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.
 Religion
At 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 architecture
The 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 1 st c. BCE (10-2)
Round temple;
Concrete walls of cella.

Reconstruction drawing of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, Pelestrina Italy late 2 nd 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.; Augustan
Roman

 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.