Art Eyewitness: Etruscans

Showing posts with label Etruscans. Show all posts

Monday, May 26, 2025

Art Eyewitness Review: Rethinking Etruria at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

Rethinking Etruria

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

April 23 - July 25, 2025

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), located in the shadow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has added another achievement to its impressive credentials. ISAW, a research facility of New York University, has resolved a mystery of the so-called "mysterious" Etruscan people of ancient Italy.

As I discussed in a series of Art Eyewitness essays about the Etruscans, back in 2020, it is puzzling why there have been no major exhibitions dealing with the fascinating culture of the Etruscans for many decades in the United States. The ISAW solved that problem by presenting Rethinking Etruria, which opened on April 23rd at the Institute's 84th street headquarters.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

Gallery views of the Rethinking Etruria exhibit. The top photo shows bronze votive figurines, 5th century B.C. and sandstone pyramidal bases, found at Poggio Colla. Below, are Kylix cups, 4th-3rd centuries, B.C., decorated by the Sokra Group of Etruscan vase & cup painters.

Etruscology is a vast and perplexing subject. A non-Indo-European people, the Etruscans were long thought to have migrated to Italy from Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) toward the end of the Bronze Age. Recent DNA studies have confirmed that the Etruscans - or their ancestors - were resident in Italy for a very long time, perhaps as far back as the Neolithic age.

The historical Etruscan era extends from their earliest identifiable settlements, ca. 900 B.C., to the time of the conquest and incorporation of the Etruscan city-states by the Roman Republic over the succeeding centuries. By the time of Caesar Augustus, the Etruscans were fully under Rome's control, but it is worth noting that Maecenas, the adviser-in-chief to Augustus, was of Etruscan descent.

Since the ISAW has only two exhibition galleries, both of modest dimensions, it would be impossible to mount a wide-ranging exhibition devoted to the Etruscans. But as with other topics in ancient history which have featured in ISAW exhibits, the ISAW curators are accomplished in making a lot happen in a little space.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

Gallery view of the Rethinking Etruria exhibit. In the background is a replica of the Vicchio Stele, excavated at Poggio Colla in 2015.

Rethinking Etruria focuses on two key sites in Italy which have yielded important discoveries, as recently as 2024. These are the temple sanctuary of Poggio Colla, located near the town of Vicchio, northwest of Florence, and the spectacular tombs carved into a formidable ridge of tufa rock at Norchia, a rugged area seventy-two kilometers northwest of Rome.

The necropolis of Norchia is hardly a new, unexplored site of archaeological "digs." Norchia featured in the trailblazing expeditions of George Dennis, the "father of Etruscology." Back in the early 1840's, Dennis and his friend, the artist Samuel Ainsley, roamed the bandit-infested region in search of ancient remains. Dennis recounted the moment of Norchia's discovery in his 1848 book, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria.

At length, we turned a corner in the glen, and lo! a grand range of monuments burst upon us. There were a line of sepulchers, high in the face of the cliff which forms the right-hand barrier of the glen, two or three hundred feet above the stream - an amphitheater of tombs!

Dennis was unable to capitalize on his success. A gifted amateur, he lacked private wealth, academic credentials or political patronage. Eventually, his book would ignite interest in Britain in the Etruscans - D.H. Lawrence was a devoted reader.

In the meantime, it was left to another non-professional, this time from Italy, to conduct a thorough study of Norchia. In 1852, Mariano Lattanzi began excavating several of the temple-like tomb structures cut-into the cliff face of Norchia. Important discoveries have been made since then, but so have the deprivations of tomb robbers, who, heedless of the need to record the details of place and condition, have been the bane of Etruscology.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

Gallery view of Rethinking Etruria, showing the Marce Atie Stamnos, a red-figure stamnos or wine jar, with scenes from the Trojan War.

In July 2022, a splendid ceramic red-figure vessel, a stamnos, was unearthed in one of the less accessible of the Lattanzi tombs. Evidently, tomb robbers had missed this and several other important, if less spectacular, artifacts, preserved in the tomb.

