Art History: Etruscan
Early Etruscan culture (Villanovan) appeared in Italy during the 10th century BCE. Settled between Florence and Rome, had strong cultural ties with the Near East and Asia Minor. Etruscans were sailors and merchants, contact with the Near East and Greece was inevitable.
Periods of art (orientalizing, archaic, classical) coincide with Greek, as the two culture's styles were closely related. Like the Greeks, they never formed a unified nation. Remained a loose federation of individual city-states, united by a common language and religion - prone to conflict and slow to unite against common enemies. Eventually absorbed into Roman culture around 300 BCE.
Bulk of Etruscan information comes from tombs, furnished with sculptures and paintings. Started as simple tombs, they eventually evolved into monumental family-group tombs. Mounds with Corbeled tunnels leading into chambers - sometimes several individual chambers leading into a single mound.
Necropoli were constructed, clusters of tombs near the living centers. It is theorized that the mounds represented contemporary living quarters, and in the TOMB OF RELIEFS, stucco reliefs of everyday objects furnish the chambers for the dead. Replicas of tools, weapons, armor, domestic animals adorn the walls - reminiscent of Egypt, but markedly different.
Funerary urns eventually took on human characteristics. As with the CINERARY URN, the lid became a head, perhaps representing the deceased with body marking appearing on the vessel itself. Hair and jewelry may have been attached in the holes dotting its surface. Some such urns have been found on throne-like structures in the tombs, possibly indicating a higher status of the deceased.
By the time we reach the Greek Achaic (rigid) period, we find this sarcophagus made of terra cotta in the shape of a couch with two reclining figures. They once each held objects, perhaps a cup or an egg (symbol of eternity). Despite archaic rigidity, the sarcophagus is modeled in the round, and captures a life-like quality of the deceased. It was once painted in bright lively colors.
Like the Greek shift from optimistic to somber, Etruscan art also follows this trend in funerary art. Compare the sarcophagus to the cinerary container of the YOUTH AND FEMALE DEMON. The woman is not the young mans wife, she has wings, identifying her as a demon of the underworld. Scroll in her left hand may record his fate.
They are balanced, but the shift to melancholy is evident, as the deceased is isolated, facing death alone. Etruscans still continued to bury families together in mounds, however.
ARCHITECTURE: PORTA MARZIA
According to roman writers, the Etruscans were masters of architecture, engineering, city planning, and surveying. The Romans borrowed their drainage and aqueduct methods, evidencing their prowess in these fields. Built predominantly with wood or mud-brick, these Etruscan versions typically did not survive.
Etruscan cities generally sat on hilltops, close to navigable rivers or seas. They often built large defensive walls. The best known surviving example of such a wall (and civic gate) exist in PORTA MARZIA. The upper portion of the wall is encased in a later addition to the wall.
Early example of a VOUSSOIR arch, engineering marvel. Engaged pilasters and relief sculpture is visual proof of association with Mediterranean cultures (Tinia and sons, Etruscan version of Zeus).
CITY PLANNING
Hilltops did not lend themselves to grid planning, but did have an ordered method in street layout. Centered on an intersection of two main streets: North and South: cardo; East and West: decumanus. Romans also adopted this strategy for colonies and military camps - the system worked. Large villas or "palaces" may be the forerunner of roman atrium houses with a courtyard in the middle.
Little evidence survives, stone base and mud walls.
SCULPTURE
Etruscans had little access to marble. Most sculpture was of terra cotta, often brightly painted. APOLLO has obvious parallels to Greek archaic Kore and Kouros. Most of these types of statues stood on the ridge of a roof above a temple - forming narrative scenes.
Etruscans also had extraordinary skill in bronze. One of the most renowned work of Etruscan art is the SHE-WOLF. Tensed for attack, stylized muscles, patterned hair. Original subject matter is lost, but Romans valued it when their legend of Romulus and Remus came about - the two suckling babes were added in the 15th C.
Portraiture develops about the same time as Greeks take interest. Rough eyebrows, smooth skin, rendered hair. Exploring the full range of surfaces needed to portray a figure in PORTRAIT OF A BOY.
L'Arringatore (the Orator),life size bronze. Aule Meteli is the name of the figure it represents. The workmanship is clearly etruscan, but the high boots denote that he is a roman, however. The raised arm is common on hundreds of roman statues, a gesture of address or salute.
Backs of mirrors were also used as a chance to engrave scenes depicting Etruscan versions of Greek myths. Character from the Iliad, but this is as far as the borrowing goes, they convert him to an Etruscan: he is gazing at the liver of a sacrificial animal searching for omens or portents. Auger.
