Etrurian cities (Volterra, Arezzo, Perugia) Terracotta gable from Talamone Increasing Romanization
150
Terracotta gable from Civitalba Terracotta sarcophagi from Tuscania
The Arringatore, bronze statue from Lake Trasimene
100 89: After the Social War, all Etruscans and Italics receive Roman citizenship
CHRONOLOGY
307
Register of Painted Etruscan Tombs
Tomb TARQUINIA Alsina Family Anina Family (5051) Antelopes (199) Augurs Bacchantes Baron Bartoccini (905) Bertazzoni (2327) Biclinium Bigas Black Sow (578) Blue Demons Bronze Door Bruschi Bulls Cardarelli (809) Cardinal Ceisinie Charuns (1868) Cock (3226) Dancing Priests Dead Man Deer Hunt (1590) Dionisios and the Sileni Doors and Felines Double (812) Dying Eizene Feline’s Paw Francesca Giustiniani Frontoncino (2002) Funerary Bed Garlands Giglioli (1072) Gorgoneion (1825) Heads of Charun Hunter (3700) Hunting and Fishing Hut (139) Inscriptions Jade Lions (323) Jugglers (2437) Kithara Player Labrouste
308
Italian Name
Location
Discovered
Chronology
Tomba degli Alsina Tomba degli Anina Tomba delle Antilope Tomba degli Auguri Tomba dei Baccanti Tomba del Barone Tomba Bartoccini Tomba Bertazzoni Tomba del Biclinio Tomba delle Bighe Tomba della Scrofa nera Tomba dei Demoni Azzuri Tomba della Porta di Bronzo Tomba Bruschi Tomba dei Tori Tomba Cardarelli Tomba del Cardinale Tomba Ceisinie Tomba dei Caronti Tomba del Gallo Tomba dei Sacerdoti danzanti (or Tomba Guasta) Tomba del Morto Tomba della Caccia al Cervo Tomba con Dioniso e Sileni Tomba con Porte e Felini Tomba Doppia Tomba del Morente Tomba degli Eizene Tomba con Zampo di Felino Tomba Francesca Giustiniani Tomba del Frontoncino Tomba del Letto funebre Tomba dei Festoni Tomba Giglioli Tomba del Gorgoneion Tomba con Testi di Charun Tomba del Cacciatore Tomba della Caccia e Pesca Tomba della Capanna Tomba delle Iscrizioni Tomba dei Leone di Giada Tomba dei Giocolieri Tomba del Citaredo Tomba Labrouste
Former Bruschi estate Fondo Scataglini Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Calvario Secondi Archi Calvario Secondi Archi
1873 1963 1958 1878 1874 1827 1959 1960 18th c. 1827 1842 1985 1873 1864 1892 1959 1699 1736 1960 1961 18th c.
2nd century .. 3rd century .. 500 .. 520 .. 510–500 .. 510–500 .. 520 .. beg. 4th century .. third quarter 5th cent. .. 490 .. mid-5th century .. end 5th century .. 500 .. first half 3rd cent. .. 530 .. 510–500 .. first half 3rd century .. mid-4th century .. second quarter 3rd century .. 400 .. Hellenistic
1832 1960 1881 1883 1959 1872 1874 1943 1833 1960 1873 1919 1959 1960 1833 1962 1873 1958 1827 1958 1961 1862 1825
510 .. mid-third qtr. 5th cent. .. 520–510 .. 530–520 .. Hellenistic 500 .. 3rd century .. 530–520 .. mid- to third qtr. 5th century .. 510–500 .. 460 .. 270 .. 300 .. beg. 4th century .. Hellenistic 510–500 .. 510 .. second qtr. – mid-6th cent. .. 520 .. 530–520 .. 520–510 .. 490–480 .. 530 ..
REGISTER OF PAINTED ETRUSCAN TOMBS
Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Calvario Arcatelle Former Bruschi estate Secondi Archi Calvario Primi Archi Calvario Secondi Archi Pisciarello Calvario Calvario Arcatelle Arcatelle Calvario Secondi Archi Cimitero Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Calvario Fondo Scataglini Secondi Archi Calvario Calvario Calvario Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Calvario Arcatelle
Tomb
Italian Name
Location
Leopards Lionesses Lions Little Flowers (1695) Lotus Flower (3698) Maggi (5187) Maiden Marchese Master of the Olympic Games Meeting Mercareccia Mouse (494) Old Man Olympic Games (53) Orcus I, II, III Painted Vases Panthers Pilaster & Female Figure Procession of Cybele Pulcinella Pulena Pygmies (2957) Pyrrhicist Querciola I Querciola II Red Lions (389) Saplings and Wreaths Sculptures (4822) Sea Shields Ship (238) Skull (300) Spitu Family (4873) Stefani Street Side Tapestry Tarantola Tartaglia Triclinium Tritons (2711) Typhon Vestarcnie Family Warrior (3243) Whipping (1701) With Ship Woman with Diadem and Cymbals 343 352 356 808 810 939 994 1000 1144 1200 1560 1646
Tomba dei Leopardi Calvario Tomba delle Leonesse Calvario Tomba dei Leoni Secondi Archi Tomba dei Fiorellini Calvario Tomba del Fiore di Loto Calvario Tomba Maggi Fondo Maggi Tomba della Pulcella Calvario Tomba del Marchese Arcatelle Tomba del Maestro delle Olimpiadi Villa Tarantola Tomba del Convengo Arcatelle Tomba della Mercareccia Mercareccia Tomba del Topolino Arcatelle Tomba del Vecchio Cimitero Tomba delle Olimpiadi Secondi Archi Tomba dell’Orco I II, III Cimitero Tomba dei Vasi dipinti Cimitero Tomba delle Pantere Secondi Archi Tomba con Pilastro e Figura di Donna Calvario Tomba con Processione di Cibele Tomba della Pulcinella Secondi Archi Tomba Pulena Secondi Archi Tomba dei Pigmei Secondi Archi Tomba dei Pirrichisti Secondi Archi Tomba Querciola I Villa Tarantola Tomba Querciola II (Tomba degli Ane) Villa Tarantola Tomba dei Leoni rossi Secondi Archi Tomba con Alberelli e Corone Secondi Archi Tomba delle Sculture Villa Tarantola Tomba del Mare Secondi Archi Tomba degli Scudi Primi Archi Tomba della Nave Secondi Archi Tomba del Teschio Secondi Archi Tomba degli Spitu Fondo Scataglini Tomba Stefani Villa Tarantola Tomba del Lato Strada Fondo Scataglini Tomba della Tappezzeria Tomba Tarantola Villa Tarantola Tomba Tartaglia Former Tartaglia estate Tomba del Triclinio Calvario Tomba dei Tritoni Secondi Archi Tomba del Tifone Calvario Tomba dei Vestarcnie Tomba del Guerriero Calvario Tomba della Fustigazione Calvario Tomba con Nave Tomba con Donna con Diadema, Cimbali, Uomo su Elefante Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Calvario Calvario Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Arcatelle Secondi Archi Calvario Secondi Archi
Discovered
Chronology
1875 1874 1825 1960 1962 1958 1865 1942 1961 1970 1735 1881 1867 1958 1868 1867 1968 1832 1738 1872 1878 1958 1878 1831 1832 1958 1882 (?) 1958 1825 1870 1958 1871 1963 1833 1963 18th c. 1904 1699 1830 1961 1832 1876 1961 1960 1831 1831 1958 1958 1958 1959 1959 1959 1833 1959 1959 1959 1960 1960
480 .. 520 .. 520 .. second qtr.–mid-5th cent. .. 520 .. mid-third qtr. 5th century .. end 5th century .. second qtr.–mid-6th cent. .. 500 .. first half 3rd century .. end 4th–beg. 3rd century .. 520 .. 500 .. 510 .. second third 4th cent. .. 500 .. beginning 6th cent. .. mid-4th century .. Hellenistic 510 .. end 3rd century .. beginning 4th cent. .. 500–490 .. end 5th century .. second half 3rd cent. .. 530 .. 520 .. 3rd century .. 520 .. third qtr. 4th century .. mid-third qtr. 5th cent. .. 480 .. end 3rd century .. 520 .. Hellenistic end 4th–beg. 3rd cent. .. 520 .. 3rd century .. 470 .. 520 .. end 3rd century .. Hellenistic first half 4th century .. 490 .. Hellenistic 3rd century .. 530 .. 530–520 .. 530–520 .. beg. 4th century .. third qtr. 5th cent. .. 530 .. second half 5th cent. .. end 6th century .. first half 4th cent. .. beg. 4th century .. beg. 4th century .. 530 ..
REGISTER OF PAINTED ETRUSCAN TOMBS
309
Tomb
Italian Name
Location
Discovered
Chronology
1822 1999 2015 3010 3011 3098 3242 (burial niches) 3697 3713 3716 3986 3988 4021 4170 4255 4260 4780 4813 4912 (Anina side) 5039 5512 (Double) 5513 (or near Little Flowers) 5517 5591 (or behind Cardarelli) 5636 5892 5898 (or with Small Wreaths or of Wreaths) 5899 6071 6119 6120
Calvario Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Secondi Archi Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Fondo Scataglini Arcatelle Fondo Scataglini Fondo Scataglini Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Calvario Cimitero Tomba con Coroncine (or delle Corone) Cimitero
1960 1960 1960 1961 1961 1961 1961 1962 1962 1962 1962 1962 1962 1962 1962 1962 1963 1963 1963 1963 1967 1967 1967 1968 1969 1969 1881
first half 4th cent. .. 510–500 .. second half 5th cent. .. 520 .. 530–520 .. 510 .. beg. 4th century .. beg. 4th century .. beg. 4th century .. beg. 4th century .. 520 .. second qtr.–mid-5th cent. .. second qtr.–mid-5th cent. .. mid- to third qtr. 5th cent. .. 480 .. beg. 5th century .. 500 .. beg. 5th century .. 3rd century .. 520–510 .. second half 3rd cent. .. mid-5th century .. second half 5th century .. 500–490 .. second half 3rd cent .. third qtr. 6th cent. .. 510 ..
Cimitero Arcatelle
1969 1969 1980 1980
third qtr. 6th cent. .. beg. 4th cent. .. end 6th cent. .. second qtr.–mid-6th cent. ..
first half 4th cent. .. first half 4th cent. ..