Known today as the Marce Atie Stamnos, the vessel depicts heroes from the Trojan War: Achilles, Ajax, Nestor and Troilus. Scholars believe that it was created around 330 B.C. in the Etruscan city of Vulci. The Trojan War imagery is credited to a workshop of Etruscan painters called the "Funnel Group" because of the shape of the decorative motif.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

The Greek hero, Achilles, depicted on the Marce Atie Stamnos

And a heroine, too, is shown on the Marce Atie Stamnos. This was an important consideration for the Etruscans who accorded great respect - and property-owning rights - to women. Here we see the Amazon queen, Penthesilea, riding to death and glory before the walls of Troy.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

The Amazon Queen, Penthesilea, killed by Achilles at Troy

A stamnos was used to hold wine for celebrations and religious ceremonies - or in this case as a tomb offering, much as the ancient Egyptians did.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

On its rim, the Marce Atie Stamnos is inscribed with the name of

"Marce Atie (son) of Velxae (and) Paci (or Puci)"

The rim of this ceramic vessel is inscribed with the name of Marce Atie, who commissioned it. He must have been a man with considerable wealth and piety to be able to afford such a lavish gift for use in the "after life."

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

Gallery view of Rethinking Etruria. Displayed, at left, behind the

Marce Atie Stamnos, is a much-eroded portrait of Alexander the Great

Museum authorities in Italy have generously permitted this magnificent vessel to travel to the U.S. for the first time. Although there are fifty important Etruscan artifacts on view in the ISAW exhibition, the Marce Atie Stamnos is such a spectacular work of art that I found it difficult to devote sufficient time and attention to the rest of the exhibition.

This is a problem, for there is much in Rethinking Etruria to study and appreciate. The ISAW exhibition team has facilitated the learning process, however, through short digital image/text displays. These presentations enable visitors to comprehend the exhibition artifacts within the context of Etruscan culture and to visualize the temple of Poggio Colla and the Norchia tombs in their topographical settings.

Much of the information in these presentations is based on the ability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to sift and integrate masses of data. Drone photographic surveys supplied the details of terrain. The resulting visualizations of what the Norchia "amphitheater of tombs" and the Poggio Colla temple looked like in antiquity are almost magical.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

Two images from the Rethinking Etruria digital presentations. At top, is an aerial view of the Norchia tombs taken by a drone. Below is an AI rendering of the temple-like sepulchers, as they likely appeared in antiquity. Some of these family tombs could hold 80 bodies.

AI rendering of the Poggio Colla temple as it appeared in antiquity.

© Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU)

AI and 3D imaging were also combined to create a replica of the Stele of Vicchio, found in 2015 during excavations at Poggio Colla. Made of local sandstone, the Vicchio Stele is a gravestone-shaped marker which functioned in similar fashion to representations of tablets showing the Ten Commandments.

Considering the reputation of the Etruscans as "the most religious of men", the discovery of the Vicchio Stele is an event of great importance. After further study, the stele may resolve some of the mystery of Etruscan sacred beliefs and rituals.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

A replica of the Vicchio Stele, excavated at Poggio Colla in 2015. The 3D model of the stele was created by the LaGuardia Studio of NYU.

Dating to the 6th century B.C., the Vicchio Stele measures 3.9 by 1.9 feet (1.2 by 0.6 meters) and weighs 500 pounds (227 kg). The stele is inscribed with 120 legible letters and punctuation marks from the Etruscan alphabet. But only one passage of the inscription has been deciphered:

"Of Tinia (or for Tinia) in the (place) of Uni two (objects) were dedicated."

3D model of the Vicchio Stele with its four inscriptions highlighted.

© Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU)

Tinia and Uni were two of the Etruscan gods. The Vicchio Stele originally stood upright so that people visiting the temple could read the religious inscriptions. Over the course of time, the Poggio Colla temple was burned and rebuilt. During the rebuilding process, the Vicchio Stele was placed in with the foundation stones, helping to strengthen the rising new temple.

There was nothing perfunctory about Etruscan religious practice. The Etruscans lived in close communion with the gods and were notable for their practice of divination. A written code of sacred beliefs and rituals, passed down from the gods to a prophet named Tages, was the foundation of Etruscan civilization.

Scarcely visible today, the inscriptions on the Vicchio Stele were words to live by. Deciphering these cryptic words constitutes a big - if halting - step forward in understanding Etruscan religion.

AI, drone photography, lazer scanning and digital recreations have added immeasurably to our understanding of the ancient world. However, there are occasions when simple photos, taken on the spur-of-the-moment, can rival even the most cutting-edge technology. Below are two photos, recording the excavation of the Marc Atie Stamnos. The look on the face of one of the archaeologists speaks for itself!

