Etruscan art

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The Etruscan Chimera of Arezzo

As Etruscan art that influenced by the Orient and especially of Greece, but quite independent art will Etruscan core area between Arno and Tiber and beyond referred. The typical characteristics of artistic expression are from the 8th century BC. BC, but because of the lack of national cohesion with clear regional differences. From a cultural-historical point of view, Etruscan art is seen as a provincial modification of Greek art, but it is given considerable artistic potential. It should not be forgotten that the Etruscans provided the Romans with the technical prerequisites for urbanization , together with the first larger cult buildings and their artistic design, including cult images and roof terracottas.

Cultural epochs

The artistic legacy of the Etruscans has only been systematically researched since the late 18th century. In the past, attempts were made to relate the products to Greek models. Meanwhile, the emphasis is on understanding the Etruscan culture, whose folk art loves lush ornamentation and is ignorant of the haunting rhetoric of the formal, solemn art of the Greeks.

The beginning of Etruscan art is in the period between the 10th century BC. And the time around 700 BC BC, with the ongoing Villanova culture being replaced by the orientalizing phase of Etruscan art. In the 1st century BC In BC Etruscan art finally flows into Roman art without any break . The following epochs of the Etruscan culture are distinguished:

  • Villanova Period (9th to 8th centuries BC) - The first evidence of Etruscan and Italian civilization comes from the early Iron Age . The geographic boundary is the course of the Tiber . The name Villnova goes back to the city of the same name near Bologna , where burial remains in characteristic “biconical” containers were found in well graves in 1853. They had notched and incised geometric decorations, which are considered characteristic of this cultural phase.
  • Orientalizing period (7th century to approx. 550 BC) - During this time, well-developed coastal cities testify to the extensive economic and cultural relations with the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean . Local art was primarily influenced by ancient oriental models.
  • Archaic Period (550 to 350 BC) - From the 6th century BC BC Greek art became the model for Etruscan.
  • Hellenistic period (3rd to 1st century BC) - Hellenism reached its full bloom, with the artistic impulses now emanating from Greek Lower Italy .

Tombs

Tumulus in the Banditaccia necropolis, Cerveteri

Most of the finds come from the Etruscan necropolises ( Cerveteri , Tarquinia , Populonia , Orvieto , Vetulonia , Norchia ). The execution of these tombs gives a picture of Etruscan architecture, while the furnishings and grave goods provide insights into Etruscan painting and sculpture as well as the everyday life of distinguished citizens.

In the 7th century BC So -called chamber tombs in southern Etruria (e.g. the Tomba Regolini-Galassi from the middle of the 7th century in Cerveteri) and dome tombs with a round or square base and false vaults in northern Etruria (tomb of Casal Marittimo) arose from the older fossa graves . Such a tumulus grave was carved out of the standing tuff of a small hill in Cerveteri, then covered with earth and planted. In other places there are tombs of Tholos, with burial chambers made of stone and brick.

In the 6th century the chamber grave with one or more rooms became predominant; it was the time of the great aristocratic families. In the place of these open-air structures (Cerveteri, Vulci, Vetulonia), rock tombs with architectural facades (Norchia, San Giuliano, Orvieto) have recently been created according to the same or similar scheme. The burial chambers are often decorated with rich paintings, furnishings and death beds carved out of the rock, as well as sarcophagi, urns, jewelry, weapons and implements as grave goods.

Wall painting and cabaret

Wall painting, Tomba dei Leopardi, Tarquinia
Etruscan horsemen, 540-520 BC BC, Castel San Marino
Red-figure vase; Stamnos , around 360/40 BC Chr.

The formation of Etruscan wall painting , whose heyday was between 530 and 460 BC. Is in close connection with the architecture. All of the pictures that have been preserved are frescoes that are attached to the walls of the burial chambers and that have a decorative effect. The archaic-Etruscan representations show scenes from daily life exuding joie de vivre, with great color and - typically Etruscan - including elements from nature. In contrast, the scenes of the late Etruscan tombs appear serious and joyless. In the more and more frequent processions of the dead, naming the deceased and the participants in the procession becomes the subject of a historical document.

With regard to small art, entire branches of art - metal art, ceramics, glyptics (mostly scarabs based on Egyptian models) and ivory carving - have been regionally limited: silhouette granulation in vetulonia, stair stones and urn reliefs in clusium (Chiusi). Goldsmithing reached a remarkable level in Caere as early as the 7th century. Together with the many decorative elements based on oriental patterns, the multitude of metalworking techniques used is astonishing. The Etruscan granulations are world famous .

Products of Etruscan handicrafts were in demand in the Mediterranean region in the 6th and 5th centuries (especially the metal mirrors with figural incised decorations), but their quality deteriorated in the 4th century. The jewelry shows a Greek influence and the engraved images show Greek myths mixed with Etruscan ideas. The Ficoronische Ciste is hardly inferior to the best pieces of Greek art in its perfect delicacy of execution.