Cimitero
BLERA Painted Grotto I Painted Grotto II
Tomba della Grotta dipinta I Tomba della Grotta dipinta II
Pian Gagliardo Pian Gagliardo
19th c. 1965
BOMARZO Painted Grotto
Tomba della Grotta dipinta
Pianmiano
before 1832
CERVETERI Clay Dogtooth Frieze (Wolf ’s Teeth) Inscriptions (or of the Tarquinii) Mengarelli Painted Animals I Painted Lions Reliefs Sarcophagi Sea Waves Ship I Sorbo Triclinium
Tomba dell’Argilla Tomba dei Denti di Lupo Tomba dei Inscrizioni (Grotta Tarquinii) Tomba Mengarelli Tomba dei Animali dipinti Tomba dei Leoni dipinti Tomba dei Rilievi Tomba dei Sarcophagi Tomba delle Onde marine Tomba della Nave I Tomba del Sorbo Tomba del Triclinio
Banditaccia Banditaccia
CHIUSI Casuccini Hill Hill of the Moro (or of the Gods) Hunt
Tomba del Colle Casuccini Tomba del Poggio al Moro (or degli Dei) Tomba della Caccia
310
REGISTER OF PAINTED ETRUSCAN TOMBS
end 6th century .. mid-third qtr. 7th cent. .. first half 3rd cent ..
Banditaccia Banditaccia Banditaccia Banditaccia Banditaccia Banditaccia Banditaccia Banditaccia Sorbo Banditaccia
1845 second qtr. 7th cent. .. 1834 1834 1847 1st half 19th c. 1970 before 1927 1970 1846
third qtr. 7th cent. .. third qtr. 7th cent. .. end 4th century .. end 4th century .. end 4th–beg. 3rd cent .. third qtr. 7th cent. .. second qtr. 7th cent. .. end 4th century ..
Colle Poggio al Moro
1833 1826
second qtr. 5th cent. .. second qtr. 5th cent. ..
Poggio Renzo
1846
first qtr. 5th cent. ..
Tomb
Italian Name
Location
Discovered
Chronology
Martinella Monkey Montollo Orientalizing Style Orpheus & Euridice (or of Houses) Paccianesi (or Bishop’s)
Martinella Poggio Renzo Montollo Poggio Renzo Poggio Le Case
ca. 1876 1846 1734 1874 1846
Hellenistic 480 .. first qtr. 5th cent. .. end 7th cent. .. 480–470 ..
Poggio Paccianesi
1st half 19th c.
prob. late-archaic
Pania Paolozzi Poggio Gaiella Tassinaia Well
Tomba di Martinella Tomba della Scimmia Tomba Montollo Tomba di Stilo orientalizzante Tomba di Orfeo e Euridice (or delle Case) Tomba dei Paccianesi, Tomba del Vescovo Tomba Pania Tomba Paolozzi Tomba del Poggio Gaiella Tomba di Tassinaia Tomba del Pozzo a Poggio Renzo
Pania Bagnolo Poggio Gaiella Colle Poggio Renzo
1874 2nd half 19th c. 1840 1866 1892 (?)
end 7th cent. .. second qtr. 5th cent. .. first half 5th cent. .. mid-3rd cent. .. first qtr. 5th cent. ..
COSA-ANSEDONIA Painted Tomb
Tomba Dipinta
northeast of Cosa
1870
end 7th–beg. 6th cent. .. (?)
GROTTE SANTO STEFANO Painted Tomb
Tomba Dipinta
southwest of Casa Bovani
beg. 20th c.
mid-5th century ..
MAGLIANO IN TOSCANA Painted Grotto (or of the Gods) Sant’Andrea
Grotta Dipinta (or degli Dei) Tomba Sant’Andrea
Le Ficaie Cancellone
1835 1984
around 600 .. end 7th century ..
ORTE Painted Tomb
Tomba Dipinta
Capuccini
ORVIETO Golini I (or of the Sails)
Tomba Golini I (or dei Velii)
1863
mid-4th century ..
Golini II (or of Two Bigas)
Tomba Golini II (or delle Due Bighe)
1863
third qtr. 4th cent. ..
Hescanas
Tomba degli Hescanas
Poggio del Roccolo di Settecamini Poggio del Roccolo di Settecamini Molinella near Castel Rubello
1883
last qtr. 4th cent. ..
POPULONIA Wave Frieze Dolphins
Tomba del Corridietro Tomba dei Delfini
Le Grotte Le Grotte
before 1973 before 1973
beg. 3rd cent .. beg. 3rd cent ..
SAN GIULIANO Cima
Tomba Cima
Chiusa Cima
third qtr. 7th cent. ..
SARTEANO 13 Infernal Quadriga
Palazzina Tomba della Quadriga infernale
1998 (?) Pianezze
beg. 5th cent. .. 2003
last qtr. 4th cent. ..
TUSCANIA Queen
Tomba della Regina
Madonna dell’Olivo
1st half 19th c.
Hellenistic
VEIO Campana Ducks
Tomba Campana Tomba delle Anatre
Monte Michele Riserva del Bagno
1842–1843 1958
end 7th cent. .. second qtr. 7th cent. ..
VULCI Campanari Dolphins François
Tomba Campanari Tomba dei Delfini Tomba François
near Ponte della Badia Ponte Rotto Ponte Rotto
1833 1857 1857
3rd century .. 3rd century .. third qtr. 4th cent. ..
REGISTER OF PAINTED ETRUSCAN TOMBS
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
12
13
14
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
46
47
57
15
8
48
49
58
16
50
59
17
51
18
31
42
43
53
62
11
20
30
41
61
10
19
29
52
60
9
54
63
21
32
33
44
45
55
56
64
Tarquinian Tombs: Beginning of the sixth century–first half of the fourth century .. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
Tomb of the Panthers Tomb of the Hut Tomb of the Marchese Tomb of the Red Lions Tomb Tomb Labrouste Tomb Tomb of the Tritons Tomb of the Jade Lions Tomb of the Bulls Tomb of the Sea Tomb of the Hunter Stefani Tomb Tarantola Tomb Bartoccini Tomb Tomb of the Augurs
312
TARQUINIAN TOMBS
17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32.
Tomb of the Lotus Flower Tomb of the Mouse Tomb of the Dead Man Tomb of the Olympic Games Tomb of the Pulcinella Tomb of the Lionesses Tomb Tomb of Hunting and Fishing Tomb of the Jugglers Tomb of the Baron Tomb of the Frontoncino Tomb of the Olympic Games Tomb of the Old Man Tomb of the Painted Vases Tomb Tomb of the Banquet
33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48.
Cardarelli Tomb Tomb Tomb of the Whipping Tomb of the Skull Tomb of the Bigas Tomb of the Leopards Tomb of the Triclinium Tomb of the Funerary Bed Tomb of the Little Flowers Tomb Francesca Giustiniani Tomb Tomb Tomb Tomb of the Deer Hunt Maggi Tomb Tomb of the Ship
49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64.
Tomb of the Black Sow Tomb of the Cock Tomb Tomb of the Maiden Tomb Tomb Tomb of the Gorgoneion Tomb Tomb Querciola Tomb I Tomb Tomb Tomb Tomb of the Warrior Tomb of the Pygmies Tomb of Orcus I
65
73
66
67
74
68
76
69
77
70
78
71
72
80
81
88
89
75 79
86 85 82
83
84
87
92
90
91
93
94
95
96
Tarquinian Tombs (second half of the fourth century–third century ..)and Tombs from Other Etruscan Sites (first half seventh century–third century ..) 65. Painted Grotto I 66. Tomb of the Painted Animals I, Cerveteri 67. Tomb of the Clay, Cerveteri 68. Tomb of the Inscriptions, Cerveteri 69. Tomb of the Painted Lions, Cerveteri 70. Tomb of the Ship I, Cerveteri 71. Tomb of the Reliefs, Cerveteri 72. Tomb of the Sarcophagi, Cerveteri
73. Tomb of the Triclinium, Cerveteri 74. Tomb of the Casuccini Hill, Chiusi 75. Tomb of the Snare, Chiusi 76. Tomb of Poggio Gaiella, Chiusi 77. Tomb of the Well at Poggio Renzo, Chiusi 78. Tomb of the Monkey, Chiusi 79. Tassinaia Tomb, Chiusi 80. Painted Tomb, Grotte San Stefano
81. Tomb, Painted Grotto, Magliano in Toscana 82. Golini Tomb I, Orvieto 83. Golini Tomb II, Orvieto 84. Tomb of the Hescanas, Orvieto 85. Tomb of the Anina Family, Tarquinia 86. Tomb of the Cardinal, Tarquinia 87. Tomb of the Charuns, Tarquinia 88. Tomb of the Meeting, Tarquinia
89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96.
Tomb of the Garlands, Tarquinia Giglioli Tomb, Tarquinia Tomb of Orcus I, II, III, Tarquinia Tomb of the Shields, Tarquinia Tomb of the Typhon, Tarquinia Tomb of the Ducks, Veii Campana Tomb, Veii François Tomb, Vulci
TARQUINIAN TOMBS
313
Glossary
dokana: two parallel beams, symbol of the Dioscuri
a macchia: a painting technique using flecks of paint for subtle coloration and shading
biga: two-horse chariot, generally used in ceremonial contexts or races
aes grave: the earliest minted Italic bronze coin (ca. 300 ..)