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

Two images from the Rethinking Etruria digital presentations, showing the excavation of the Marce Atie Stamnos.

The exhilaration of holding a just-excavated treasure like the Marce Atie Stamnos is a pleasure few of us will ever enjoy. But the curators and staff at ISAW have served-up a special treat for history lovers to share when they visit Rethinking Etruria.

Yes, go ahead and place your fingers on the replica of the Vicchio Stele! Get in touch with history. Feel the sensation of the "mysterious" Etruscans awakening from the sleep of centuries.

***

Introductory Image: Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Detail of the Marce Atie Stamnos, showing the Amazon queen, Penthesilea.

The following two images come from the ISAW web pages for the Rethinking Etruria exhibition and are copyright of ISAW/NYU:

AI rendering of the Poggio Colla temple as it appeared in antiquity.

3D model of the Vicchio Stele with its four inscriptions highlighted.

Friday, July 3, 2020

Art Eyewitness Book Review: The Sarpedon Krator by Nigel Spivey

The Sarpedon Krater:

The Life and Afterlife of a Greek Vase

By Nigel Spivey

University of Chicago Press/256 pages/$25

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Of the thousands of ancient Greek vases which fill museum cases around the world, one is particularly notable. Had this review been written a decade earlier, the Sarpedon Krater would more likely have been described as "notorious" than notable.

Thereby "hangs a tale," as the old saying goes.

The story of the Sarpedon Krater has been brilliantly told by Nigel Spivey, author and presenter of the BBC television series, How Art Made the World. Spivey traces the strange and wondrous journey of the Sarpendon Krater from ancient Athens in the sixth century B.C. to the present.

The Sarpendon Krater's notoriety resulted from its theft by a gang of Italian tombaroli or tomb robbers in December 1971.The crime scene was the Etruscan burial ground of Greppe Sant'Angelo located in Tuscany. These cliff tombs housed the ashes and grave goods of Etruscan nobles from the ancient city state of Caere, now called Cerveteri. The vase was part of the rich store of Greek luxury goods purchased by the Etruscans. Their wealth from vast deposits of iron and copper ore enabled them to buy the best that the Greeks had to offer.

Euphronios and Euxitheos, The Sarpedon Krater, ca. 515-510 B.C.

© Cerveteri, Museo Archeologico

In the autumn of 1972, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it had purchased the Sarpedon Krater, the "finest Greek vase there is" according to a Met publicity release from the time. Almost immediately, "red flags" began waving. Where had this incredible red-figure Athenian krater or wine-mixing vase come from? It was a very good question and an inconvenient one.

The two officials of the Met who were responsible for purchasing the Sarpedon Krater should have examined its provenance more closely. The curator in charge of the Met's celebrated Greek and Roman galleries was Dietrich von Bothmer, one of the world's greatest authorities on ancient art. The Met's director, Thomas Hoving, was a master-mind of publicity and revenue-generating exhibitions. Neither could resist the temptation of adding the Sarpedon Krater to the Met's collection.

The third figure in the million dollar transaction was Bob Hecht, an art dealer whose reputation was hedged in question marks. Hecht claimed that the Sarpedon Krater came from the collection of an elderly Armenian, Dikran Sarrafian, who needed to provide for his retirement. Sarrafian died a few years later in suspicious car accident.The murky, tortuous plot, with Italian officials in pursuit of the tombaroli and Hecht, is deftly handled by Spivey and need not detain us.

From the standpoint of the visual art scene, however, it is important to acknowledge the role of Philippe de Montebello, who replaced Hoving as director at the Met. In a brilliant stroke of damage control, de Montebello repatriated the Sarpedon Krater to Italy in 2008. By way of compensation, the Italian government has provided generous cooperation in mounting many of the outstanding exhibitions which the Met has featured since then.

Perhaps the greatest long-term benefit of returning the Sarpedon Krater is liberating it from the contention which shrouded its time at the Met. De Montebello's decision has given the Sarpedon Krater the opportunity to be studied and appreciated as the profoundly moving work of art which it is. Nigel Spivey does exactly that, in a book that is a model of insight, concise detail and thoughtful, immensely readable prose.