Gained great importance in the period from the 7th to the 4th century BC. The pottery, which focused on Falerii (Civita Castellana), Volaterrae (Volterra), Vulci and Perusia (Perueis). The Etruscan vase painting was very much based on the Greek . Even the distinctively independent black Bucchero goods, clear imitations of chased and embossed metal vessels, used other models for their design and decors. The own production of pottery could not satisfy the quantitative and qualitative needs. The finer earthenware was obtained from Greece, since the 5th century BC. From Athens. Most of the countless painted Greek vases that have survived come from Etruscan tombs. But the mass imports did not result in an upswing in local ceramics, only red-figure painting experienced a second bloom when in the 5th century BC. BC trade with Athens fell drastically and the focus of vase painting shifted to Greek lower Italy.

temple

In addition to the tombs, other architectural remains were found only rarely, mostly only the foundations of larger complexes, mainly Etruscan temples , which have been systematically excavated for around 140 years. Only recently have remains of secular architecture ( Murlo near Siena, Acquarossa near Viterbo, Talamone ) been scientifically excavated and evaluated.

The earliest temples of the 6th century BC. Chr. Consisted of a single cult room, the roof of which was supported in the middle by two pillars ( Veji - Piazza d'Armi). Only since the late 6th century BC The Tuscan temples prevailed (Veji - Portonaccio sanctuary, Orvieto - Belvedere temple , Pyrgi - temple A).

The idea of ​​the temple itself, as well as the design with a pillared hall, rectangular or square, cella , mud brick walls, tile roofing and cladding of the roof with colored terracottas probably originated in Greece . Since the 4th century BC However, independent Italic- Etruscan architectural forms developed, which later also became decisive for Roman architecture . The temple, the center of the monumental architecture, consisted of a cella, columns and entablature like the Greek one. However, it was clearly directional and thus fundamentally different from the directionless Greek construction with a ring hall and multi-level surrounding substructure. Access was only possible from a narrow side, on which a wide flight of stairs led to a podium with a pillared vestibule ( pronaos ); there were one or three cells on the back half of the dais.

plastic

The famous Cerveteri Marriage Sarcophagus from the Louvre ; End of the 6th century BC Chr.

Etruscan sculpture was mainly used to decorate temples and tombs. It appears for the first time in the 8th century on ash urns whose lids were designed as human heads and which occasionally show arms and nipples on the urn body. In contrast to the marble of the Greeks, clay sculpture dominated since the 6th century, because terracotta is better suited to reproducing fleeting movements than bronze and stone. Etruscan sculpture saw itself primarily as a means of expression for human emotions, not as the formation of aesthetic ideals. The reclining figures of the deceased on the cover plates of the sarcophagi, which are regarded as pioneers of Roman portrait art, have a special place in the development of Etruscan sculpture. One of the most important testimonies is the Apollo of Veji .

Etruscan economy was based above all on metal processing, which is expressed in the large number of cast bronze statuettes that have survived, but which were almost completely melted down. The outstanding large-scale sculptures that still exist include the Arezzo Chimera (2nd half of the 5th century or early 4th century) and the Mars of Todi (late 5th century or early 4th century). The portrait heads, which were created under the influence of archaic Greek marble heads (e.g. the portrait head of a youth, 3rd century BC) are also important. The many statuettes made of bronze and clay and the human lids of urns and sarcophagi from the 2nd and 1st centuries are of much less artistic value. Exceptions are the painted terracotta sarcophagi of Larthia Seianti and Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa , which are among the last genuinely Etruscan art creations . The life-size statue of Aule Meteli (around 100 BC), known as the Arringatore of Florence, can no longer be assigned ethnically, as it comes from a time when Etruscan art, under the common cloak of Hellenism, was submerged in Roman art.

Museums of Etruscan art objects

Here are some Italian museums with an emphasis on Etruscan art objects. The most important are those in Florence and Rome.

  • Arezzo - Museo Archeologico Mecenate : urns, ceramics, bronzes and statues
  • Cerveteri - Museo Nazionale : vessels, sarcophagi, terracottas, grave goods.
  • Chiusi - Museo Nazionale Etrusco : ceramics, cinder urns, sarcophagi and bronzes.
  • Cortona - Museo dell'Accade : goldsmithing, ceramics, bronzes
  • Florence - Museo Archeologico Centrale dell'Etruria : finds from Tuscany originally kept in the Uffizi: sculptures, bronzes, ceramics, goldsmiths, coins, reconstructed Etruscan monuments
  • Grosseto - Museo Archeologico : funerary objects, urns, statues, bronzes, coins
  • Orvieto - Museo Faina : finds from the necropolis of Orvieto, vases.
  • Orvieto - Museo dell'Opera del Duomo : funerary objects
  • Perugia - Museo Archeologico Nazionale dell'Umbria : urns, bronze sheets, grave goods
  • Populonia - Museo Gasparri : vases, sarcophagus fragments, burial equipment
  • Rome - Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia : sculptures, ceramics, bronzes, goldsmiths, grave decorations
  • Rome, Vatican City - Museo Gregoriano Etrusco : sculptures, ceramics, bronzes, goldsmiths, grave goods
  • Siena - Museo Archeologico Nazionale : urns, sarcophagi, sculptures, ceramics
  • Tarquinia - Museo Nazionale Etrusco : sarcophagi, detached frescoes, vases, bas-reliefs, grave goods
  • Volterra - Museo Etrusco Guarnacci : Cinder urns, sculptures and goldsmiths, coin collections

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedhelm Prayon: The Etruscans. History, religion, art , p. 84 u. 112.
  2. ↑ a b Lucio Passerine: In the footsteps of the Etruscans through Italy , p. 19.
  3. ↑ Lucio Passerine: In the footsteps of the Etruscans through Italy , p. 26.
  4. ^ Salvatore Settis (ed.): The land of the Etruscans. From prehistory to the early Middle Ages , p. 94.

Web links

Commons : Etruscan art  - collection of images, videos and audio files