bucchero: typical Etruscan black pottery of the 7th and 6th centuries
Doric-style door (porta dorica): door that narrows toward the top and is framed, found especially in Etruscan tomb architecture
aes signatum: cast rectangular metal bar, precursor to the aes grave
bucranium (pl. bucrania): ornament shaped like an ox’s skull, with ribbons or garlands
dromos: corridor, generally in front of a tomb entrance
akroama (pl. akroamata): juggling and acrobatic performances
calcei repandi: shoes with upturned toes common in Etruria mainly in the Archaic period
ekphorà: funeral procession
akroterion: decorative element crowning the ridge or corner of a temple gable
camthi: Etruscan magistrate
elogion (pl. elogia): saying, commemorative inscription
capite velato: with head veiled
emporium (pl. emporia): port, trading center
capsa: small chest or book case
epichrosai: application of color
cardiophylax: ancient Italic disk-shaped armor to protect the heart and chest
episemon (pl. episemata): coat of arms, shield emblem
cassone tomb: stone chest tomb
fasces: bundle of rods with axe
cechase: Etruscan magistrate or priest
fatum: prophecy, fate
cepen: Etruscan priest
fictor (pl. fictores): sculptor, worker in clay
antepagmentum (pl. antepagmenta): terracotta relief ornament on the end of the ridge beam in an Etruscan temple
chimaera: a fabulous beast, part lion, part goat
flagellum: slingshot
chitoniskos pyrgotos: small chiton (undergarment) with a crenellation design
fossa: coffin-shaped tomb, in Etruria generally hollowed out of rock
apa(stanar): Etruscan for “father,” “ancestor”
chora: surrounding country, sphere of influence
funus triumphalis: triumphal funeral procession
apobates: armed Greek warrior springing down from a moving chariot
choros: sacred dance
gens (pl. gentes): family, noble race
chrosai: application of color
gens nova: nouveau-riche, social-climbing family
apparitor (pl. apparitore): official, servant
cippus (pl. cippi): tomb marker, generally aniconic and in stone
Arenaria: type of sandstone
columen: main longitudinal roof beam
Genucilia: typical red-figure pottery (mostly plates) produced in Caere and Falerii in the early Hellenistic Period
aretè: virtue
cornicines: horn blowers
artifex: artist, master
Geranomachy: a battle between cranes and pygmies, depicted in Greek painting
coroplasty: terracotta sculpture, mainly for architectural ornament
Geranos: crane dance or dance of the labyrinth
alabastron (pl. alabastra): small salve or perfume vessel of the Greek type Amazonomachy: a battle between men and Amazons, depicted in Greek painting andron (pl. andrones): men’s chamber antefix: decorative terracotta tile at the edge of a roof
apochrosai: application of pigment for shading
aryballos (p. aryballoi): small Greek salve or perfume vessel askos (pl. askoi): Greek pouring vessel athyrma (pl. athryrmata): plaything, luxury object atrium displuviatum: Roman atrium type described by Vitruvius
cucullus: cap cursus honorum: curriculum vitae listing offices and honorary titles cyma (Gr. kyma): double-curved molding
aulos: double flute
cymatium (pl. cymatia; Gr. kymation): ornamental crown molding
avus: grandfather, ancestor
deductio ad inferos: journey into the netherworld
balaneion: bath
despotes theron: lord/master of beasts
balsamarium (pl. balsmaria): small vessel, often of glass paste, for unguents or perfume
dextrarum iunctio: clasp of hands between two men
314
GLOSSARY
dinos (pl. dinoi): Greek vessel, a deep bowl without handles
Gorgoneion: head of the Gorgon/Medusa heptachord: seven-stringed lyre hetaira (pl. hetairai): (female) companion, courtesan hetaireia (pl. hetaireiai): a band of upper-class companions who meet for drinking and/or politics hetairos (pl. hetairoi): (male) companion himation: loose Greek outer garment holmos (pl. holmoi): saucer, stand homines novi: social climber, nouveau riche hypographè: outline, design
hypotyposis: design, model
marunuc spurana: Etruscan magistrate
purth: Etruscan magistrate
ianitor (pl. ianitores): gatekeeper
matrona: married woman, mature woman
pyrgoton: tower-, crenellation-shaped
imperium militiae: military force
nacnvaiasi: Etruscan for “ancestors”
pyxis (pl. pyxides): lidded Greek vessel
ius imaginum: the right to display ancestral portraits in the atrium of a Roman house
naiskos (pl. naiskoi): small temple, generally funerary in nature
reditus: return
Kabeiric: of or relating to the secretive cult of the Kabeiroi
nekyia: Hades landscape
kalpe: Greek riding contest kelebe (pl. kelebaie): column- or stem-krater type found mainly in Volterra ketos (pl. kete): sea monster kithara: stringed instrument with a wooden sounding board kline: bed, couch komos: cheerful procession of revelers, dancers, and musicians with Dionysian overtones kore (pl. korai): young woman, girl (figure) kottabos: a drinking game that involves flicking wine at a target kouros (pl. kouroi): young man, youth (figure)
nobilitas: nobility oikos: house, home oinochoe (pl. oinochoae): single-handled Greek wine jar
res gestae: deeds, military exploits rhyton (pl. rhytoi): drinking horn sacculus: sack, money bag sacnisa: Etruscan for “sacrifice”
olla (pl. ollae): wide-mouthed vessel of any material
sella curulis: folding chair taken over from Etruria by the Romans, reserved for certain officials and judges
olpe (pl. olpae): single-handled Corinthian jar
sema: tomb marker, monument
omonoia: harmony
skiagraphè: shading in painting
oppidum: fortified settlement
skyphos (pl. skyphoi): two-handled vessel of Greek origin
opus caementicium: concretelike Roman masonry of mortar and rough stone opus craticium: an inexpensive building technique using wooden frames filled with crushed rock fused with lime and mud
stele: grave stone, tomb relief symplegma: coitus tabula: panel, plaque taenia: ribbon, festoon
krepis: raised base of stones
opus polygonalis: polygonal masonry without mortar
kyathos (pl. kyathoi): single-handled Greek drinking vessel
opus quadratum: regular masonry of rectangular blocks without mortar
terra sigillata: typical coral-red Roman pottery, often ornamented with relief
kylikeion (pl. kylikeia): small drinks table
ordo equestris: knightly rank
tevarath: Etruscan for “arbiter” (?)
kylix (pl. kylikes): Greek drinking bowl with a foot and two handles
paludamentum: military cloak, commander’s cloak
thalassocracy: maritime supremacy
parentatio: transfer of remains, reburial
theoxenia: cult meal presented to a god or gods
patera (pl. paterae): bowl, offering bowl
tholos: round structure
phaitrynein: application of highlights
thymiaterion: incense burner, stand
Phersu: mask, masked persona
toga picta: colorfully embroidered toga (Roman garment)
lacunaria: roof or ceiling coffers larnax (pl. larnakes): tomb urn lebes (pl. lebetes): large Greek kettle lectisternium: ceremonial banquet for the gods lekythos (pl. lekythoi): Greek-Attic single-handled vessel used in the cult of the dead lesene: pilaster strip leukoma (pl. leukomata): stuccoed and/or painted plaques of wood or clay liber linteus: linen book common in Etruria liticines: trumpet players lituus (pl. litui): curved staff, a symbol of authority; trumpetlike instrument
phlyax: comic actor pictor: painter pilos: pointed hat typically worn by the Dioscuri pinakes leleukomenoi: painted panels of wood or clay pinax (pl. pinakes): painting on wood panel pithos (pl. pithoi): large clay storage vessel plasta: clay sculptor poculum: Early Hellenistic vessel type in Latium
loculus (pl. loculi): wall niche, generally holding a burial
porta dorica. See Doric-style door
ludi athletarum: athletic games ludi circenses: circus games
potnios theron: lord/master of beasts (Eastern motif)
lumen: light
praetor Etruriae: Roman office
lunula: crescent moon
processus triumphalis: triumphal procession
machaira: type of knife with a slight curve
prothesis: the laying out of the deceased on a bier
mantica: wallet or satchel
psychopompos (pl. psychopompoi): one who guides the souls of the dead into the underworld
maru: Etruscan magistrate
potnia theron: mistress of beasts (Eastern motif)
tanasa(r): Etruscan for “actor” or “ritual performer”
toga praetexta: Roman garment edged in purple, probably of Etruscan origin togatus (pl. togati): man wearing a white toga tutulus (pl. tutuli): typical Etruscan conical hat, seen especially in the Archaic Period viator: official messenger zilath cechaneri: Etruscan magistrate zilath mechl rasnal: high Etruscan magistrate roughly corresponding to the Roman praetor Etruriae zilath: Etruscan magistrate
GLOSSARY
315
Bibliography
The bibliography is organized as follows: 1. General works on Etruscan art, culture, archaeology, and topography 2. Exhibition catalogues 3. Works on Etruscan tomb painting 4. Works on other types of Etruscan painting and on Etruscan mosaic The bibliography includes works written up to the end of 2005. While parts 1, 2, and 4 give only the most important works, part 3 is a comprehensive list of the relevant scholarly literature. The following abbreviations are used: AJA American Journal of Archaeology AnalRom Analecta Romana Instituti Danici ArchCl Archeologia Classica AW Antike Welt BdA Bollettino d’arte DArch Dialoghi di Archeologia JdI Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts MEFRA Mélanges de l’École française de Rome, Antiquité MonPitt Monumenti della pittura antica scoperta in Italia (Rome, 1937) RM Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Römische Abteilung StEtr Studi Etruschi 1. General works on Etruscan art, culture, archaeology, and topography Åkerström, Å., Studien über die etruskischen Gräber (Lund, 1934). Banti, L., The Etruscan Cities and Their Culture, E. Bizzarri, trans. (London, 1973). Barker, G., and T. Rasmussen, The Etruscans (Oxford, 1998). Bianchi Bandinelli, R., and A. Giuliano, Etruschi e Italici prima del dominio di Roma (Milan, 1973); Etrusker und Italiker vor der römischen Herrschaft (Munich, 1974). Bianchi Bandinelli, R., and M. Torelli, L’arte dell’antichità classica, Etruria - Roma (Turin, 1976). Bloch, R., The Etruscans, J. Hogarth, trans. (London, 1969). Boethius, A., Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture (Harmondsworth, 1978). Boethius, A., et al., Etruscan Culture, Land and People: Archaeological Research and Studies
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———, Etruscan Red-Figured Vase-Painting at Caere (Berkeley, 1974). ———, The Etruscan Funnel Group: A Tarquinian Red-Figured Fabric (Florence, 1974). ———, “Two Etruscan Painted Terracotta Panels,” The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 11 (1983), p. 129ff. ———, “Two Fragmentary Etruscan Painted Terracotta Panels,” The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 12 (1984), p. 119ff. Deppert, K., Faliskische Vasen (Frankfurt, 1955). Dohrn, T., Die Schwarzfigurigen etruskischen Vasen aus der zweiten Hälfte des sechsten Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1937). Ducati, P., Pontische Vasen (Berlin, 1932). Fleming, S. J., H. Jucker, and J. Riederer, “Etruscan Wall-Paintings on Terracotta: A Study in Authenticity,” Archaeometry 13 (1971), p. 143ff. Giuliano, A., “Il Pittore delle Rondini,” Prospettiva 3 (1975), p. 6ff. Hannestad, L., The Paris Painter (Copenhagen, 1974). ———, The Followers of the Paris Painter (Copenhagen, 1976). Harari, M., Il “Gruppo Clusium” della ceramografia etrusca (Rome, 1980). Haynes, S., “Ein etruskisches Parisurteil,” RM 83 (1976), p. 227ff. Hemelrijk, J. M., Caeretan Hydriae (Mainz, 1984). Jolivet, V., Recherches sur la céramique étrusque à figures rouges tardive du Musée du Louvre (Paris, 1982). Koerte, G., “Pitture del sarcofago tarquiniese detto del sacerdote,” Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology of the University of London (1877), p. 100ff. Krauskopf, I., Der thebanische Sagenkreis und andere griechische Sagen in der etruskischen Kunst (Mainz, 1974). Mangani, E., “Le fabbriche a figure rosse di Chiusi e Volterra,” StEtr 58 (1992–93), p. 115ff. Martelli, M., “La ceramica greco-orientale in Etruria,” Les céramiques de la Grèce de l’Est et leur diffusion en Occident (Paris and Naples, 1978), p. 150ff. ———, “Prima di Aristonothos,” Prospettiva 33 (1984), p. 2ff. Martelli, M., ed., La ceramica degli Etrusch: La pittura vascolare (Novara, 1987). Melis, F., “Lastre ceretane dipinte,” Italian Iron Age Artefacts in the British Museum, papers of the Sixth British Museum Classical Colloquium (London, 1986), p. 159ff. Messerschmidt, F., “Eine archaische bemalte Urne im Museo Nazionale zu Tarquinia,” RM 45 (1930), p. 191ff. Michetti, L. M., Le ceramiche argentate e a rilievo in Etruria nella prima età ellenistica (Rome, 2003). Micozzi, M., “White on Red”: Una produzione vascolare dell’orientalizzante etrusco (Rome, 1994). Moretti, M., “Lastre dipinte inedite di Caere,” ArchCl 9 (1957), p. 18ff.
