Etruscan art - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Etruscan art was the form of figurative art

Figurative art

Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...

produced by the Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

in central Italy

Central Italy

Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...

between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly life-size on sarcophagi

Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

or temples) and cast bronze, wall-painting and metalworking

Metalworking

Metalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of skills,...

(especially engraved bronze mirrors and situlae

Situla (vessel)

Situla, from the Latin for bucket or pail, is a term for a variety of elaborate bucket-shaped vessels from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages, usually with a handle at the top...

History

The origins of the Etruscans, and consequently of their artistic style, dates back to the people who inhabited or were expelled from Asia Minor during the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

and Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

(See the Villanovan culture

Villanovan culture

The Villanovan culture was the earliest Iron Age culture of central and northern Italy, abruptly following the Bronze Age Terramare culture and giving way in the 7th century BC to an increasingly orientalizing culture influenced by Greek traders, which was followed without a severe break by the...

). Due to the proximity and/or commercial contact to Etruria, other ancient cultures influenced Etruscan art, such as Greece, Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...

, Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

, Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

and the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

. The apparent simple character in the Hellenistic era conceals an innovative,and unique style whose pinnacle coincided with the Greek archaic period

Archaic period in Greece

The Archaic period in Greece was a period of ancient Greek history that followed the Greek Dark Ages. This period saw the rise of the polis and the founding of colonies, as well as the first inklings of classical philosophy, theatre in the form of tragedies performed during Dionysia, and written...

. The Romans would later come to absorb the Etruscan culture into theirs but would also be greatly influenced by them and their art.

Timeline

800-650 BC - "Oriental" or "Orientalising" period. Due to cultural exchanges amongst Mediterranean civilizations at this time, especially with Ancient Greece, a figurative tradition appeared in Etruscan art that was based on Greek models.
650-500 BC - Archaic period - Ionic
Ionia
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...

and Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...

ian influences. Due to more and more exchanges and due to the structure of Etruscan society, new artistic techniques emerged. Painting became highly developed in this period, as did painted sculpture in terracotta and vase-painting.
500-300 BC - Classical period - Peak; still marked by Greek influence; less and less art produced due to internal and external political and military crises, with the exception of the bronzes from Vulci.
300-100 BC - late phase; absorbed into Roman culture.

Art and religion

Etruscan art was often religious in character and, hence, strongly connected to the requirements of Etruscan religion. The Etruscan afterlife was negative, in contrast to the positive view in ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

where it was but a continuation of earthly life, or the confident relations with the gods as in ancient Greece

Ancient Greek religion

Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These different groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or "cults" in the plural, though most of them shared...

. The Etruscan gods were hostile and tended to bring misfortune, and so Etruscan religion was centered on interpreting their will and accepting or satisfying it. On the other hand, most remains of Etruscan funerary art

Funerary art

Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. Tomb is a general term for the repository, while grave goods are objects—other than the primary human remains—which have been placed inside...

have been found in excavations of cemeteries (as at Cerveteri

Cerveteri

Cerveteri is a town and comune of the northern Lazio, in the province of Rome. Originally known as Caere , it is famous for a number of Etruscan necropolis that include some of the best Etruscan tombs anywhere....

, Tarquinia

Tarquinia

Tarquinia, formerly Corneto and in Antiquity Tarquinii, is an ancient city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, Italy.- History :Tarquinii is said to have been already a flourishing city when Demaratus of Corinth brought in Greek workmen...

, Populonia

Populonia

Populonia or Populonia Alta today is a frazione of the comune of Piombino . As of 2009 its population was 17...

, Orvieto

Orvieto

Orvieto is a city and comune in Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff...

, Vetulonia

Vetulonia

Vetulonia, formerly called Vetulonium , was an ancient town of Etruria, Italy, the site of which is probably occupied by the modern village of Vetulonia, which up to 1887 bore the name of Colonnata and Colonna di Buriano: the site is currently a frazione of the comune of Castiglione della Pescaia,...

, Norchia

Norchia

Norchia is an ancient Etruscan city with an adjacent necropolis, near Vetralla in Italy. Some sources identify it with the ancient Etruscan town known as Orclae, whose name is reported in medieval sources...

), meaning that what we see of Etruscan art is primarily dominated by depictions of religion and in particular the funerary cult

Funerary cult

In the anthropology of religion, a funerary cult is a body of religious teaching and practice centered around the dead, in which the living are thought to be able to confer benefits on the dead in the afterlife or to appease their otherwise wrathful ghosts...

, whether or not that is a true reflection of Etruscan art as a whole.