Early Etruscan culture (Villanovan) appeared in Italy during the 10th century BCE. Settled between Florence and Rome, had strong cultural ties with the Near East and Asia Minor. Etruscans were sailors and merchants, contact with the Near East and Greece was inevitable.
Periods of art (orientalizing, archaic, classical) coincide with Greek, as the two culture's styles were closely related. Like the Greeks, they never formed a unified nation. Remained a loose federation of individual city-states, united by a common language and religion - prone to conflict and slow to unite against common enemies. Eventually absorbed into Roman culture around 300 BCE.
Bulk of Etruscan information comes from tombs, furnished with sculptures and paintings. Started as simple tombs, they eventually evolved into monumental family-group tombs. Mounds with Corbeled tunnels leading into chambers - sometimes several individual chambers leading into a single mound.
Necropoli were constructed, clusters of tombs near the living centers. It is theorized that the mounds represented contemporary living quarters, and in the TOMB OF RELIEFS, stucco reliefs of everyday objects furnish the chambers for the dead. Replicas of tools, weapons, armor, domestic animals adorn the walls - reminiscent of Egypt, but markedly different.
Funerary urns eventually took on human characteristics. As with the CINERARY URN, the lid became a head, perhaps representing the deceased with body marking appearing on the vessel itself. Hair and jewelry may have been attached in the holes dotting its surface. Some such urns have been found on throne-like structures in the tombs, possibly indicating a higher status of the deceased.
By the time we reach the Greek Achaic (rigid) period, we find this sarcophagus made of terra cotta in the shape of a couch with two reclining figures. They once each held objects, perhaps a cup or an egg (symbol of eternity). Despite archaic rigidity, the sarcophagus is modeled in the round, and captures a life-like quality of the deceased. It was once painted in bright lively colors.
Like the Greek shift from optimistic to somber, Etruscan art also follows this trend in funerary art. Compare the sarcophagus to the cinerary container of the YOUTH AND FEMALE DEMON. The woman is not the young mans wife, she has wings, identifying her as a demon of the underworld. Scroll in her left hand may record his fate.
They are balanced, but the shift to melancholy is evident, as the deceased is isolated, facing death alone. Etruscans still continued to bury families together in mounds, however.
ARCHITECTURE: PORTA MARZIA
According to roman writers, the Etruscans were masters of architecture, engineering, city planning, and surveying. The Romans borrowed their drainage and aqueduct methods, evidencing their prowess in these fields. Built predominantly with wood or mud-brick, these Etruscan versions typically did not survive.
Etruscan cities generally sat on hilltops, close to navigable rivers or seas. They often built large defensive walls. The best known surviving example of such a wall (and civic gate) exist in PORTA MARZIA. The upper portion of the wall is encased in a later addition to the wall.
Early example of a VOUSSOIR arch, engineering marvel. Engaged pilasters and relief sculpture is visual proof of association with Mediterranean cultures (Tinia and sons, Etruscan version of Zeus).
CITY PLANNING
Hilltops did not lend themselves to grid planning, but did have an ordered method in street layout. Centered on an intersection of two main streets: North and South: cardo; East and West: decumanus. Romans also adopted this strategy for colonies and military camps - the system worked. Large villas or "palaces" may be the forerunner of roman atrium houses with a courtyard in the middle.
Little evidence survives, stone base and mud walls.
SCULPTURE
Etruscans had little access to marble. Most sculpture was of terra cotta, often brightly painted. APOLLO has obvious parallels to Greek archaic Kore and Kouros. Most of these types of statues stood on the ridge of a roof above a temple - forming narrative scenes.
Etruscans also had extraordinary skill in bronze. One of the most renowned work of Etruscan art is the SHE-WOLF. Tensed for attack, stylized muscles, patterned hair. Original subject matter is lost, but Romans valued it when their legend of Romulus and Remus came about - the two suckling babes were added in the 15th C.
Portraiture develops about the same time as Greeks take interest. Rough eyebrows, smooth skin, rendered hair. Exploring the full range of surfaces needed to portray a figure in PORTRAIT OF A BOY.
L'Arringatore (the Orator),life size bronze. Aule Meteli is the name of the figure it represents. The workmanship is clearly etruscan, but the high boots denote that he is a roman, however. The raised arm is common on hundreds of roman statues, a gesture of address or salute.
Backs of mirrors were also used as a chance to engrave scenes depicting Etruscan versions of Greek myths. Character from the Iliad, but this is as far as the borrowing goes, they convert him to an Etruscan: he is gazing at the liver of a sacrificial animal searching for omens or portents. Auger.