Murray, A. S., “Archaic Etruscan Paintings from Caere,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 10 (1889), p. 243ff. Neppi Modona, A., “Pitture Etrusche arcaiche: le lastre fittili ceretane,” Emporium 67 (1928), p. 97ff. Parise Badoni, F., Ceramica campana a figure nere (Florence, 1968). Pasquinucci, M., Le kelebai Volterrane (Florence, 1968). Pianu, G., Ceramiche etrusche a figure rosse, Materiali del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tarquinia 1 (Rome, 1980). ———, Ceramiche etrusche sovradipinte, Materiali del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tarquinia 3 (Rome, 1982). Ricci Portoghesi, L., “Una nuova lastra dipinta cerite,” ArchCl 18 (1966), p. 16ff. Rizzo, M. A., “Corredi con vasi pontici da Vulci,” Xenia 2 (1981), p. 13ff. ———, “Contributo al repertorio iconografico della ceramica pontica,” Prospettiva 32 (1983), p. 48ff. ———, “Nuove lastre dipinte da Cerveteri,” Tyrrhenoi philotechnoi, Atti della giornata di studio, Università della Tuscia, Viterbo, 1990 (Rome, 1994), p. 51ff. Roncalli, F., Le lastre dipinte di Cerveteri (Florence, 1965). ———, “A proposito delle lastre dipinte di Boston,” ArchCl 21 (1969), p. 172ff. Schippa, F., Officine ceramiche falische (Bari, 1980). Simon, E., and R. Hampe, Griechische Sagen in der frühen etruskischen Kunst (Mainz, 1964). Spivey, N. J., The Micali Painter and His Followers (New York, 1987). Stefani, E., “Una serie di lastre fittili dipinte del santuario etrusco di Veio,” ArchCl 3 (1951), p. 138ff. ———, “Frammenti di lastre fittili dipinte di Veio,” Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità (1953), p. 67ff. Szilagyi, J.-G., La ceramica etrusco-corinzia figurate, vol. 1, 630–580 a.C. (Florence, 1992); vol. 2, 590/80–550 a.C. (Florence, 1998). Torelli, M., “Terrecotte architettoniche arcaiche da Gravisca e una nota a Plinio NH 35, 151–152,” Studi in onore di F.Magi (Perugia, 1979), p. 305ff. Un artista e il suo mondo: il Pittore di Micali, M. A. Rizzo, ed., exh. cat. (Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, 1988). Vermeule, C., “Greek and Etruscan Painting: A Giant Red-Figured Amphora and Two Etruscan Painted Terracotta Plaques,” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 61 (1963), p. 149ff. Weber-Hiden, I., “Ein unpublizierter etruskischer Tonpinax,” Komos: Festschrift für Thuri Lorenz zum 65. Geburtstag (Vienna, 1997), p. 141ff. Wikander, C., “Appunti sulle terrecotte architettoniche dipinte da Acquarossa,” BdA 65 (1980), no. 7, p. 85ff. ———, Acquarossa: Results of Excavations Conducted by the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies at Rome, vol. 1, The Painted Architectural Terracottas, part 1, Catalogue and Architectural Context (Stockholm, 1982). Zindel, Ch., Frühe etruskische Keramik (Zürich, 1987).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
321
Ancient Literary Sources
The following ancient sources touch on the topography and history of Tarquinia and Gravisca during the Etruscan and Roman periods. Celsus De medicina 31.30 Censorinus De die natali 4.13 Cicero Pro Caecina 11; De divinatione 2.34; De republica 10.34 Columella De re rustica 10.346 Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheke 16.45; 20.44 Dionysius of Halicarnassus Antiquitates Romanae 3.46, 3.61, 3.137; 5.5, 5.14ff.
Herodotus Historiae 4.152 Justinus Epitome (of Trogus) 20.1.11 Liber coloniarum 220 Livy Ab urbe condita libri 1.34; 2.6, 2.16; 6.4; 7.12, 7.15, 7.17, 7.19; 22.9, 22.41; 26.3; 27.4; 28.45; 40.29.1–2; 41.16.6 Lycophron Alexandra 1248 Lydus De ostensis 3 Macrobius Saturnalia 5.15.4 Pliny Naturalis historia 2.209; 3.51–52; 8.211; 9.173; 14.67; 32.21; 35.152; 36.168 Pomponius Mela De Chronographia 2.72
Ptolemy Geographia 3.1, 3.4.43 Rutilius Namatianus De reditu 1.281ff. Servius Ad Aeneiden 10.179, 10.184, 10.198 Silius Italicus Punica 8.475 Statius Silvae 5.2.1 Stephanus Byzantius Ethnica s.v. “Tarconte” Strabo Geographia 5.219, 5.220, 5.225 Tabula Peutingeriana, Geographus Ravennatus 4.32; 5.2; 6.36 Valerius Maximus Facta et dicta memorabilia 5.3.3 Velleius Paterculus Historia romana 1.15.4 Vitruvius De architectura 2.7.3
Prosopographic Index of Family Names from Hellenistic Tarquinia
Acnatru Avena Alethna Alvethna Alsina Ane Anina Apatru Aprthna Aprie Apuna Arzni Atie Cacnie Caliate Camna Carsu Catna Ceicna Ceisi
322
ANCIENT LITERARY SOURCES
Ceisinie Clevsina Cnevna Cresce Culcnie Culsuni Curuna Cusina Cutna Cutu Ecnate Ezpu Eizene Einana Felce Felina Flentra Heire Hercna Huzcne
Hulchnie Lemni Licni Luvce Luvcti Matulna Metli Murina Palazu Paprsina Partunu Peine Pinie Polena Pumpu Pumpunu Ruvfni Safici Scurna Seitithi
Senti Sentina Sefri Spantu Spitu Spuria Statie Suplu Supu Tite Trepu Tusna Uisce Ursumna Velca Velfre Vestrcni Vipena Vipi Zertna
Index
The page numbers in italics refer to captions for illustrations. A Acheloos 26, 91 Acheron 181, 194 Achilles , 91, , 126, 192, 209, 237, 238, 240, 284, 293 Acquarossa 38, 41, 63, 68, 123 Adam, A.-M. 70 Adembri, B. 240 Adria 182, 194 Agamemnon/Achmemrum , 209, 238 Agatharchos of Samos 10 Agathocles 247 Aghios Athanasios, tomb in, Macedonia 214, 254, , 291, Aiax/Eivas 209, 212, 238 Aineia/Nea Michaniona (Macedonia), tomb from , Aita/Hades (god) 12, 70, 188, 193, 209, 212, 242, 263, 277, 290 Åkerström, Åke 36 Aleria 182, 242 Alethna 278 Alexander the Great 11, 205, 285, 286, 288, 290, 295 Alexander the Molossian 288, 297 Alkestis Group 242 Alsina 260 Alsina Family, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 260 Alvethna 26 Alvethna, Larth, sarcophagus of Amasis Painter 125, 126 Amazon Sarcophagus, Tarquinia 11, 20, 187, , 192, 207, , 239, , 240, 285 Amazonomachy , 192, 240, , 242 Amphiaraos 126, 238 Amphiaraos Painter 89, 126 Amphipolis, tomb at 290 Amsterdam Painter 46 Andokides 125 Andriuolo necropolis 285, , 297 Andromache 205, 247 Andronikos, Manolis 289, 290 Ane 248, 260 Anes, Arnth 260 Anfushi necropolis (Alexandria) 278, 295 Angelelli, Giuseppe 12, Anina 26, 190, 248, 261, 257
Anina Family, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 16, , 21, 190, 248, 249, 250, 252, 256, , Anina, Larth 256, 257 Aninas, Velthur 261 Annio da Viterbo 12 Antelopes, Tomb of the, Tarquinia Antiphilos of Alexandria 10 Apatrui 26 Apelles of Colophon 10, 205, 291 Aphrodite 25, 64, 98, 99, 182 Apollo 64, 70, 91, 124, 192, 241, 260 Apollodorus of Athens 10, 207 Appian 251 Aprthnai 210 Aprthnai, Ravnthu 210, Ap[u]na 254, 261 Ara della Regina, temple of 22, 25, 26, 185 Aranth Heracanasa 70, 95 Arcatelle 21, 22 Ares 126 Arezzo 129, 131, 185, 245, 246 Argonaut Group 183, 242 Argonauts 192, 241 Ariadne 38 Arieti Tomb 300 Arimaspeans 241 Aristides of Thebes 10 Aristonothos , 46, 57 Aristophanes 10, 36 Arnthuna 248 Arnthunas, Arnth 261 Arnthunas, Laris 261 Arnthza 238 Arnza , Arpi 161, 213, 239, 251, 279, 284, 285, 286, 295, 300, Artemide/Artumes 25 Artemis Brauronia, shrine of 288 Artimino 41 Asciano Painter 242 Atelier des Petites Estampilles 279 Athena 46, 126, 183, 241 Athenaeus 46 Athlete, Sarcophagus of the 297 Augurs, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 15, , 21, , 65, 66, 67, 70, , 71, , 92, , 98, 99, 125, 159, 281, 282 Aurora Painter 241, Aventine triad Ceres, Liber, and Libera, temple of the 123 Avvolta necropolis 24
B Bacchantes, Master of the 71 Bacchantes, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, , 67, , 71, , 99 Bacchiadae 46 Banditaccia necropolis 123, 124, 262 Banqueters, Master of the 71 Barbarano Group 242 Barberini Tomb Baron, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, , , 65, 67, , 71, 96, 98, , 103, 126, 139 Bartoccini Tomb, Tarquinia , 90 Bearded Sphinx Painter 44, 47, 60 Bearded Sphinx Painter, Tomb of the, Vulci 47 Beazley, J. D. 125, 240 Bebrycians 192 Bella Tumulu 285, 290 Bellerophon 91, 241 Belvedere Temple 131 Benassai, Rita 103, 295 Berlin Painter 26, 125, 182 Bettini, Claudio 21 Bianchi Bandinelli, Ranuccio 14, 121, 255–56, 301 Bibliothèque Nationale 178, Painter of 126 Biclinium, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 162 Bigas, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 15, , 67, 103, , , 121, 133 Birth of Athena, Painter of the 46, 58 Bisenzio 36, 37, , 64 Bisenzio Group 127 Black Sow, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 15, , 133, 140, , Blanck, H. 12, 185, 240, 262 Blera 15, 21, 187, 237, Blue Demons, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 9, 163, , , 181, , 182, , 187, 191, 192, 194 Boccanera plaques 123, Bocchoris Painter 37 Bocchoris Tomb, Tarquinia 25, 37 Boehlau Painter 47 Bokenranf/Bocchoris 37 Bologna see Felsina Bolsena 245 Bomarzo 15, 187, 237, 255 Bonghi Jovino, Maria 24 Borelli, Licia Vlad 20 Botticelli, Sandro 11