Etruscan sculpture

The Etruscans were very accomplished sculptors. Surviving examples in terracotta and bronze are testimony to this. Some of the more famous examples include:

the "Apollo Helios" (now at the National Etruscan Museum)
the "Arringatore" (Aulo Metello), found in Umbria (now at the National Archaeological Museum
National Archaeological Museum (Florence)
The National Archaeological Museum of Florence is an archaeological museum in Florence, Italy...

of Florence)
the "Apollo of Veii
Apollo of Veii
The Apollo of Veii is an over-life-size painted terracotta Etruscan statue of Apollo . Originally at Veii, it dates from c. 550 - 520 BC ans was sculpted in the in the so-called "international" Ionic or late-archaic Etruscan style...

", from the temple at Portanaccio (Veii
Veii
Veii was, in ancient times, an important Etrurian city NNW of Rome, Italy; its site lies in Isola Farnese, a village of Municipio XX, an administrative subdivision of the comune of Rome in the Province of Rome...

), attributed to Vulca
Vulca
Vulca was an Etruscan artist from the town of Veii. The only Etruscan artist mentioned by ancient writers, he worked for the last of the Roman kings, Tarquinius Superbus. He is responsible for creating a terracotta statue of Jupiter that was inside the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the...

(now at the National Etruscan Museum)
the "Chimera of Arezzo
Chimera of Arezzo
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...

" (now at the National Archaeological Museum
National Archaeological Museum (Florence)
The National Archaeological Museum of Florence is an archaeological museum in Florence, Italy...

of Florence)
the "Capitoline Wolf
Capitoline Wolf
The Capitoline Wolf is a bronze sculpture of a she-wolf suckling twin infants, inspired by the legend of the founding of Rome. According to the legend, when Numitor, grandfather of the twins Romulus and Remus, was overthrown by his brother Amulius, the usurper ordered the twins to be cast into...

" (now at the Capitoline Museum
Capitoline Museums
The Capitoline Museums are a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The museums are contained in three palazzi surrounding a central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over...

of Rome) This famous example is now suggested to have been manufactured in the 13th century AD http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7499469.stm
"Sarcophagus of the Spouses
Sarcophagus of the Spouses
The "Sarcophagus of the Spouses" is a late 6th century BC Etruscan anthropoid sarcophagus. It is 1.14 m high by 1.9 m wide, and is made of terracotta which was once brightly painted...

", from Cerveteri (now at the National Etruscan Museum)

The Apollo of Veii

Apollo of Veii

The Apollo of Veii is an over-life-size painted terracotta Etruscan statue of Apollo . Originally at Veii, it dates from c. 550 - 520 BC ans was sculpted in the in the so-called "international" Ionic or late-archaic Etruscan style...

is a good example of the mastery with which Etruscan artist produced these large art pieces. He was made, along with others, to adorn the temple at Portanaccio’s roof line. Although his style is reminiscent of the Greek Kroisos Kouros

Kroisos Kouros

The Kroisos Kouros is a marble kouros from Anavyssos in Attica which functioned as a grave marker for a fallen young warrior named Kroísos. The free-standing sculpture strides forward with the "archaic smile" playing slightly on his face. The sculpture is dated to c. 540-515 BC and stands 1.95...

, the notion of having statues on the top of the roof is entirely an Etruscan derivation.(Ramage 2009: 46)

Etruscan Funerary Art

The Etruscans excelled in portraying humans. Throughout their history they used two sets of burial practices; cremation and inhumation. Cinerary urns (for cremation) and sarcophagi (for inhumation) have been found together in the same tomb showing that throughout generations, both forms were used at the same time.
In the 7th century they started depicting human heads on canopic urns and when they started burying their dead in the late 6th century they did so in terracotta sarcophagi. These sarcophagi were decorated with an image of the deceased reclining on the lid alone or sometimes with a spouse. The Etruscans invented the custom of placing figures on the lid which later influenced the Romans to do the same.(Ramage 2009:51)

The Hellenistic period funerary urns were generally made in two pieces. The top lid usually depicted a banqueting man or woman (but not always) and the container part was either decorated in relief in the front only or, on more elaborate stone pieces, carved on its sides. During this period, the terracotta urns were being mass-produced using moulds in Northern Etruria (specifically in and around Chiusi

Chiusi

Chiusi is a town and comune in province of Siena, Tuscany, Italy.-History:It was one of the more powerful among the Etruscan 12‑city confederation...

). Often the scenes decorated in relief on the front of the urn were depicting generic Greek influenced scenes. The production of these urns did not require skilled artists and so what we are left with is often mediocre, unprofessional art, made en mass.

Etruscan painting

The best preserved Etruscan paintings that have survived to modern times are mostly wall fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es from graves, and mainly from Tarquinia

Tarquinia

. These are the most important example of pre-Roman figurative art in Italy known to scholars.

The frescoes are created by applying paint on top of fresh plaster, so that when the plaster dries the painting becomes part of the plaster, and consequently an integral part of the wall. Colours were created from ground up stones and minerals of different colours and were then mixed to the paint. Fine brushes were made of animal hair (even the best brushes can be produced with ox hair).

From the mid 4th century BC Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro in art is "an Italian term which literally means 'light-dark'. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted"....