I.Etruscan Art

II.Etruscan Temples

is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in an area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci. Their Roman name is the origin of the names of Tuscany, their heartland, and Etruria, their wider region.

As distinguished by its own language, the civilization endured from an unknown prehistoric time prior to the founding of Rome until its complete assimilation to Italic Rome in the Roman Republic. At its maximum extent during the foundation period of Rome and the Roman kingdom, it flourished in three confederacies of cities: of Etruria, of the Po valley with the eastern Alps, and of Latium and Campania. Rome was sited in Etruscan territory. There is considerable evidence that early Rome was dominated by Etruscans until the Romans sacked Veii in 396 BC.

Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC approximately over the range of the preceding Iron Age Villanovan culture. The latter gave way in the seventh century to a culture that was influenced by Greek traders and Greek neighbours in Magna Graecia, the Hellenic civilization of southern Italy. After 500 BC the political destiny of Italy passed out of Etruscan hands.

The Sarcophagus of the Spouses was found in 1845 by the Marquis Campana in the Banditaccia necropolis in Caere (modern Cerveteri). Purchased in 1861 by Napoleon III, this monument has often been regarded as a sarcophagus because of its exceptional dimensions. However, its function remains uncertain because burial and cremation were both practiced by the Etruscans. It may actually have been a large urn designed to contain the ashes of the deceased. Only one example similar to this work is known (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Rome), which also demonstrates the high level of skill attained by the sculptors of Caere in clay sculpture during the late 6th century BC.During the Archaic period, terracotta was one of the preferred materials in the workshops of Caere for funeral monuments and architectural decoration. The ductility of clay offered artisans numerous possibilities, compensating for the lack of stone suitable for sculpture in southern Etruria.

From the Etruscan period are two types of tombs: the mounds and the so-called "dice", the latter being simple square tombs built in long rows along "roads". The visitable area contains two such "roads", the Via dei Monti Ceriti and the Via dei Monti della Tolfa (6th century BC).

    The mounds are circular structures built in tuff, and the interiors, carved from the living rock, house a reconstruction of the house of the dead, including a corridor (dromos), a central hall and several rooms. Modern knowledge of Etruscan daily life is largely dependent on the numerous decorative details and finds from such tombs. The most famous of these mounds is the so-called Tomba dei Rilievi (Tomb of the Reliefs, 3rd century BC), identified from an inscription as belonging to one Matunas and provided with an exceptional series of frescoes, bas-reliefs and sculptures portraying a large series of contemporary life tools. The most recent tombs date from the 3rd century BC. Some of them are marked by external cippi, which are cylindrical for men, and in the shape of a small house for women. Most finds excavated at Cerveteri necropolis are currently housed in the National Etruscan Museum, Rome. Others are in the Archaeological Museum at Cerveteri itself.

Rome's twin founders in its traditional foundation myth. They are descendants of the Trojan prince and refugee Aeneas, and are fathered by the god Mars or the demi-god Hercules on a royal Vestal Virgin, Rhea Silvia, whose uncle exposes them to die in the wild. They are found by a she-wolf who suckles and cares for them. The twins are eventually restored to their regal birthright, acquire many followers and decide to found a new city.

Romulus wishes to build the new city on the Palatine Hill; Remus prefers the Aventine Hill.They agree to determine the site through augury. Romulus appears to receive the more favourable signs but each claims the results in his favour. In the disputes that follow, Remus is killed. Ovid has Romulus invent the festival of Lemuria to appease Remus' resentful ghost. Romulus names the new city Rome, after himself, and goes on to create the Roman Legions and the Roman Senate. He adds citizens to his new city by abducting the women of the neighboring Sabine tribes, which results in the combination of Sabines and Romans as one Roman people. Rome rapidly expands to become a dominant force, due to divine favour and the inspired administrative, military and political leadership of Romulus. In later life Romulus becomes increasingly autocratic, disappears in mysterious circumstances and is deified as the god Quirinus, the divine persona of the Roman people

The bronze "Chimera of Arezzo" is one of the best known examples of the art of the Etruscans. It was found in Arezzo, an ancient Etruscan and Roman city in Tuscany, in 1553 and was quickly claimed for the collection of the Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I, who placed it publicly in the Palazzo Vecchio, and placed the smaller bronzes from the trove in his own studiolo at Palazzo Pitti, where "the Duke took great pleasure in cleaning them by himself, with some goldsmith's tools," Benvenuto Cellini reported in his autobiography. The Chimera is still conserved in Florence, now in the Archaeological Museum. It is approximately 80 cm in height.

