Etruscan scarab with Tydeus
The Etruscan scarab with tydeus is a cameo cut from carnelian that was made in the first quarter of the 5th century BC. Was manufactured. The scarab comes from the collection of the archaeologist Philipp von Stosch and is now in the antiquities collection of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin . The gemstone is one of the most important works of art in Etruscan glyptics .
description
The piece of jewelery is made of carnelian, a mostly opaque orange variety of chalcedony . The gem is oval in shape and is 1.4 cm long and 1.1 cm wide. Its thickness is 0.2 cm. The image field is surrounded by a decorative border. A naked man is depicted cleaning his calf with a strigilis . A strigilis was an instrument common in antiquity , with which one scraped oil, sweat and dust from one's body after sporting exercises or visiting a sweat bath . It consisted of a handle and a curved front made of bronze or iron. The face, hair and muscles of the figure are worked out in great detail.
The figure is not cut deeply into the stone like a gem , rather the background of the motif was cut away so that the figure protrudes from the stone like a relief . Gemstones made in this way are known as cameos . Since gems are also used as a generic term for all cut gemstones and gemstones, gemstones like these can also be referred to as gems. Such gems were also used as sealing stones in ancient times . They often had the shape of beetle-shaped ring stones, which is why they are also known as scarabs . Scarabs of this species have been around since the late 6th century BC. Made from carnelian by Etruscan stone cutters and often decorated with images from the Greek myth . This type of signet ring , which is widespread in Etruria, seems to have been a genuinely Etruscan achievement that later found widespread use throughout central Italy.
In the 18th century, the top of the stone with the beetle was separated from the bottom with the Tydeus seal.
inscription
The inscription shows that the heros Tydeus is depicted on the scarab , who is one of the heroes from the legend of the seven against Thebes . The inscription reads TUTE and gives the Etruscan name of Tydeus. If you press the seal into a soft material such as clay , an imprint is created on which the inscription can be read from right to left with mirror-inverted letters, in accordance with Etruscan writing habits .
In Greek mythology, Tydeus is the son of Oineus and the father of Diomedes . His sister was Deïaneira , the consort of Heracles , who was venerated as HERKLE by the Etruscans. Because of a murder committed by Tydeus, he was driven from the country by his father. On his flight he came to Argos to King Adrastus , who took him in. Tydeus was also involved in the campaign against Thebes . He challenged various Thebans to fight, defeated and killed them. He was badly wounded in the fight against Melanippos . As he slurped the brain from the skull of his dead opponent, Athena , who actually wanted to save him , turned away from him in disgust and let him die.
background
The Etruscans adopted Greek myths and their representations in the visual arts . Thematically in the first place are the Trojan and Theban sagas , followed by the deeds of Heracles . But unknown combat depictions and individual warriors also belong to the sphere of myth. Some motifs are repeated and some pieces even resemble each other like replicas . There are also exact repetitions, so that they can be described as duplicates.
The Etruscan stone cutters took over the Greek motifs from parts of very different works, but designed the small picture fields independently. Greek paintings and statues probably served as models. The Tydeus is determined by a complicated, taut movement, so that its design should be based on the knowledge of Myron's Discobolos . Perhaps the Etruscan artists also used pattern books.
At first, vertically standing, stiff-looking figures dominate in side or frontal view with the head in profile . Gradually the posture adapts to the oval of the field of view as in Tydeus, whose posture is also cleverly justified thematically. Explanatory inscriptions appear on the scarabs, as we know it from the Greek vases. Occasionally they mention genuinely Etruscan, but mostly Etruscan Greek names of gods and heroes.
Provenance
The scarab was created between 500 and 475 BC. And came into the possession of a Florentine art dealer in the middle of the 18th century. He sold the gemstone around 1750 to Baron Philipp von Stosch (1691–1757), who was living in Italy at the time. Von Stosch was one of the most important antique collectors of the 18th century and by the middle of the century had put together the largest collection of gems of his time. There was another valuable scarab in his collection, the so-called Stosch stone . After the Baron's death in 1757, his adopted nephew Heinrich Wilhelm Muzel inherited the collection and sold it in full to King Friedrich II in 1764. The collection later became one of the foundations of the Berlin Collection of Antiquities . The scarab is now in the Altes Museum on Berlin's Museum Island .
reception
In the middle of the 18th century, Philipp von Stosch planned the publication of his collection of gems and wanted to win over the art writer and antiquarian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) to publish it. After his death, his heir Heinrich Wilhelm Muzel implemented the project. Between 1758 and 1759 Winckelmann scientifically evaluated the collection of antiques and published his results in Florence in 1760 under the title Description des pierres gravées de feu Baron de Stosch .
In this gem catalog Winckelmann provided the first apt descriptions of Etruscan works of art . Under catalog number 174 Winckelmann went into detail about the Etruscan scarab with Tydeus and recognized it as an important work of art from the early Etruscan period, which could hardly be surpassed in beauty. In his descriptions of the Etruscan gems one finds first considerations of the Etruscan style of the figures, the proportion and composition.
In the depiction of Tydeus, Winckelmann criticized the hard transitions between the individual body parts and felt the delimitation of the individual body shapes as rough. But he also came to the modern realization that the archaic stone cutters had great care and finesse and had already perfected their artistic technique. Therefore, contrary to the prevailing view at the time, he shifted the flowering of Etruscan art to the 6th and early 5th centuries BC. Chr.
In his late work Monumenti antichi inediti from 1767, Winckelmann again dealt extensively with Etruscan art and once again mentions the two scarabs, whose craftsmanship was again emphasized. This work also shows a copper engraving by Johann Adam Schweickart (1722–1787), which reflects the outstanding importance of this gem. Today the scarab, together with the Stosch stone, is one of the masterpieces of the strict Etruscan style.
literature
- Peter Zazoff : The ancient gems. CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 9783406088964 , pp. 223-227, 251-252.
- Max Kunze : Style and Utopia of History. Winckelmann's discovery of the Etruscan. In: Scientific journal of the Humboldt University in Berlin. Vol. 40, 1991, No. 6, pp. 69-73. ( online )
- Erika Zwierlein-Diehl : Antique gems and their afterlife. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2007, ISBN 9783110194500 , pp. 85–86.
- Ulf R. Hansson: Stosch, Winckelmann, and the Allure of the Engraved Gems of the Ancients. In: MDCCC 1800. Vol. 3, 2014, pp. 13-33. ( online )
Web links
- Etruscan scarab with Tydeus on the website of the German Digital Library
- Winckelmann, Firenze e gli Etruschi. Il padre dell'archeologia in Toscana. Parte Prima on the Letteratura artistica page
- Winckelmann, Firenze e gli Etruschi. Il padre dell'archeologia in Toscana. Part Seconda on the Letteratura artistica page
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Joachim Winckelmann: Description of the pierres gravées de feu Monsieur le baron de Stosch. Florence 1760, p. 348. ( online )
- ^ Johann Joachim Winckelmann: Monumenti antichi inediti. Volume 1, Rome 1767, p. 28 ff. ( Online )
- ^ Johann Joachim Winckelmann: Monumenti antichi inediti. Volume 1, Rome 1767, p. 234. ( online )