There are two signatures on the Sarpedon Krater: Euxitheos and Euphronios. The first of these craftsmen was the man who shaped and fired the vase. Euxitheos the potter, despite the high caliber of his work, has only a "walk-on" role. The tale of the creation of the Sarpedon Krater is the story of Euphronios.

The Sarpedon Krater (detail)

The Sarpedon Krater depicts a scene from the Trojan War. Two spiritual beings clad in military uniforms are shown grasping the bleeding, prostrate body of a handsome young warrior. The divine messenger, Mercury, directs the duo, Thanatos (Death) and Hypnos (Sleep), as they prepare to transmit the dead warrior, Sarpedon, to his tomb.

The great vase or krater which Euxitheos and Euphronios jointly created was, almost certainly, made for an elite gathering of Athenians, a symposium. Students of philosophy will recognize this familiar term from the writings of Plato.

A symposium mixed serious discussion with wine drinking and - very often - drunken revelry. Spivey discusses the symposium in great detail, reflecting on why such a scene such as the burial detail of Sarpedon should have been the subject of the wine krater for a symposium. And it was not just the vase which was decorated in such an alarming fashion. A kylix or wine cup often had images of celestial beings gathering fallen heroes in their arms.

Eos with the Body of Memnon, ca. 490-480 B.C.

After draining your cup of joy, your eyes would behold a sobering sight. In the celebrated example (above) from the Louvre, Eos mourns for another slain Trojan, Memnon. At least for the first few rounds of a symposium, there would be no escaping from reminders of mortality.

The Sarpedon Krater is signed by Euphronios but most of the masters of Athenian vase painting are not known by their proper name. Instead, an artificial title has been conferred upon them by modern art scholars. The most famous case of such an I.D. process is the career of the "Berlin Painter." This contemporary of Euphronios received his title based upon a work in the collection of a Berlin museum which was closely studied by Sir John Beazley, a British scholar of Greek vase painting around the time of World War I.

Beazley established a methodology by which characteristic details of drawing, often very small and idiosyncratic, can be used to establish the identity of Greek vase painters. Frustratingly, Euphronios did not feature any absolutely unique details which separate him from other Athenian vase painters. Yet it is possible to ascribe a signature "brand" to Euphronios and one, moreover, of the highest quality. Spivey notes:

Regardless of minor details, Euphronios fund a style, and a mode of composition, that enabled him to broach grand themes of drama and epic - themes that would suit large- scale painting well enough, but required skill and distillation if they were to fit upon a vase.

The "grand themes of drama and epic" of the vases painted by Euphronios appealed to Etruscan nobles, who placed Athenian masterpieces in their tombs. However, the Sarpedon Krater, and others like it, did not simply disappear into the burial chambers of the Etruscans. Examples of death scenes from mythology were featured on elaborate sarcophagi which remained above ground during the Roman era. Many of these featured the death scene of the hero Meleager, from the poems of Ovid.

Marble sarcophagus fragment depicting the death of Meleager, 2nd century A.D.

The example of a Meleager sarcophagus, above, comes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Spivey uses other versions from Italian collections in his book, but I especially value this one which was restored during the 1500's. From Euphronios and the Roman sarcophagi sculptors there is a direct line of transmission to the masters of the Renaissance, which Spivey expertly traces in his concluding chapters.

Raphael, Pen-an-ink study of the Deposition, ca. 1507

Raphael's pen-an-ink drawing of the deposition of the body of Jesus was one of sixteen preparatory sketches for a 1507 oil painting, commissioned for the chapel of an aristocratic family, the Baglioni of Perugia. He was clearly influenced by Meleager sarcophagi from antiquity. The "wheel" has come full-circle from Euphronias, but the instinctual human attempt to find transcendence in the face of death goes on.

This very fine book deals with universal issues which one day will directly concern each of us. A sobering reflection perhaps, like drinking the last of the wine in a symposium kylix and glimpsing the picture of a warrior's corpse being readied for burial. But the Sarpedon Krater is also a noble affirmation of the imperishable human soul, much in keeping with John Donne's reminder to Death to "be not proud."

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

***

Introductory Image:

Cover Illustration of The Sarpedon Krater, courtesy of The University of Chicago Press and Head of Zeus Publishing, Ltd, London

Euphronios and Euxitheos, The Sarpedon Krater, ca. 515-510 B.C. Attic red-ware ceramics: 45.7 cm. (18 inches) Height, 55.15 cm. (21.7 inches) diameter of mouth. Cerveteri, Museo Archeologico.

