Etruscan Art
Art History 1 UST CFAD Asst. Prof. G. Malihan
Etruscan Civilization
culture created and developed on the Italian Peninsula by the ancient people of Etruria during the 1st millennium
Etruscan Art
related to that of the Greeks, (in both Greece and southern Italy) and to that of Egypt and Asia Minor. had great influence on subsequent Roman styles. Most present-day knowledge of it comes from Etruscan tombs
Etruscan Architecture
Most cities were laid out in the form of a quadrangle, with fortifications and with encompassing walls enforced by double gates and towers.
Etruscan Architecture
Etruscans built palaces, public buildings, and early temples in wood and brick, so nothing remained. Ceramic models of temples, as well as traces of later stone structures, indicate how temples were built in enclosures and had tiled, gabled roofs supported on pillars, like their Greek counterparts. Etruscans also built aqueducts, bridges, and sewers. Outside the cities were cemeteries containing family tombs. Tombs were built underground but had large vaults of overlapping stones covered by mounds of earth.
Etruscan Temple
Etruscan Sculpture
did not regard art for its own sake but created objects for either utilitarian or religious purposes. no artists are known by name and few examples of strictly public, civic art, or sculpture of size in durable stone exist. while sharing general characteristics, is clearly differentiated from one city to the next, reflecting the political independence of each.
Etruscan Sculpture
most famous Etruscan works are in terra-cotta, or baked clay, and these include besides sculptures on sarcophagi, also works from temples. as a consequence of abundant ore deposits, bronze statuary was common and the Etruscans brought the art of bronze working to a very high level of achievement.
Head of a Female Figure and a Female Torso from The Peitrera Tomb, Vetulonia, 640 B.C.
Head of a Female Figure (detail).
Statue of a Boy on a Hippocamp from Vulci, Nenfro, 520 B.C
Cenatur from Vulci, Nenfro, 550 B.C. Side view.
Mother and Child, Limestone Cinerary Urn, 6th B.C.
Etruscan Painting
Surviving painting in underground funerary vaults, consists of murals on the stone or plastered stone walls and ceilings of tombs. Frescoes frequently depict banquets, festivals, and scenes of daily life, sometimes have subjects from religion, some depict figures dancing or playing musical instruments.
Double Flute Player from the Tomb of the Leopards, Tarquinia
Fishing Scene, Tomb of Hunting & Fishing,Tarquinia
Etruscan Painting
Figures are stylized, heavy, and often outlined in black. They painted little birds or animals which somehow do not seem out of place or look like merely decorations, but landed a natural harmony to the finished work.
Decorative Arts
The Etruscans at first imported and copied painted Greek pottery. They were particularly noted for their black bucchero pottery with incised or relief decoration suggesting metalwork. They were experts with the potter's wheel.
Etruscan - Corinthian Amphora, Decorated With Friezes of Animals by the so-called Painter of the Bearded Sphynx, 7th B.C.
Bucchero
Amphora, 600 B.C.
Etruscan Kalpis, 6th B.C.
Decorative Art
Working in bronze, the Etruscans made chariots, bowls, candelabra, cylindrical coffers, and especially polished mirrors, all richly engraved with mythological motifs. Etruscans were famous for their gold jewelry. Their goldwork was among the finest anywhere in the ancient world. They also crafted silver, and ivory jewelry, using filigree and granulation.
Set of jewelry, early 5th century B.C.; late Archaic Etruscan