In Greek mythology the monstruous Chimera ravaged its homeland, Lycia, until it was slain by Bellerophon. This bronze was at first identified as a lion by its discoverers in Arezzo, for its tail, which would have taken the form of a serpent, is missing. It was soon recognized as representing the chimera of myth and in fact, among smaller bronze pieces and fragments brought to Florence, a section of the tail was soon recovered, according to Giorgio Vasari. The present bronze tail is an 18th-century restoration.

ReligionAt the basis of the Etruscan religion there lay the fundamental idea that the fate of men was completely decided by the gods, mysterious and undefined supernatural beings. All natural phenomena, such as thunder or the flight of birds, were therefore an expression of divine will and contained a message to be interpreted in order to comply with the wishes of the gods. With this conception as their driving force, the Etruscans built up a complex system of codified ritual that they followed with extreme scrupulousness, to the extent that they became famous with other ancient peoples for their religiousness. From the 8th century BC, as contacts with Greek culture became more intense, there began a process of harmonization with the divinities of the Greek Olympus.

The priests were the guardians of the doctrine and intermediaries between men and the gods. This caste played a very important role in the civil and religious guidance of the Etruscan communities. The priests had a particular costume, including a high semi-conical hat, and carried a stick curved at one end. They were divided into counsels and took part in all public activities, which for the Etruscans had a strong sacred significance. The scriptures consisted of books containing a complex and codified system of ritual rules. The main ones concerned: the interpretation of the entrails of animals, carried out by the Haruspices, the interpretation of lightning, carried out by the Augurs and the rules of behaviour to be followed in daily life. At the basis of Etruscan religious discipline was the division of the heavens into sixteen compartments: the dwelling-places of the gods.

Religious architectureThe Etruscan temple, for the building of which precise rules were established, was characterized by an almost square floor plan. The front half consisted of a gallery with columns, the rear half was occupied by three chambers, which housed the statues of three divinities or by a single chamber flanked by two open wings. Except for the basement and foundations, light and perishable materials were used: unbaked bricks for the walls and wood for the structure. The temples had very wide and low double sloping roofs, with considerable lateral projection and the façade was dominated by an open or closed triangular fronton. The roof was completed by a complex system of terracotta decorative and protective elements, painted in bright colours and in full relief. These elements included the acroteria, which were placed on the top of the temple and at the corners of the sloping roofs, and the antefixa, which were positioned on top of the roofing tiles.

This sanctuary, among the most ancient and venerated on all of Etruria, was outside of the city and a road leading from the city of Veio to the Tyrrhenian coast and the famous Veio saline mines ran through it. Its most ancient nucleus tied to the cult of the goddess Minerva and a small temple, a square altar, a portico and stairs from the road were built in about 530-530 BC in her honour. The three cell temple with the polychrome terracotta decorations was erected in about 510 BC in the western part of the sanctuary. Adjacent to the temple there was a great pool with a tunnel and a fence that enclosed the sacred woods. The temple was in honour of the god Apollo in his prophetic oracle aspect inspired after the Delphi model to which purification ceremonies were tied. Heracles, the hero made god dear to tyrants, and maybe also Jupiter, whose image we have to imagine on the central wall of the temple were tied to Apollo. By the middle of the 5th century BC, all interventions on the temple are concluded and it begins a slow decline while the structures sacred to Minerva are renovated on the eastern sector of the sanctuary. The starting up again of the cult worshipping Minerva, which continued also after the conquering of Veio by Rome (396 BC) is documented by a splendid series of votive statues of classic and late-classic style boys, such as the famous head, “Malavolta” as to indicate the important role of the goddess in the rituals of the passage from adolescence to adulthood that signalled the fundamental phases of the life of the members of the aristocratic families of Veio. In the 2nd century BC, the tuff mine that destroyed the central area of the sanctuary was opened causing damage to the temple and the sliding down of material downhill. The recovery of the fragments of the sanctuary determined the start up of excavations in 1914, which continued after the discovery of the famous statue of Apollo in 1916.

Trademark Forms

Column Style

Preferred Structure

Subject of Art

Painting

was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterised by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c. 509 BC, and lasted 482 years until its subversion, through a series of civil wars, into the Principate form of government and the Imperial period.

The Roman Republic was governed by a complex constitution, which centred on the principles of a separation of powers and checks and balances. The evolution of the constitution was heavily influenced by the struggle between the aristocracy (the patricians), and other Romans who were not from famous families, the plebeians. Early in its history, the republic was controlled by an aristocracy of individuals who could trace their ancestry back to the early history of the kingdom. Over time, the laws that allowed these individuals to dominate the government were repealed, and the result was the emergence of a new aristocracy which depended on the structure of society, rather than the law, to maintain its dominance.

