1. ETRUSCAN ART
Chapter 6, part I

2. When?
10th century BCE to 270 BCE
Height: 7th – 6th centuries BCE

3. ETRUSCAN KEY IDEAS:
•We learned about Etruscan civilizations by
studying their elaborate NECROPOLI filled
with tombs that resemble large rooms in a
home.
•Etruscan sculptures and temples are heavily
influenced by Archaic Greek works
•Etruscans were experts at sculpting with
bronze and terra-cotta clay

4. Who were the Etruscans?
•Etruscans lived in Italy before Romans arrived
•Existed in the bronze age- same as archaic period in
Greece
•Language and customs different than Romans (used
Greek alphabet)
•Never formed a unified nation- city states eventually
fell to the Romans in the 4th and 5th centureis BCE.

5. First let’s look at their architecture…

6. Characteristics of Etruscan Architecture:
•Their tombs were tightly packed in NECROPOLI throughout
Tuscany (in Italy)- named after the Etruscans
•Most tombs- round with door leading to large interior chamber
•Interior chamber is brightly painted to reflect interior of a house
•Tombs have symbols of Etruscan lifestyle on walls
•Entire families (w/ servants) are buried in one tomb
•Architect Vitruvius wrote about their temples a lot
•Inspired by Greeks- pediments, columns, cella
•Etruscan buildings made of wood and terra-cotta, not stone
•Single flight of stairs leading to main entrance (not steps
surrounding whole building)
•Sculptures put on rooftops to announce presence of deity
within.

7. Model of an Etruscan Temple

8. Reconstruction of Etruscan Temple
•No ruins because they were built of wood, unlike non-religious architecture
•Design is similar to Greek temples- tall base (podium), deep porch, cella was
subdivided into 3 parts- religion based on a triad of gods
•No assigned space for sculptures

9. •Written descriptions
by Vitruvius help us
imagine it
•Temples made of
mud-brick and wood
•Steps in front bring
your attention to deep
porch
•Columns and capitals- Greek influence
•Columns are unfluted- TUSCAN ORDER
•Whole structure is raised on a PODIUM
•Three doors represent three gods
•We don’t know much about their religious
beliefs
Apollo from Veii
(figure stood on
top of a temple)
More about him
later!

10. Tuscan Order

11. Embellished with painting and terra-cotta sculpture
Large statue groups on
roof, not pediment

12. Etruscan
Greek
Differences?

13. Etruscan- divided into three
rooms- housed cult statues
Greek

14. Cerveteri , 7th to
6th century BCE
•Tombs = homes for the dead
•Didn’t preserve body (cremation instead)
•Cemetery of La Banditaccia at Cerveteri- laid out like a town with
“streets” running between grave mounds
•Covered with dirt and stones

15. TUMULUS: artificial mound of earth and stones placed over grave

17. Remind you of anything?

18. Philip Johnson
Painting Gallery (1965)
Influences?

19. Philip Johnson
Glass House in New
Canaan, CT

20. Burial Chamber, Tomb of the Reliefs, in Cerveteri 3rd Century BCE

21. • Walls plastered and painted, fully furnished
• Couches carved out of stone
• Other furnishings made of STUCCO (a slow-drying type of
plaster that can be molded and carved easily.
Family dog in
low relief

22. Tomb of the Seats and Shields, 7th – 6th centuries BCE

23. •Underground rock-cut
tombs reflect domestic
architecture
•Ceiling cut with pretend
rafters
•Large armchairs frame
doorway
•Windows, furniture,
objects- all cut out of
rock
•Stone objects are eternal
in the afterlife
•Large circular shields
hang from walls

24. Port Augusta, 3rd Century BCE
•Masters of architectural
engineering (according to
Romans)
•Very ordered urban planning-
streets were centered along 2
main thoroughfares to form
quarters
•Intersection of 2 main streets
= business center
•Port Augusta was a fortified
city gate and a façade- semi-
circular true arches-first use
of the integrated arch-
combining with architectural
orders which highly
influenced the Romans
Tunnel-like passageway between two huge
towers
Semi-circular barrel vault over passageway

26. •Construction of wedge-shaped blocks called voussoirs, each pointing to
the center
•Round arch discovered by the Egyptians, but used mainly underground
and never in temples
•Used in Mesopotamia for city gates
•Greeks confined its use to underground structures and gateways
•Etruscans and Romans were the first to make widespread use of arches
and vaults

28. Now let’s learn about Etruscan painting…

29. • Surviving Etruscan painting is funerary
• Done on walls and ceilings of tombs
• About 280 chambers still exist
• Brightly painted frescoes
• Cheerful celebrating, dancing, eating,
playing music
• Hard to draw parallels to Greek because
not much Greek painting from this time
period exists

30. Tomb of the Leopards, 480-470 BCE

31. details

32. • Banquet couples recline, eating in ancient manner
• Men darker than women
• Trees between figures, bushes grow beneath couches (rural setting?)
• Maybe a funeral banquet, but emotions are of celebration!
• Ceiling with
checkerboard
pattern
• Circles may
symbolize time

