Chapter 6: Etruscan Art Instructor's Manual

PART ONE: THE ANCIENT WORLD

CHAPTER SIX: ETRUSCAN ART

The Villanovans

• The Villanovans inhabited the northern and western regions of Italy from the Bronze Age.

• They are named for a town near Bologna where, in 1853, their graves and their contents were discovered.

• Objects made of clay, iron, bronze, bone and amber were found in the graves

• The Villanovans are considered to be the ancestors of the Etruscans, because of the many artifacts found in Villanovan graves which relate to Etruscan objects.

• A Villanovan helmet, now in the Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulla in Rome, has decorative motifs similar to an Etruscan fibula in the Musei Vaticani, Rome.

The Etruscans

• By the 8^th century BC, the Etruscans had established themselves in a confederacy of 12 city-states that extended from an area north of Rome to the region just south of Florence. Their land is called Etruria (present-day Tuscany).

• The earliest account of the Etruscans is documented by the Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century BC.

• Although Herodotus claimed that the Etruscans were descended from the Lydians, recent evidence suggests that the Etruscans’ ancestors were the indigenous Villanovans.

• There are strong Etruscan cultural links with the Greeks, the Near East and Asia Minor.

• Much of our knowledge of the Etruscans is based on their tombs and their contents.

• Etruscan tomb paintings often describe scenes of pleasurable daily life which may include a banquet complete with musicians and dancers.

• Ash urns, sarcophagi, and sculpture, often in terra cotta, point to the Etruscan’s interest in death. While this theme is initially treated in a lively and vigorous style, describing the scenes of daily life which may be enjoyed by the deceased, later artifacts from the 4^th century BC reveal an altered more solemn attitude toward death.

• There are often references to the Greek and Minoan myths in Etruscan works and it is also clear that divination was an important Etruscan activity.

• Most of the Etruscan temples have disappeared since they were built of wood. Only the stone foundations of these temples have survived.

• The Sanctuaries resemble those of the Greek temples but there are elements in the Etruscan temples that will later be used by the Romans.

• The Etruscan city, laid out on a grid plan around two main streets which usually ran north-south (the CARDO) and east-west (the DECUMANUS) provides the prototype for the future cities of Rome, western Europe, and even Washington, D.C.

• The bronze She-Wolf, c. 500-480 B.C., which is found today in the Museo Capitolino in Rome, has long been associated with the ancient legend of the founding of Rome.

Key Terms/Places/Names

Discussion Questions

Resources

Breckenridge, J. D. Likeness: A Conceptual History of Ancient Portraiture. Evanston, Il: Northwestern University Press, 1968.

Dennis, George. The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, 3^rd ed. London: John Murray, 1883.

Frederiksen, Martin. Campania. London: British School at Rome, 1984.

Hencken, Hugh. Tarquinia and Etruscan Origins. New York: Praeger, 1968.

Potter, Timothy. The Changing Landscape of Southern Etruria. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979.

Ridgway, David and Francesca Ridgway, eds. Italy Before the Romans: The Iron Age, Orientalizing, and Etruscan Periods. New York: Academic Press, 1979.

Scullard, H. H. Etruscan Cities and Rome. London: Thames and Hudson, 1967.

Etruria and the Etruscan Woman. CD-ROM, FFTH.

Etruscan Tombs of Volterra. VHS, VOA. 11 minutes.

The Etruscans. VHS, FFTH. 27 minutes.

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