Bovini, G. 42 Brecoulaki, Hariclia 20, 239 Bright Colors, Master of the 89 Bronze Door, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 100 Bruschi 12 Bruschi Tomb, Tarquinia 21, 212, 250, 254, , 260 Brutus 205 Brygos 125, 138 Brygos Painter 26 Bulls, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, 67, 70, 71, , 89, 91, , 92, 281 Buranelli, F. 277 Byres, James 12, 163, 210, 253, 257 C Caere see Cerveteri Caeretan Hydriae Group 64–65, 92, 124, 125 Caeretan Hydriae, Master of the 124 Calvario 15, 21, 22 Calydon 46 Camna 26, 210 Campana, Gian Pietro 58, 124 Campana plaques , 123, 124, 281 Campana Tomb, Veii 43, , 44, 47, 58, , 60, 61, 211 Campana Tomb 1, Cerveteri , Campanari Tomb, Vulci , 277 Campigliese 32 Camporeale, G. 71, 89, 125 Canale Monterano 33 Cancellone 9, , , 60, Canciani, Fulvio 36 Canina, L. , 59, 263, Canosa 239, 261, 279, 284, 285, 290, 295, 300 Capena 38, Capodimonte 33 Capua 131, 182, 251, 282, 285, 295, 296 Cardarelli Tomb, Tarquinia , 21, 67, 71, 99, 100, , 121, 122, 281 Cardarelli, Vincenzo 14, 100 Cardella, D. 215 Cardinal, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 16, , 191, 249, 251, 252, 256, 257, , 262 Caryatid Tomb (Sveshtari) 161, 260, 285, , 287, , 292 Casal Marittimo 41 Casetta necropolis 237 Cassandra 238 Castel d’Asso 33, 237, 246
INDEX
323
Castel Secco, shrine of 246 Castellani Painter 46, 59 Castellani Tomb, Praeneste Castellina in Chianti 41 Castiglione in Teverina 33, 64 Castro 33, 37 Casuccini Hill, Tomb of the, Chiusi 21, 67, , 121, 122, , 163 Cataldi, Maria 163, 181, 210 Cava di Pozzolana, Veii Cavagnaro Vanoni, Lucia 28 Cècina 14 Ceisinie Tomb, Tarquinia 20, 187, 210, 212 Cel Ati 260 Celle, shrine of 240, Celle, temple of 185, 212 Centauromachy 242 Centauromachy, Painter of the (Florence) 242 Centuripe 239 Cephalus 241, Cerberus , 125, 209 Cerchiai, Luca 69, 99 Ceres 262 Cerveteri 9, 15, 16, 20, 24, 26, 31, , 32, , 33, , , , 38, , 41, 42, , 44, , 46, , 47, , 57, 58, , 60, 63, 64, 93, 96, 98, 122, 123, 124, 125, , 126, 181, 182, 185, 213, 240, 242, 245, 246, 248, 254, , 257, 262, , 277, 278, 286, 287 Cesnola Painter 37 Charon 132, 181, 194 Charun 188, 192, 193, 194, 195, , 207, 218, 242, 252, , 253, 254, 256, 257, 258, , 261, , Charuns, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 16, , 21, 193, 252, 258, , Chimaera 91, 131, 241 Chiusi 9, 12, 15, 16, 21, 41, 42, 60, 61, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 99, 100, 103, , 121, , 122, , 129, 130, 131, 132, 142, 163, 185, 187, 207, 214, 215, 218, 237, 240, 242, 245, 246, 248, 253, 257, 259, 260, 277, 278, 286 Chrysaor 282 Chrysippus 192 Cicero 247 Cifani, Gabriele 163 Cima Tomb, San Giuliano , , 58 Cipollara, sarcophagus of 255 Cipriani, M. 295 Civita (hill of) 24, 25 Civita (plateau of) 21, 22 Cività Castellana see Falerii Cività Vecchia 33 Clazomenaen sarcophagi 65, 94, 98, 281 Cleanthes of Corinth 36, 46 Clevsina 259 Clusium-Volaterrae Group 192, 242 Cneve Tarchunies 238 Cnidus 11 Coarelli, Filippo 185, 237 Cock, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 94, , 133, 158, , Colchis (dragon of) 46 Colline Metalliferi 32
324
INDEX
Colonna, Giovanni 28, 36, 42, 95, 143, , 185, 246, 255, 259 Contenebra 22 Corneto 14, 15, 21, 22 Cortona 41, 131, 185, 246, 259, 286 Cortuosa 22 Cosa 15, 42, 61, 245 Crane Painter 38 Cristallini Hypogeum (Naples) 161 Cristofani, Mauro 185, 195, 212, 237, 240, 251, 258, 260, 277, 278 Croesus 22 Culsans 25 Curuna 26, 190, 207, 248, 256 Cybele 262 D D’Agostino, B. 69, 237 Damaratos 22, 24, 41, 46 Damophilos 123, 133 Dancing Priests, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 262 Dancing Satyrs Painter 127, 182 Danielson 210 Dante 14 Dareios Painter 192, 238, 285 Dasti, L. 14 Dead Man, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, 67, 70, 71, 92, 98, 100, Deer Hunt, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 133, 142, Del Chiaro, M. 240 Della Sorgente necropolis 22 Dell’Impiccato necropolis 22 Delos 11, 12, 38, 278 Delphi 69, 192 Demeter 25, 64, 181 Demetrias 11 Dennis, George 14, 59, 61 Diespater Painter 183, 241 Diodorus Siculus 68 Dion 290 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 46, 300 Dionysos 70, 99, 126 Dionysos and the Sileni, Tomb with, Tarquinia 67, 68 Diopos 41 Dioscuri 98, 139, 155, 182 Diver, Tomb of the, Paestum 11, 96, 282, 296 Dobrowolski, W. 163 Doganaccia necropolis 24 Dogtooth Frieze, Tomb of the, Cerveteri , , , 42 Dohrn, Tobias 125, 126, 129, 239, 241 Dolphins, Tomb of the, Populonia 277 Dolphins, Tomb of the, Vulci 277 Doors and Cats, Tomb with, Tarquinia 89 Doryphoros 129 Douris 125, 138 Drukker, A. 126 Ducati, P. 126 Ducks, Tomb of the, Veii 15, 21, 33, , 36, , 48 Dying, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 16, , 67, 100
E Eizenes Family, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 262 Ekphantos 41, 46 Elmalı (Lycia) 65, 281, 282, Emilia-Romagna 41 Eos/Aurora 241, Epeios 127 Epiktetos 103, 125 Erbach Painter 183, 240 Ergotimos 125 Eros 99, 183, 209 Esquiline Hill, tomb on the, Rome 285, 300 Eteocles , 237, 238 Euchir 41 Eugrammos 41 Euphranor 10 Euphronios 103, 125 Eupompos 10 Europa 125 Eurydike, Tomb of, Vergina , 290 Eurynomos 181 Eurystheus , 125 Euthymides 103, 125 Eutyclides 247 Exekias 123, 125 F Fabius Pictor, C. 247, 300 Fabius, Q. (Max Rullianus?) 300 Falerii 33, 38, 122, 129, 131, 163, 183, 185, 212, 237, 240, , 241, 242, , 245, 260, 279 Falerii Novi 188, 245, 246, 251 Falerii Veteres see Falerii Falerii Veteres necropolis 183 Fantasma Group 242 Felsina 130, 131, 132, 182, 193, 259 Feoli Painter 47 Feruglio, Anna Eugenia 211, 215 Fiesole 64, 90 Fleischer, R. 240 Florence 80675 Group 127 Florus 205, 247 Fondazione Lerici 9, 14, 27 Fondo Scataglini 16, 21, 253, 256, 258, 261, 277 Forlivesi, Giovanni Nicola 262 Fortuna 91 Forum Boarium 248 Forum of Augustus 10 Francesca Giustiniani Tomb, Tarquinia , 21, , 155, , , 181 François, Alessandro 237 François Tomb, Vulci 12, 15, 16, 21, , 187, 189, 191, 192, 195, , 205, 207, 212, , 237, , 239, , 240, 246, 249, 284, 285, 288 Frontoncino, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 66, 90 Full Sakkos Group 242 Funerary Bed, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 15, , 21, , 133, 134, 139, , , G Ganymedes 183 Garampi (Cardinal) 257
Garlands, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 248, 249, , 250, 252, 255, 256, , 257, , , 284, 286, 287, 288 Genucilia 242, 278 Genucius Clepsina, C. 278 Geranomachy , 162, 242, 297 Gerhard, E. 12 Geryon/Cerun , 209 Giants 241 Gigantomachy 259 Giglioli Tomb, Tarquinia 16, , 191, , 248, 251, 253, , 254, 256, 263, , 288 Gilotta, F. 163, 185, 240, 259 Giuliano, A. 91, 125 Glàukes Group 242 Gnosis 260, 294 Goethe 287 Golini Tomb I, Orvieto I 12, 15, 16, 187, 188, 191, 211, , 212, , , 214, 215, 218, , 240 Golini Tomb II, Orvieto 12, 15, 16, 187, 195, 210, 211, 212, , 215, 218, 249, 250, 260 Gordion (Phrygia), Painted House 65, 281, 282 Gorgasos 123 Gorgon plaques 123 Gorgoneion/Gorgons 47, 122, 123, 158, , 161, , 241, 282, 284, 293 Gorgoneion, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 161, 162, 186, Gori 253, 262 Gravisca 20, 22, 24, 25, 64, 65, 129 Griffins 241 Grotta Dipinta (Painted Grotto) 60–61, 237, 255 Grotta Dipinta II (Painted Grotto II) 237, Grotta Porcina 33 Grotte di Castro 33, 64, Grotte San Stefano 15, 33, 131, 163 H Hades (place) 181, 188, , 191, 193, 195, 206, 209, 258 Hadra Vases 260, 295 Hannestad, L. 125, 126 Hannibal 245, 247 Harari, M. 162, 240 Head of Charun, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 262 Hector 126, 205, 247 Hemelrijk, J. M. 125 Hephaistos 60 Heptachord Painter 38, Hera 25, 64, 124 Herakles , 123, 125, 126, 181, 209, 241 Hercules, Temple of 248 Hermes 290 Hermes/Turms 132 Hermes Enagonios 103 Hermonax 182 Herodotus 10, 22, 64 Hescana 190, 211, 215 Hescanas, Tomb of the, Orvieto 15, 16, 187, 191, 195, 211, 214, , 218, 250, 260 Hesione Painter 242