Eos with the Body of Memnon, interior of a kylix by Douris, from Capua, ca. 490-480 B.C., Paris, Musée du Louvre, G 115

Unknown Roman artist, Antonine era, Marble sarcophagus fragment depicting the death of Meleager, mid-2nd century A.D. Marble (Luni and Pentelic): 38 1/8 in. × 8 3/4 in. × 46 7/8 in. (96.8 × 22.2 × 119.1 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rogers Fund, 1920. #20.187

Raphael (Italian, 1483 - 1520) Pen-and-brown study for the Deposition (also called the the Baglione 'Entombment', ca. 1507. Pen-and-brown ink on paper: 213 millimetres (height) X 319 millimetres (width), inscribed: "R.V." British Museum. #1963,1216.1

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Art Eyewitness Essay: The Etruscans and Rome

The Etruscans and Rome

An Art Eyewitness Essay, Part III

By Ed Voves

"We must, indeed, all hang together," Benjamin Franklin declared to his fellow members of the Continental Congress in 1776, "or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

As a man of the eighteenth century Enlightenment, Franklin was well-versed with the histories of the Greeks and Romans. These narratives contained many incidents recounting how the Greeks and Romans had, indeed, failed to "all hang together."

There was another people from classical antiquity whose story also confirms the political lesson to which Franklin referred, the Etruscans.

The Etruscans, unlike the Greeks and Romans, were little known in Franklin's day, but now, two and a half centuries later, we have a much better appreciation of their considerable accomplishments. Thanks to painstaking scholarship, we also have a significant body of evidence for the Etruscan failure to create an effective confederation of their twelve city-states, as Franklin and his colleagues were to achieve for the fledgling United States.

Chariot Fitting, 540-520 B.C.

The story of Etruscan civilization - and all civilizations - is how their citizens dealt with "existential" problems. These are dire challenges, providing occasions for successful, life-affirming responses or for failures leading to utter disaster.

The theory of civilizational "challenge/response" was the central theme of Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History, published in a multi-volume series from 1930 to 1961. At the risk of over-simplification, Toynbee's theory, "the greater the challenge, the greater the stimulus," can be grasped in several key quotes:

Civilizations, I believe, come to birth and proceed to grow by successfully responding to successive challenges. They breakdown and go to pieces if and when a challenge confronts them that they fail to meet.

The last stage but one of every civilization is characterized by the forced political unification of its constituent parts.

Toynbee also declared that civilizations rise and develop in "environments that are unusually difficult and not unusually easy." Such circumstances present problems which demand solutions. Survival - or extinction - depends on the response.

For the Etruscans the initial problem was how to gain access to the huge store of iron ore and copper ore located in their domains. Mining in the ancient world can never have been easy but the Etruscans managed to exploit the mineral wealth beneath their feet at an early date.

The Etruscan homeland was also rich in defensible positions. As Michael Grant describes in his book, The Etruscans, there were numerous steep-sided plateaus in Etruria. The early Etruscans readily took advantage of these natural fortresses for their villages, which then combined to form city-states.

The key words in the last quote from Toynbee are "unusually difficult." Compared with the problems faced in growing crops in mainland Greece, which is almost devoid of topsoil, the problems faced by the Etruscans were not "unusually" difficult. The Etruscans, skillful miners and metal-workers, were able to extract vast amounts of mineral wealth without extreme levels of effort.

The Etruscans did confront two existential challenges. Their reactions to these challenges determined the fate of their civilization.

As we saw in the earlier Art Eyewitness essays, the Etruscans brilliantly responded to the first challenge, the overwhelming tides of Greek and Phoenician influence which threatened their cultural independence. Masters at adaptation, the Etruscans borrowed what suited them and ignored what did not, maintaining their own unique identity.

We can assess this response in one of the most famous works of Etruscan art, a magnificent, heartwarming statute of an Etruscan husband and wife from the collection of the Louvre.

The Sarcophagus of the Spouses, ca. 520 - 510 B.C.