During the first two centuries, the Republic saw its territory expand from central Italy to the entire Mediterranean world. In the next century, Rome grew to dominate North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Greece, and what is now southern France. During the last two centuries of the Roman Republic, it grew to dominate the rest of modern France, as well as much of the east. At this point, the republican political machinery was replaced with imperialism.

Temple of “Fortuna Virilis” (Temple of Portunus), Rome, ca. 75 BCE (10-1) Connect to ETRUSCAN temples; contrast to Greek for the following:

Single set of steps to enter;

Building rises from podium;

Walls of cella brought out to limit of podium so there is no row of free-standing columns on the side, but engaged columns.

CONCRETE: the big invention of the Romans, made of lime mortar, water, and volcanic dust of central Italy (pozzolana), which is poured over rubble [little irregular stones]

Temple of “the Sibyl”, Tivoli, early 1st c. BCE (10-2)

Round temple;

Concrete walls of cella.

Reconstruction drawing of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, Pelestrina Italy late 2nd c. BCE

Early use of CONCRETE combined with arch and vault construction.

Temple of “the Sibyl”, Tivoli, early 1st c. BCE (10-2)

Temple of “Fortuna Virilis” (Temple of Portunus), Rome, ca. 75 BCE (10-1)

The history of Roman painting is essentially a history of wall paintings on plaster. Although ancient literary references inform us of Roman paintings on wood, ivory, and other materials, works that have survived are in the durable medium of fresco that was used to adorn the interiors of private homes in Roman cities and in the countryside. According to Pliny, it was Studius "who first instituted that most delightful technique of painting walls with representations of villas, porticos and landscape gardens, woods, groves, hills, pools, channels, rivers, and coastlines." Despite the lack of physical evidence, we can assume that many portable paintings depicted subjects similar to those found on the painted walls in Roman villas. It is also reasonable to suppose that Roman panel paintings, which included both original creations and adaptations of renowned Hellenistic works, were the prototypes for the myths depicted in fresco. Roman artists specializing in fresco most likely traveled with copybooks that reproduced popular paintings, as well as decorative patterns.

Landscape with Polyphemus and Galatea: From the "Mythological Room" of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of 1st century b.c.; AugustanRoman

This fresco from the Imperial villa at Boscotrecase combines two separate events in the life of the monstrous Cyclops, Polyphemus. In the foreground, he sits on a rocky outcrop tending his goats. The Cyclops holds his panpipes in his right hand as he gazes at the beautiful sea nymph Galatea, with whom he is hopelessly in love. In the upper right part of the fresco, Polyphemus is depicted hurling a boulder at Odysseus and his companions, who have just blinded the Cyclops. Odysseus' ship is seen sailing away at the far right. The fresco's blue-green background unifies the differing episodes from the myth of Polyphemus, and must have lent a sense of coolness to the room.

Aedicula with small landscape: From the "Black Room" of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of 1st century b.c.; Augustan

Agrippa died in 12 B.C. and his son, Agrippa Postumus became the villa's proprietor in 11 B.C. as inscriptions found there indicate. The frescoes must have been painted during renovations begun at the time. Painted by artists working for the imperial household, they are among the finest existing examples of Roman wall painting.

Landscape with Perseus and Andromeda: From the "Mythological Room" of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of 1st century b.c

This fresco from the Imperial villa at Boscotrecase depicts two consecutive events from the myth of Perseus and Andromeda. Perseus is about to rescue Andromeda from the ketos, a snaky sea monster painted in a brilliant blue-green palette. The creature raises his head with gigantic open jaws and frightful teeth toward Andromeda, who stands with outstretched arms in the center of the panel. One hand appears to be chained to the crag; the other elegantly placed on the rocks. Perseus flies in from the left with his lyre in one hand, winged shoes on his feet, and a windblown cloak over his shoulder. In the upper right portion of the fresco, he is greeted by Andromeda's grateful father, a scene that alludes to the myth's happy ending–the marriage of hero and princess

Late Empire

High Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus.

The 500-year-old Roman Republic, which preceded it, had been weakened and subverted through several civil wars. Several events are commonly proposed to mark the transition from Republic to Empire, including Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator (44 BC), the Battle of Actium (2 September 31 BC), and the Roman Senate's granting to Octavian the honorific Augustus(4 January 27 BC).Roman expansion began in the days of the Republic, but reached its zenith under Emperor Trajan. At this territorial peak, the Roman Empire controlled approximately 6.5 million km²of land surface. Because of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, Roman influence upon the language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and government of

nations around the world lasts to this day.