Hesse Group 279, Hieron 138, 139 Hill of the Moro, Tomb of the 122 Hoesch, N. 241 Homer 46, 57, 162, 238 Horsemen, Tomb of the, Arpi Hunt, Tomb of the 122 Hunter, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 20, 21, 45, 65, 67, 70, 71, 102, , Hunting and Fishing, Tomb of, Tarquinia 16, , 21, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, , , 95, , , 153, 281, 282 Hunting Pavilion, Tomb of the see Tomb of the Hunter Hut, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 89 Huxley, A. 14 Hypnos 158, 182, 209 I Iervolino, F. Iktinos 129 Ildebranda Tomb 286 Iliupersis Painter 239 Infernaccio necropolis 24 Infernal Quadriga, Tomb of the, Sarteano 9, 187, 215, , , , Inscriptions, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 89, 92, 98, 100, , 250, 262, 263 Iphigenia 124 Ischia 36 Isis, Tomb of, Vulci Ivy Leaf Group 126 J Jacobsen, Carl 12 Jade Lions, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 89 Jannot, J. R. 155 Jugglers, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, 65, 67, , 70, , 71, , 94, , 103, 121, 125, 281 Juno Sospita 126 K Kape Mukathesa Group 127 Karaburun (Lycia), tomb in 65, 281 Kazanlak (Thrace), tomb in 214, 285, 292, Kestner, August (baron) 12, 96 Kithara Player, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 66, 99, 103 Kitov, Georgi 294 Kızılbel, tomb in (Lycia) 281, Kleitias 125 Klenze (von), Leo 12 Kleophrades Painter 26, 125, 138 Krauskopf, I. 193 Kyknos Painter 127 L Labrouste Tomb, Tarquinia 89 Lagrasta Hypogeum II 290 Laius 192 Langlotz, E. 241 Laris Partunu, Sarcophagus of see Priest, Sarcophagus of the Latera 33, 64 Lawrence, D. H. 14, 21
Leagros Group 127 Lefkadia 254, 288, , 290 Leinie 190, 211, 212 Leopards, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, , , 133, , Lernean Hydra 181 Lesche of the Cnidians (Delphi) 181 Lion, Tomb of the, Chiusi 15, 21, 121 Lionesses, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 16, , 20, 21, , 65, 66, 68, 71, , , 94, , 125, 281 Lions, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 89 Lion’s Tomb, Lycia 260 Little Flowers, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 140 Livy 22, 205, 247 Lo Scasato, temple of 260 Lotus-Flower Group 47 Lotus Flower, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, 71, , 89 Louvre E 739, painter of 126 Lubtchansky, Natasha 14 Lucian 10 Ludwig I of Bavaria 12 Lycurgus Painter 239 Lydos 125 Lysippus 247 Lyson and Kallikles, Tomb of, Lefkadia 288 M Maggi Tomb, Tarquinia , 133, 142, 143, , Maggiani, Adriano 185, 210, 213, 214, 255 Magistrate, Sarcophagus of the, Cerveteri 181 Magistrate, Tomb of the, Capua 251 Magliano Toscano 9, 15, 42, , , 60, , 61 Magliz (Thrace), tomb in 292, Maiden, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, 132, 133, 158, , , 161, 162, , 193 Mainz Painter 242 Makron 125, 138 Mantegna, Andrea 11 Marce Camitlnas 238 Marchese, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 89 Mariani, Gregorio 12, , 103, 210, Maroi Tomb, Cerveteri Mars of Todi 131 Marsiliana d’Albegna 41 Marsyas 241 Martelli, Marina 36, 125, 126, 240 Marzabotto 63, 130 Marzi 12 Massa-Pairault, Françoise-Hélène 185, 211, 212 Master of the Olympic Games, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 71, 99, Mater Matuta 91 Matuna 262 Mazzei, Marina 286, 300 Medea 46 Medusa, Tomb of the, Arpi 161, 213, 251, 286, 300 Meeting, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 189, 212, 250, , 252, 255, , 260, , 297
Meidias Painter 129, 182, 183, 240 Melanthios 10 Meleager Painter 183, 240 Mellink, Machtheld 282 Mengarelli, R. 124 Mengarelli Tomb 33, Mengarelli Tumulus Mercareccia, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 16, , 20, 248, 249, 250, 253, 262 Messerschmidt, F. 14 Metron 183 Micali Painter 27, 66, 99, 126, 127, Michelangelo 12 Micozzi, Marina 38 Mikon 133 Minetti, Alessandra 215 Minotaur 47, 126 Monkey, Tomb of the, Chiusi 15, 21, 67, 71, , 121, , 163 Montagnola Tomb 42 Monte dell’Oro 33 Monte Michele 58 Monte Michele, tomb in 57 Monte Sannace 250, 295 Monte Sanacce, tomb in 256, 286 Montebradoni Painter 242 Montediano Painter 242 Monteriggioni Painter 242 Monteroni 33 Monterozzi (hill of) 14, 15, 21, 22, 24 Monterozzi (necropolis of) 9, 12, 14, , 21, 25, 64, 163 Monti della Tolfa 32 Montollo Tomb 122 Morandi, A. 185, 257 Morandi, M. 185, 190, 207, 211 Moreno, P. 239 Moretti, Mario 14, 27, 143 Mouse, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 68, , , 90, Moustafa Pasha necropolis, Tomb I (Alexandria) 285, 295 Munich 833, Painter of 126 Munich 883 Group 127 Munich 892 Group 127 Murina 190, 207 Murlo 41, 63, 124 Murlo-Poggio Civitate 41, 42, 90 Musarna 26, 278, Myra 260 N Namatianus, Rutilius 22, 24 Napoli, Mario 282 Narce 38, 254 Naso, Alessandro 14, 15, , 32, , 33, , , , 42, , , , 64, 185, 255 Nazzano Painter 241 Necropoli delle Grotte 277 Necropoli delle Pianezze Necropoli di Ponte Rotto 277 Nereids 239, 284, Nessos 125 Nestor 238 Nike (figure of Victory) 247, 284, 300 Nike, Tomb of the, Arpi 300 Nikias of Athens 10, 11, 192, 205, 291 Nikomachos 11
Nikosthenes 125, 126, 205, 290, 291 Nikoxenos Painter 103 Niobid Painter 182 Nola 209, 285, 295, 296 Norchia 26, 29, 246, 251, 254, 286 Northampton Group 126 Numerius 24 Nun Painter 242 O Odysseus 142, 209, 210 Ogulnius Gallus, Q. 278 Old Man, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 67, 68, 100 Olpae Group 57 Oltos 26, 125 Olympic Games, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 15, , 67, 71, , 92, 98, , , 121, 122, 159 Onesimos 71, 125 Orbetello Group 127 Orcus I, Tomb of, Tarquinia 14, , , 21, 186, 187, 188, 190, 192, 194, , 206, , 207, , 210, 212, 214, 218 Orcus II, Tomb of, Tarquinia 12, , 20, 187, 188, 189, , 191, 192, 193, 195, , 207, 209, , 210, 212, 214, 248 Orcus III, Tomb of, Tarquinia , 207, 209 Orientalizing Style, Tomb of the 61 Orpheus and Euridice, Tomb of 122 Orte 15 Ortis, Nicola 12 Orvieto 9, 12, 15, 16, 26, 33, 63, 64, 127, , 129, 130, 131, 153, 163, 182, 183, 185, 187, 190, 191, 192, 195, 210, 211, , , , 214, , 215, 218, , 219, , 237, 240, 241, 242, 245, 249, 250, 260, 263, 286 Orvieto Group 127 Osteria necropolis 126, 182 Ostrusha Tomb, Shipka 214, 287, 292, 293 P Paccianesi Tomb 122 Pacuvius, Marcus 247 Paestum 11, 20, 96, 100, 143, 162, 213, 251, 254, 279, 282, 284, 285, 286, , 294, 295, 296, 297, , Painted Animals, Tomb of the, Cerveteri , , 44, 57, 58 Painted House see Gordion (Phrygia) Painted Lions, Tomb of the, Cerveteri , , 44, , , 57, 58 Painted Vases, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 66, 68, , 100 Paipnas, Arnth 26 Pakties 22 Palazzina necropolis 21, 122 Palestrina/Praeneste 41, , , 185, 192, 245 Pallottino, Massimo 14, 260, 301 Palm Painter 38 Palmette Tomb 290–91 Pamphilos 10 Pania Tomb 60, 61 Panthers, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 16, , 21, , , 61,
INDEX
325
Paolozzi Tomb 122 Paris 98, 123, 124, , 126 Paris Painter 91, 126 Parrhasios of Ephesus 10, 133, 207 Partunu Tomb 240 Partunu 26 Pasquinucci, M. 240 Passo della Sibilla, Veii Patroclus 192, 237 Pausanias 10, 99 Pausias 10, 287, 293 Pegasus 282 Peirithoos 209 Peleus 241 Pella 11, 290, 294 Penthesilea Painter 129, 142, 182 Pergamon 10, 11, 12, 205, 245, 259, 260 Pericles 129 Persephone/Phersipnei 70, 181, 188, , 209, 212, 242, 263, 277, 290 Persephone, Tomb of 290 Perseus 123, 241 Perugia 9, 96, 185, 188, 207, 237, 245, 246, 251, 257, 259, 260, 282, 286 Perugia Painter 183, 241 Pescia Romana , 37 Pescia Romana Painter 47, 60 Péslinei, Vela 261 Petsas Tomb (Lefkadia) , 290 Petronius 10 Pfrommer, Michael 288 Phersu , 93, 94, 99, 100, , 159, Phidias 129 Philip II of Macedonia 11, 286, 290 Philoxenos 291 Philoxenos of Eretria 10 Phintias 26, 103, 125 Phoenician Palmette Group 47 Phoenix 238 Pian Miano 237 Pianacce necropolis 215 Piano San Nicola 24 Pianu, G. P. 240 Piero della Francesca 291 Pilaster and Female Figure, Tomb with, Tarquinia 187, 210, 212 Pinie 190, 248, 254 Pinies, Vel 254 Pisatis 46 Pitigliano 37 Pitt Rivers Painter 183 Plato 10 Pliny the Elder 9, 10, 36, 41, 42, 122, 192, 218, 247, 252, 300 Plutarch 10, 205, 247 Pocala Group Poggi Gallinaro necropolis 22, 24 Poggio Buco 36, 37 Poggio Civitella 246 Poggio del Forno necropolis 24 Poggio Gaiella, Tomb of 122 Poggio Renzo 61 Poggio Renzo Tomb, Chiusi 60 Pola Tomb 286 Pollux 240 Polybius 10, 69, 191 Polychrome Arches, Painter of the 47 Polygnotos of Thasos 10, 129, 133, 181
326
INDEX
Polykleitos 129 Polynices , 237, 238 Polyphemus 46, 125, 210 Polyxena 124 Pontrandolfo, A. 251, 295 Populonia 15, 32, 41, 64, 182, 183, 241, 242, 245, 248, 277, , 278, Porano 15, 211 Porcia 205, 247 Porsenna 218 Portonaccio, temple of 124 Poseidon 241 Poseidonia see Paestum Potideia, tomb in 290 Poulsen, V. 14 Pranzovico 163 Praxias Painter 182 Priest, Sarcophagus of the, 187, , 192, 238, 240, Primi Archi 21 Procession of Cybele, Tomb with the 262 Protogenes 10 Psiax 125 Ptolemy II 289 Pulcinella, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, , 94, 100 Pulena 26 Pumpu 26, 190, 248, 259, 260 Pumpu, Arnth 259 Pumpu, Laris 250, 260 Pygmies, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 155, 161, , 162, 186, 297 Pyrgi (Temple A) 64, 131, 185 Pyrrhicist, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 100 Pyrrhus 288, 300 Q Quartaccio 124 Quarto degli Archi necropolis 22 Querciola Tomb I, Tarquinia , 133, 142, 155, , , 161, 162, 163, 181 Querciola Tomb II, Tarquinia 248, 251, 260, Quinto Fiorentino 41, 42 R Rastrelli, Anna 122 Red Lions, Master of the 89–90 Red Lions, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 89, Regae/Regisvilla 64 Regolini Galassi Tomb, Cerveteri , 60 Reliefs, Tomb of the, Cerveteri 16, 20, 248, 250, 251, 254, , 260, 262, 288 Rendeli, M. 181 Rendini, Paola 60 Ricci Hydria 98, 126 Ripe Sant’Angelo necropolis 286 Riserva del Bagno 36 Rix, Helmut 214 Rizzo, M. A. 36 Romualdi, Antonella 277 Roncalli, Francesco 36, 71, 123 Roshava Chouka tumulus, Haskovo 294, Rosoni Group 57 Rouveret, Agnes 10, 295 Rubertis, R. (de) 215