Known as The Sarcophagus of the Spouses, it was discovered in 1845 near the site of the Etruscan city-state of Caere, now called Cerveteri. The motif of reclining husband and wife on a burial monument originated in Asia Minor and almost certainly was brought to Etruria by the Phoenicians, major trade partners of the Etruscans. The haunting "smile" of the husband and wife exemplifies Greek Archaic art, which flourished during the sixth century B.C. and greatly appealed to the Etruscans.

The Sarcophagus of the Spouses, however, is not a Phoenician statue nor is it a Greek one. In technical terms, this masterpiece demonstrates the skill of the Etruscans in using terracotta ceramics in compensation for the lack of local marble. More fundamentally, this tremendous work of art exudes an equality of husband and wife which could only have existed in a society where women were accorded a very high degree of respect and autonomy. This was exactly the attitude of the Etruscans toward women, very different from that of the Greeks.

The Etruscan skill in using terracotta to sculpt a human likeness was not limited to one or two great works of art. Following Greek example, the Etruscans created terracotta embellishments for the roofs of their temples called antefixes. Modeled to take the form of the heads of a mythological characters, a row of upright antefixes was placed along the eaves of a temple roof to keep rain water from seeping under the roof tiles causing damage to the wooden beams underneath.

Initially, an antefix was likely to bear the countenance of Medusa or some other fearsome monster. But the Etruscans could not resist creating endearing likenesses of human beings like this antefix, made at Caere, and now in the Getty Museum.

Antefix from Caere , 510–500 B.C.

From the humble beginning of creating antefixes, evolved the remarkable Etruscan school of votive portraits, designed to be placed in their temples. There are so many of these to choose from, but the superlative example (below) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art certainly deserves inclusion here.

Terracotta Head of a Youth, 3rd–2nd century B.C.

Created during the waning years of Etruscan power, this portrait of a helmeted hero looked back to the golden age of the city states of Etruria. Once again, it is a brilliant adaptation of Greek art, in this case evoking the idealized features of Alexander the Great. The hero's face, however, preserves the emotional mystery, as well as the vigor, of Archaic era which Etruscan artists continued to favor after the Greeks themselves had abandoned it.

By studying the examples cited above, we can see how the "challenge/response" to Greek and Phoenician culture sparked a vigorous assertion of Etruscan identity. The first "existential" challenge culminated in an Etruscan success story of the highest order.

The second "existential" challenge, however, resulted in failure, defeat and the eventual loss of Etruscan political independence.

The threat to the Etruscans was posed by the Latin-speaking inhabitants of a village on the banks of the Tiber River, the southern border of Etruria. The name of this huddle of thatched-roofed huts, built on seven hills, was Rome.

Early Rome had nothing to recommend it, except its location. There were no deposits of iron ore, copper or tin. Rome's strategic position, however, meant a great deal to the southernmost of the Etruscan city-states and to groups of ambitious free-booting Etruscan warriors. They coveted the fertile soil of Campania, the richest agricultural region in the south of Italy. To get there from Etruria, travelers needed to pass through Rome.

Around 600 B.C., Etruscans took control of Rome and, over the course of the next century, transformed it into a city. The Etruscans introduced the alphabet and stone buildings, drained a marshy area to create the Forum and strengthened the defenses with an encircling rampart. Nobody looks favorably on being conquered, however, especially a people who later became very successful conquerors themselves.

In 507 B.C., the Romans rose in rebellion against the Etruscan king, Tarquinius or Tarquin the Proud. According to Roman history, the king's son, Sextus Tarquinius, raped a virtuous noblewoman of Rome, Lucretia. To preserve her family's honor, Lucretia committed suicide, sparking the successful Roman revolt.

The story of Lucretia was narrated by the Roman historian, Livy, and passed down as part of the foundational myth-history of Rome. Artists from the Renaissance to the Romantic era frequently depicted the event, usually with Lucretia in varying degrees of "undress" to heighten the erotic appeal and selling price of the work.

Rembrandt, ignoring the "sex sells" approach to art, painted two versions of the suicide of Lucretia which are of enduring value.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Lucretia, 1664

Though separated by over two thousand years from the actual event, Rembrandt accurately captured the emotional traits of the citizens of early Rome in the way he presented Lucretia: honor, courage, determination, self-sacrifice and patriotism.