33. • Dancing figures play musical instruments
• Festive celebration of the dead

35. Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, 520 BC
•Elaborate murals in the
burial chambers,
perhaps to keep the
spirit happy
•Rhythmic quality
similar to Minoan, but
not weightless
•Could be influenced by
Egyptian tomb
paintings, but its more
lifelike

37. Diver tomb at Paestum (c. 475 BCE)

39. Musicians and two Dancers, 480 -470 BC
Full of energy, females differ from males in color, just like Egypt

40. Remind you of anything?

41. And now it’s time for some Etruscan sculpture!

42. Characteristics of Etruscan SCULPTURE:
• Terra-cotta, stucco, and bronze (sometimes stone)
• Terra-cotta was modeled rather than carved
• Fired large works in kilns
• Shows some awareness of Greek Archaic art – but some
differences:
GREEK sculpture:
• Kouros are stoic and proud
• Occasional light smile
• Broad shoulders of men
• Stylized hair
• Nudity
ETRUSCAN sculpture:
• Figures move dynamically in
space
• Figures aware of the world
around them
• Broad shoulders, stylized hair
• Avoided nudity

44.  What is this object?
 Where was it found?
 When was it made?
 What does it signify about the
culture that made it?

50. • Sarcophagus of married couple- ashes inside
• Full-length portraits. Can you see the influence of ancient Greece?
• Both held objects in hands- egg maybe? (to symbolize life after
death?)
• Concentration on upper body (legs got little attention when sculpted)
• Bodies make unrealistic L-turn to the legs
• Tradition of reclining while eating- banquet couch
• Man has protective gesture around woman
• Woman is feeding the man (symbiosis)
• Reflects high standing of women in
society (relative equality)
• Broad shoulders
• Little anatomical modeling
• Emaciated hands
• Made in separate pieces
and joined together
Sarhacopgus from Cerveteri

51. Apollo from Veii, c. 510 BCE, terra-cotta, 5’ 10”
•Veii had sculptures lining the ridge of
the roof (including this one)
•One of four large figures that once
stood on the temple
•Stood on roof = meant to be seen from
below
•Muscular, details, in motion- more
expressive than archaic Greek
sculptures of the time
•Has spirit, moves forward quickly
•Archaic smile
•Made of terra cotta

52. c. 510 BCE
In Italy
c. 530 BCE in Greece

54. c. 490 BCE, Greece

55. • Alert, snarling,
protective, aware,
tense, watchful, fierce
• Very thin body (bones)
• No mane or curly hair
• Face isn’t wolf-like
• Story of Romulus and
Remus suckled by the
She-Wolf – later
became founders of
Rome
• Children added later in
the Renaissance
• Scholars think this might be a Medieval copy of an Etruscan original

57. In 2006 the Italian art historian
Anna Maria Carruba and the
Etruscologist Adriano La Regina
contested the traditional dating of
the wolf on the basis of an analysis
of the casting technique. Carruba
had been given the task of restoring
the sculpture in 1997, enabling her
to examine how it had been made.
She observed that the statue had
been cast in a single piece using a
variation of the lost-wax casting
technique that was not used in
ancient times; ancient Greek and
Roman bronzes were typically
constructed from multiple pieces, a
method that facilitated high quality
castings with less risk than would
be involved in casting the entire
sculpture at once. Single-piece
casting was, however, widely used
in medieval times to mould bronze
items that needed a high level of
rigidity, such as bells and cannon.

58. Romulus and Remus - 16th century addition

59. Chimera of Arezzo, 400-350 BCE, bronze

61. Chimera of Arezzo,
400-350 BCE, bronze
• Composite: lion head and body, goat’s neck springing from spine,
snake for a tail
• Angry, snarling, wounded, posed for attack (look out!)
• Richly articulated anatomy- spikelike mane, hurt defensive
posture

62. Engraved mirror back, c.400 BC
•Became master craftsmen in
metal
•Produced small mirrors and
statues for domestic use and
export
•Probably inspired by Greeks
but not Greek subject- winged
person looking at a liver of a
sacrificial animal
•Etruscans strongly believed in
omens- will of the gods
manifest itself through natural
occurences (thunderstorms,
flights of birds)
•Priests who could interpret
omens were revered
•Priests “read” the liver of
sacrificed animals to make
predictions

63. Portrait of a Boy, 3rd century BC
•Portraiture showed up only
after the influence of the
Greeks
•Worked in Bronze- sensitive
and gentle expression

64. ETRUSCAN VOCABULARY:
• NECROPOLIS: “city of the dead”- large burial area
• STUCCO: a fine plaster used for wall decorations and moldings
• TERRA-COTTA: hard ceramic clay used for buildings, pottery,
sculpture, etc.
• TUMULUS: an artificial mound of earth and stones placed over a
grave