Rubiera 41 Rumpf, Andreas 59 Rupp, W. 260 Ruspi, Carlo 12, , , 100, , , 103, , , 138, , , 155, , , , 260, Rutile Hipukrate 46 Ruyt (F. de) 194 S Sacchetti, Federica 194 Salus, Temple of 248, 300 San Andrea, Tomb of, Magliano in Toscano , , 60, , 61 San Giovenale 33, 42 San Giuliano 15, 26, 33, 42, , , 58 Santa Maria di Faleri see Falerii novi Sant’Omobono, shrine of 91 Sarcophagi, Tomb of the, Cerveteri 249, 262, 277 Sarteano 9, 15, 21, 64, 122, 187, 215, , , 218, Sarteano Painter 242 Satie 190 Saties, Vel , 189, 238 Schulz, Louis 12, Scipio 22 Scipio Barbatus, sarcophagus of 205 Scipio tomb (Via Appia), Rome 300 Sculptures, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 20, 248, 260 Scylla 260 Sea, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 89 Sea Waves, Tomb of the, Cerveteri 262, 263, 277 Secondi Archi 15, 21 Seithiti, Velia , 210 Selciatello di Sopra necropolis 22 Selciatello necropolis 22 Selvans 25 Semele 98 Semper, Gottfried 12 Sentina 259 Serra Ridgway, Francesca 28, 185, 192, 246 Settecamini Painter 241 Settecamini tombs 242 Shields and Seats, Tomb of the, Cerveteri, 254 Shields, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 162, 187, 188, , 189, 190, 193, , 207, 210, , 212, 213, , 242, 250, 257, 260, 263 Ship, Tomb of the, Cerveteri , 57 Ship, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 15, , 57, 143, 153, , , Ship, Tomb with 262 Sikyon, school of 10, 42 Silenus Painter 126 Silius Italicus 251 Sillax of Rhegion 133 Simon, E. 91, 95, 98, 126 Siren, Tomb of the, Sovana 29 Sisyphus/Sispes 191, 209, 238 Skull, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 71, 99 Smuglewicz, Franciszek 12, 163, 210, 253, 257 Sokra Group 242 Sokra[tes] 242
Sol 278 Sommavilla Painter 183, 241 Sophilos 125 Soranus 126 Sorbo Tomb, Cerveteri 33, Sorbo Tumulus Soriano nel Cimino 33 Sostratus of Aegina 22, 64 Sovana 29, 37, 237, 246, 286 Speranza Tumulus, Cerveteri Spina 131, 132, 142, 182, 191, 194 Spina-Gaudo necropolis (Tomb 87) Spina Painter 278 Spinazzo necropolis 213, 251, 286, 297, Spinazzo Tomb I, 251 Spivey, N. J. 125, 127 Spuriana, Arath 70, 91 Spurianas, Araz Silqetenas 91 Spurina 22, 190, 207, 209, 257 Stackelberg (von), Otto Magnus 12 Stangl, M. 70 Ste. Monique necropolis (Carthage) 240 Stefani, E. 163 Stefani Tomb, Tarquinia 45, 67, 89 Steingräber, S. 14 Stopponi, S. 140 Strabo 22 Street Side, Tomb of the, Tarquinia Styx 282 Suetonius 70 Sun and the Moon, Tomb of the, Vulci 58 Suri 25 Swallow Painter , 47 Syracuse 22, 205, 207, 247 Szilagyi, J.-G. 46 T Tages 21 Talamone 245 Talos Painter 241 Tanaquil 22 Tapestry, Tomb of the, 250, 253, 258 Tarantola Tomb, Tarquinia 71, 90 Tarchna 263 Tarchon 21 Tarentine tombs 295, Tarentum 10, 11, 192, 205, 206, 239, 240, 247, 248, 250, 252, 253, 254, 256, 260, 287, 288, 295, 296, 297, 300 Tarquinii (royal dynasty of) 21 Tarquinius Priscus 21–22 Tartaglia Tomb, Tarquinia 191, 262 Tartarli, tomb in 281 Tassinaia Tomb, Chiusi 277, 286 Terreno Maggi 261 Thanatos 132, 158, 182, 209 Thanchvil Anei, sarcophagus of 261 Theodotus 91 Theon of Samos 10 Theseus/These 37, 126, 182, , 209, Thetis 241 Thiersch, H. 125 Thucydides 10 Thuflthas 26 Tiné Bertocchi, Fernanda 295 Tiresias , 209 Tityos Painter 89, 126
Tiu 248, 277 Tolfa 33 Tolfa Group 126 Tomb Porzarago 9 42 Tomba Dei see Grotta Dipinta Tomb 1000, Tarquinia Tomb 1144, Tarquinia , 161, 162 Tomb 1200, Tarquinia , 161 Tomb 123 Taranto (Spinazzo necropolis) Tomb 13, Sarteano 21, 122 Tomb 1560, Tarquinia , 133, 161 Tomb 1646, Tarquinia , 89 Tomb 1822, Tarquinia , 161 Tomb 1999, Tarquinia , 67, 68 Tomb 2006, Cerveteri Tomb 2015, Tarquinia , 161 Tomb 2327 (Bertazzoni Tomb), Tarquinia , 162, 186, Tomb 3010, Tarquinia , 89 Tomb 3011, Tarquinia , 89 Tomb 3098, Tarquinia , 71, 89 Tomb 3242 (dei Loculi), Tarquinia , 162, 186, Tomb 356, Tarquinia , 89 Tomb 3697, Tarquinia , 133, 161 Tomb 3713, Tarquinia , 133, 158 Tomb 3716, Tarquinia , 133, 158 Tomb 3986, Tarquinia , 89 Tomb 3988, Tarquinia , 140 Tomb 4, Paestum Tomb 4021, Tarquinia , 133, 139 Tomb 4170, Tarquinia , 143 Tomb 4255, Tarquinia , 66, 71, 99, 133 Tomb 4260, Tarquinia , 99, 133 Tomb 4467, Tarquinia Tombe 45, Vulci 182 Tomb 4780, Tarquinia , 71, 90 Tomb 4813, Tarquinia , 132, 140 Tomb 4836 261 Tomb 4912 (Tomb of the Four Figurines), Tarquinia , 252, 261 Tomb 50 of the Vecchio Recinto, Cerveteri Tomb 5039, Tarquinia , 90 Tomb 5203, Terreno Maggi 261
Tomb 5512 (Double Tomb), Tarquinia , 212, 250, , 260, 288 Tomb 5513, Tarquinia , 21, 133, 134, , 138, Tomb 5517, Tarquinia , 133, 161 Tomb 5580 261 Tombe 5591, Tarquinia , , 71, 99 Tomb 5636, Tarquinia , 251, 252, , 261, , Tomb 5892, Tarquinia Tomb 5898, Tarquinia , 71 Tomb 5899, Tarquinia Tomb 6071, Tarquinia , 133, 161 Tomb 6120, Tarquinia 89 Tomb 65 Laghetto Tomb 808, Tarquinia , 90, 161, 162 Tomb 810, Tarquinia , 133, 139, 140 Tomb 939, Tarquinia , 89 Tomb 994, Tarquinia , 133, 140 Torcop Group 242 Torelli, Mario 69, 89, 95, 102, 133, 163, 185, 187, 190, 191, 207, 209, 211, 247, 254, 277, 278 Torlonia 15, 237 Torre San Severo, sarcophagus of 192 Tragliatella 46 Trevignano 33, 57, 59 Triclinium, Tomb of the, Cerveteri 213, 248, 249, 262, 263, Triclinium, Tomb of the, Tarquinia 15, , , , 133, 134, , 138, , 139, , 140, 142, Tritons, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 89 Troilus , 91, , 126 Tsimbidou-Avloniti, Maria 214, 291 Tuchulcha 192, 193, 209, , 262 Tumulus X, tomb under 124 Turmuca Group 242 Tuscan Column, painter of the 242 Tuscania 15, 21, 26, 33, 245, 248 Typhon, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, 205, 207, 212, , 246, 247, , 248, 250, 252, 256, 258, 259, 260, , 261, , 277 Tyrrhenian Group 125 Tyrrhenus 21
U UNESCO 214 Urinates, Vel 237 Urna Calabresi, Cerveteri Urna Calabresi Workshops 46 Us¸ak (Lydia), tomb in 65, 281, , 282 V Vaccareccia, tumulus of 57 Vanth 132, 188, 192, 193, 253, 254, 257, 261, Vanth Group 192, 218, , , 242 Varnie 140 Vasanello 33 Vatican 238, Painter of (Kaineus Painter) 127 Vatican 265 Group 127 Veii 9, 12, 15, 21, 33, , 36, 38, 41, 42, 43, , 44, 46, 47, , 57, 58, , 60, 61, 63, 64, 122, 124, 129, 185, 211, 254 Vel Urinates, sarcophagus of 237 Velcha 14, 26, 190, 210 Velcha, Arnth 207 Velcha, Larth , 210, 211 Velcha, Larth, sarcophagus of 211 Velcha, Velthur , 210, Velia/Elea 205 Velia (lovely) 14, , , 207 Velthur 255 Velthur, Avle 209 Velthur Partunus, Sarcophagus of, Tarquinia 192 Velthur Spurinas 22, 207 Velzna see Orvieto Vercna 190, 211, 212 Vergina 11, 254, 285, , 290 Verres 247 Verucchio 41, 60 Vespasian 70 Vestarcnie 248, 257 Vetulonia 32, 41, 245, 246, 251 Vezza River (valley of the) 163, 218 Via degli Inferi, Tomb of the, Cerveteri Via San Leonardo, temple of 131 Villa Giulia 1755 Painter 241
Virgil 191, 209 Vitelleschi, Cardinal 21 Vitelleschi family 12 Vitelleschi Painter 47 Viterbo 33, 58, 131, 254, Vitruvius 10, 16, 63 Volsinii Novi see Bolsena Volsinii Veteres see Orvieto Volterra 9, 162, 185, 188, 189, 192, 210, 237, 240, 242, 245, 246, 251, 260, 278 Vulca 64 Vulci 9, 12, 15, 16, 21, 26, 33, 36, 37, 38, 41, 44, , 46, , 47, 58, 63, 64, 89, 124, 125, 126, , 132, 182, 183, 185, , 187, 189, 190, 191, 192, 195, , 205, 207, 212, , 237, 238, , , 241, 242, 245, 246, 248, 249, 250, 257, 259, 260, , 277, 279, , 281, 284, 285, 288 W Warrior, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 24, 37, 132, 140, 161, 162, 186, 193, , Wave Frieze, Tomb of the, Populonia 277, Weber-Lehmann, C. 12, 14, 71, 91, 133, 185, 239 Weege, F. 14 Well at Poggio Renzo, Tomb of the 122 Whipping, Tomb of the, Tarquinia , 21, 67, 71, 99, 100, , Wiel Marin, Federica 27 Woman with Diadem and Cymbals, and Man Riding Elephant, Tomb with, Tarquinia 262 Z Zannoni Stele 60 Zanoni, I. 70 Zeus 129, 183 Zeus Ammon 285 Zeus-Tinia 210 Zeuxis 133, 207 Zeuxis of Heraclea 10 Züst Collection 43
INDEX
327
Photographic Credits