Early Rome's virtues may not have been lacking among the Etruscans, but we have no histories of the Etruscans, written during ancient times. This make an impartial judgement difficult, if not impossible. A comparison of a Roman work of art, much later in date though it is, with the The Sarcophagus of the Spouses, does help us take the measure of Roman attitudes vis-a-vis those of the Etruscans.

Funerary Relief of Publius Aiedius Amphio and his wife Aiedia, ca. 30 B.C.

The Funerary Relief of Publius Aiedius Amphio and his wife Aiedia, dates to around 30 B.C. Roman portraits, such as this, evolved directly from the example of Etruscan votive images. However, these highly realistic Roman likenesses developed in reaction to the spirit of Etruscan votive portraiture.

The couple on The Sarcophagus of the Spouses projects feelings of enjoyment of the "good life" - for all eternity. The careworn faces of Publius Aiedius Amphio and Aiedia testify to their lives of toil and sacrifice on behalf of their family and their fellow citizens of Rome. They pose standing-up (some Roman funerary reliefs are full-figure) not lounging on a couch. This marble sculpture, and many similar Roman portraits, proclaims the implacable willpower of the Roman people.

Generalizations, like the above, are risky. What we can say is that, as Rome gained in strength, the Etruscans failed to muster the kind of emotional fortitude we see on the faces of Publius Aiedius Amphio and Aiedia. As a result, they were unable to achieve Toynbee's "last stage but one of every civilization ... the forced political unification of its constituent parts."

Michael Grant emphasized that we should "erase the term 'Etruscan' and replace it by the name of one of the Etruscan states." The Romans, "team-players" for much of their early history, quickly learned that they were dealing not with Etruscans but with independent-minded citizens of Caere, Veii, Vulcii, Tarquinii and Clusium.

Between the years 507 to 396 B.C., the Romans successfully dealt with a host of political and social problems. Unified on the home front, the Romans sharpened the point of their most effective weapon: the strategy of "divide and conquer." With this policy, rather than numerically superior forces, the Romans began their campaigns to conquer Italy, starting with the Etruscans.

"Divide and conquer" was first carried-out against Veii, located twelve miles northwest of Rome. Veii competed with Caere to be the most prestigious and powerful of the Etruscan city-states. The leaders of Rome's republic took note, establishing good relations with Caere while marshaling their forces against Veii. In 396 B.C., the Romans launched a devastating attack on Veii, capturing and sacking the city. Not one of the other Etruscan city-states sent support to Veii in its hour of need.

Shortly after seizing Veii, Rome was nearly destroyed by a massive invasion of Celtic warriors in 387 B.C. Caere provided vital assistance to help Rome survive, the kind of aid that had been denied Veii. Rome would always maintain cordial relations with Caere but that did not prevent the Romans from eventually bringing this Etruscan city-state under its power.

Rome's triumph over the Etruscans was as much a campaign of incorporation as conquest. The Romans had the good sense to confer Roman citizenship upon the Etruscans, and eventually upon all the various peoples of Italy, by 90 B.C. At the same time, local customs were honored and even the non-Indo-European language of the Etruscans continued in use for over a century.

Statue of Aulus Metellus, known as "The Orator", 110-90 B.C.

The gradual process of "Romanization" is apparent in the bronze statue known as "The Orator." Created around 100 B.C., the statue records both the physical features of Aulus Metellus and the regalia of the Roman Senate to which he belonged.

Yet, Aulus Metellus was not a "noblest Roman of them all," as he looks at first glance. Metellus came from an Etruscan family and the hem of his toga is inscribed with an invocation in the Etruscan language. This statue, which I saw at the 2015 Power and Pathos exhibition organized by the Getty Museum and the National Gallery in Washington, is a masterful expression of the now-combined forces of Etruscan and Roman civilization.

The rise of Aulus Metellus to the rank of Roman senator set the stage for other Etruscans to gain power in the Roman establishment. For good and ill, Etruscans would continue to affect the course of Rome's destiny.

Cinerary Urn with Aeneas and Turnus, 200–100 B.C.

The greatest of these influential Etruscans was Gaius Maecenas, (ca.70 B.C- 8 B.C.). Maecenas, the chief political advisor of Octavian Caesar, later Augustus, was also the most cultivated patron of the arts of his age. Maecenas encouraged Virgil to write an epic poem, based on the legends of Aeneas, the refugee prince of Troy. The adventures of Aeneas were sacred to the Etruscans and Romans and were frequently depicted on works of art such as the cinerary urn, made between 200 to 100 B.C.