Araldo De Luca Archives, Rome: 184, 231, 232–233, 236, 239 (top below) Photographic Archives of the Musei Capitolini, Rome: 44 Private archives: 280, 283, 284, 285, 289 (top and bottom), 290, 291, 292–293, 294 (top and bottom) Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Rome: 23, 24–25, 28, 53, 54–55, 58, 61, 67 (left and right), 68 (top and bottom), 69, 70 (left, center, right), 71 (right), 73, 74–75, 76–77, 78–79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 89 (left and right), 90, 91 (top and bottom), 92–93, 94, 95 (left and right), 96 (top and bottom), 98 (top and bottom), 100 (top), 101 (bottom), 102 (top), 103 (left and right), 121 (top right), 129, 131, 134, 135, 136–137 (bottom), 138 (bottom), 139 (bottom), 142 (bottom) 143 (top and bottom), 148, 149, 155, 156–157, 158 (top), 159 (bottom), 160, 161, 165, 170–171, 174, 176, 186 (top), 186 (bottom left and right), 188, 189, 193, 194, 195 (bottom), 197, 206, 207, 210 (bottom left and right), 211, 212, 222–223, 239 (top above), 244, 245, 247, 248–249, 250, 253, 254, 255 (top), 256, 257 (bottom), 258, 259, 260, 261, 265, 266–267, 272, 273, 276 Foundation for the “Claudio Faina” Museum, Orvieto: 127, 218 (bottom), 219 Ministry of Culture, Department of Archeology, Umbria: 214 Ministry of Culture, Department of Archeology, Latium: cover, 37 (top), 39, 45, 71 (bottom, center), 86–87, 88, 97, 100 (bottom), 101 (top), 102 (bottom), 105, 106–107, 112, 113, 114–115, 116, 118, 119, 128, 130, 132 (left top and bottom, right), 133, 136–137 (top), 138 (top), 139 (top), 140, 141 (top and bottom), 142 (top), 145, 146–147, 150–151, 152, 153 (top), 158 (bottom), 159 (top), 166, 167, 168–169, 175, 187 (top and bottom), 210 (top), 240, 241, 243, 246, 252, 257 (top), 262, 270–271, 274–275 Ministry of Culture, Department of Archeology, Florence: 52, 59, 60, 117, 119, 120, 121 (top left, bottom left, bottom right), 122 (left and right), 190, 215, 216–217, 218 (top), 227, 228–229, 230, 234, 235, 239 (bottom), 277 (left and right) Archeological Museum of Maremma, Grosseto: 30 Takashi Okamura: 17, 40, 50–51, 56, 99 (bottom), 108–109, 110–111, 154, 163, 172–173, 177, 178–179, 180, 181, 183 Stephan Steingräber: 8, 64 (left and right), 123, 195 (top), 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 208, 209, 221, 237 (top left), 238 (top left and right), 278 (left and right), 286, 287, 288, 295 (left and right), 296–297, 298–299, 300 (left and right), 301 © Leonard von Matt Archive: 251, 255 (bottom), 268–269 © Municipality of Milan, all rights reserved: 37 (bottom) © 1985 by Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, Tokyo. Reprinted by permission of the publisher: 13, 18–19, 34–35, 49, 99 (top), 213 (top and bottom), 224, 225, 226, 251, 255 (bottom), 268–269 © photo RMN-Herve Lewandowski: 62, 63, 65 © The Trustees of the British Museum: 125, 279
328
PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS
Stephan Steingräber
Abundance of Life
A A Stephan Steingräber is an archaeologist and a professor of Etruscology and Italic Antiquity at Roma Tre University. He has written or contributed to nearly ninety works in his field, including, most recently, Investing in the Afterlife: Royal and Aristocratic Tombs in Ancient Etruria, Southern Italy, Macedonia and Thrace, an exhibition catalogue for the University of Tokyo Museum, and Volterra; Etruskisches und mittelalterliches Juwel im Herzen der Toscana.
B R I F G P Domus Wall Painting in the Roman House Donatella Mazzoleni and Umberto Pappalardo pages color illustrations Etruscan Civilization A Cultural History Sybille Haynes pages color and b/w illustrations
Abundance of Life Etruscan Wall Painting
The striking paintings in these “underground museums” make it clear why the Etruscans have excited the imaginations of scholars and poets for centuries. The Etruscan elite and its love of luxury are on display in the earlier tombs, where beautifully dressed couples recline on couches at lavish banquets, waited on by handsome slaves and entertained by musicians, swirling dancers, and athletic games. The mood changes in the later tombs, where we see Hades and Persephone enthroned and demons escorting the dead on their long and perilous journey to the underworld. Steingräber traces this stylistic and iconographic evolution over the span of five hundred years, from the first half of the eighth century to the first half of the second century B.C., including an analysis of the most recent discoveries, such as the Tomba dei demoni azzurri (Tomb of the Blue Demons) at Tarquinia. He discusses what these paintings reveal about Etruscan daily life, religion, and funerary rites and compares them with works of art from southern Italy, Macedonia, and Asia Minor to discover how they fit into the more general picture of ancient painting.
Etruscan Wall Painting
The Etruscans Outside Etruria Edited by Giovannangelo Camporeale pages color illustrations
The frescoes in Etruscan tombs offer the earliest examples of ancient monumental painting known in the West before the Romans, and the only continuous cycle that allows us to follow the changing fashions and styles of the art of the Etruscans. In sheer quantity, only the paintings of Pompeii are comparable. And as at Pompeii, we can still see many of these paintings in situ in the house-shaped tombs of the rich elite when we visit the necropolises, or cities of the dead, at Tarquinia and other Etruscan cities, such as Cerveteri, Vulci, and Orvieto, northwest of Rome.
color illustrations
Getty Publications Getty Center Drive, Suite Los Angeles, California - www.getty.edu -: ---
On the back cover: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Augurs: detail of the left wall with escaping masked Phersu, ca. ..
Printed in Italy
Stephan Steingräber
On the front cover: Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back wall of the back chamber: detail of the seascape with boat, fishermen, and water birds, ca. ..
Stephan Steingräber
Abundance of Life
A A Stephan Steingräber is an archaeologist and a professor of Etruscology and Italic Antiquity at Roma Tre University. He has written or contributed to nearly ninety works in his field, including, most recently, Investing in the Afterlife: Royal and Aristocratic Tombs in Ancient Etruria, Southern Italy, Macedonia and Thrace, an exhibition catalogue for the University of Tokyo Museum, and Volterra; Etruskisches und mittelalterliches Juwel im Herzen der Toscana.
B R I F G P Domus Wall Painting in the Roman House Donatella Mazzoleni and Umberto Pappalardo pages color illustrations Etruscan Civilization A Cultural History Sybille Haynes pages color and b/w illustrations
Abundance of Life Etruscan Wall Painting
The striking paintings in these “underground museums” make it clear why the Etruscans have excited the imaginations of scholars and poets for centuries. The Etruscan elite and its love of luxury are on display in the earlier tombs, where beautifully dressed couples recline on couches at lavish banquets, waited on by handsome slaves and entertained by musicians, swirling dancers, and athletic games. The mood changes in the later tombs, where we see Hades and Persephone enthroned and demons escorting the dead on their long and perilous journey to the underworld. Steingräber traces this stylistic and iconographic evolution over the span of five hundred years, from the first half of the eighth century to the first half of the second century B.C., including an analysis of the most recent discoveries, such as the Tomba dei demoni azzurri (Tomb of the Blue Demons) at Tarquinia. He discusses what these paintings reveal about Etruscan daily life, religion, and funerary rites and compares them with works of art from southern Italy, Macedonia, and Asia Minor to discover how they fit into the more general picture of ancient painting.
Etruscan Wall Painting
The Etruscans Outside Etruria Edited by Giovannangelo Camporeale pages color illustrations
The frescoes in Etruscan tombs offer the earliest examples of ancient monumental painting known in the West before the Romans, and the only continuous cycle that allows us to follow the changing fashions and styles of the art of the Etruscans. In sheer quantity, only the paintings of Pompeii are comparable. And as at Pompeii, we can still see many of these paintings in situ in the house-shaped tombs of the rich elite when we visit the necropolises, or cities of the dead, at Tarquinia and other Etruscan cities, such as Cerveteri, Vulci, and Orvieto, northwest of Rome.
color illustrations
Getty Publications Getty Center Drive, Suite Los Angeles, California - www.getty.edu -: ---
On the back cover: Tarquinia, Tomb of the Augurs: detail of the left wall with escaping masked Phersu, ca. ..
Printed in Italy
Stephan Steingräber
On the front cover: Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, back wall of the back chamber: detail of the seascape with boat, fishermen, and water birds, ca. ..