Virgil (ca.70 B.C-19 B.C.). was born in Mantua, a city founded by Etruscans in the north of Italy. After some prodding by Maecenas and Augustus, he composed his great poem, the Aenead, one of the greatest literary achievements of all time. Sadly, Virgil died before completing it.

Maecenas and Virgil represent the culmination of Etruscan civilization. The legacy of Aelius Sejanus (20 B.C.-31 A.D.) had a very different effect.

Sejanus, "this ambitious Etruscan" as Michael Grant calls him, rose to the rank of prefect or commander of the Praetorian Guard. He was the most trusted official of Tiberius, the second emperor of Rome. Then, as a result of a political power play, Sejanus was accused of plotting against Tiberius and executed in 31 A.D.

Marble Relief of the Praetorian Guard, ca. 50-51 A.D.

Whether Sejanus was planning a coup against Tiberius or trying to position himself to thwart Gaius-Caligula, the mad grand-nephew of Tiberius, will never be proved. What is beyond dispute is that Sejanus transformed the Praetorians from a few battalions of bodyguards into a powerful military unit, capable of murdering the emperors they were supposed to protect. Before they were finally disbanded in 312 A.D., the Praetorians were responsible for assassinating thirteen Roman emperors. Worse, their constant intrigue undermined the very concept of the rule of Roman law.

By creating the "behind-the-throne" power of the Praetorians, Sejanus set in motion a train of events which led to the eventual collapse of Rome's empire. How ironic it is that an Etruscan, whose ancestors contributed so much to the rise of Rome, should have unintentionally caused its downfall.

***

Images courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, J.Paul Getty Museum, the British Museum, the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., the Musee du Louvre, Louvre-Lens and the Altes Museum, Berlin

Introductory Image:

Candelabrum (detail), ca. 500-475 B.C. Bronze: 61 in. (154.9 cm) height, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, #61:11.3

Chariot - or Furniture - Fitting (excavated at Castel San Mariano, Perugia), 540 -520 B.C. Silver electrum repoussé: 15.50 cm (length) x 9 cm (width). British Museum, bequeathed by Richard Payne Knight #1824,0420+.2

The Sarcophagus of the Spouses, (found at Cerveteri, in the necropolis of Banditaccia), 520 - 510 B.C.Terracotta polychrome: H. 1.11 m. ; l. 1.94 m., Musée du Louvre. Campana collection, 1863. #Cp 5194

The Sarcophagus of the Spouses (detail) © Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines, Dunod

Antefix from Caere (Cerveteri), 510–500 B.C. Terracotta and slip: 34.5 × 28 × 26.1 cm (13 9/16 × 11 × 10 1/4 in.) The J. Paul Getty Museum, Gift of Leon Levy. 83.AD.211.11

Terracotta Head of a Youth, 3rd–2nd century B.C. Terracotta: . 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Purchase by subscription, 1896. #96.18.173 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669) Lucretia, 1664. Oil on Canvas: 120 x 101 cm (47 1/4 x 39 3/4 in.) National Gallery of Art. Andrew W. Mellon Collection # No.1937.1.76 National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Funerary Relief of Publius Aiedius Amphio and his wife Aiedia (found along the Via Appia in Rome) 30 B.C. Marble sculpture: 64.5 x 102 x 24 cm. Altes Museum, Berlin. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:-0030_Grabrelief_Publius_Aiedius_Amphio_und_Frau_Aiedia_Altes_Museum_anagoria.JPG

Statue of Aulus Metellus, known as "The Orator", (found near Lake Trasimeno in the province of Perugia), 110-90 B.C. Bronze: 179 cm (70 in) National Archaeological Museum, Florence. Photo courtesy of J.Paul Getty Museum

Cinerary Urn with Aeneas and Turnus, 200–100 B.C. Alabaster with polychromy: 34 × 46 × 19 cm (13 3/8 × 18 1/8 × 7 1/2 in.), The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California. # 71.AA.294

Marble relief statue of the Praetorian Guard, ca. 50-51 A.D. Marble: 163 cm (64 in) × 134 cm (53 in) × 28 cm (11 in). Musee du Louvre, Louvre-Lens, France. # Ma1079