1. Etruscan and Roman

3. Italian Peninsula
End of bronze age (1000 BCE) – north &west occupied by northern people
central areas by various peoples, italic languages, Latin too
c. 750 BCE - Greeks established colonies in Sicily and the mainland
The Etruscans
7th, 6th cent. BCE – one people get control of most of north and central Italy, Etruria, and then down till Campania
Wealthy farmers and metal workers – bought art made by the Greeks (originals and had copies made); borrowed Greek architecture techniques (temples), Greek gods and heroes
Rome
509 BCE – formation of the Roman Republic
5th cent to end of 3rd cent. BCE – gradual expansion of Rome and integration of Etruscans into Roman culture; Romans commission and buy much art from Etruscans
Impossible to make clear distinctions between Greek, Etruscan and Roman art

5. Our sources (1st and 2nd cent. CE)
Vitruvius (Roman), Ten Books on Architecture, compilation of Etruscan and Roman architecture
Pliny the Elder (Roman), Naturalis Historia, encyclopedia including art
Pliny the Younger (Roman) (domestic architecture)
Ovid (Roman), Metamorphoses (Greek and Roman myths and transformations)
Virgil (Roman), Aeneid, (Greek v. Roman characters)
Pausanias (Greek), writer and traveler, descriptions of Greece
Plutarch (Greek) (art v. artist)

6. Domestic architecture (known from tombs) – houses around an uncovered
Political system – king-based system and a federation of a dozen cities
City plan – city divided by 2 main arteries intersecting at business center; protective walls
Domestic architecture (known from tombs) – houses around an uncovered
central courtyard (atrium) with a pool
or cistern fed by rainwater

7. Porta Augusta, Perugia 3rd – 2nd cent. BCE
protective walls

8. Arch, Vault, and Dome

9. influence of Greek entablature, Doric frieze (roundels + pilasters)
The ARCH
voussoirs
Voussoirs, springing, impost, buttressing
Roundels and pilasters
influence of Greek entablature, Doric frieze (roundels + pilasters)

10. Based on Greek temples yet different
Etruscan Temple
Reconstruction and plan
based on archeological evidence
and descriptions by Vitruvius
Podium and staircase
Frontal orientation
Projecting roof
Roof statuary
Shape and space division
Mud brick, wood or tufa
Variations on the column orders
Reconstruction of the Elevation
of the Portonaccio Temple in Veii,
B.C.

11. Roman architectural orders Tuscan order (Vitruvius)

12. Terra cotta sculpture from Veii, Head of Hermes (Mercury)
c. 500 bce
Apollo, c. 6’
Roof statuary (walking along roof ridgepole)
Apollo, Hercules, Diana and Mercury
Archaic smile
Head of Hermes (Mercury)

13. Vigor and purposeful movement

14. The cemetary at Ceverteri = small town
Funerary practices
Tombs = homes for the dead
No preservation of body = cremation
Celebration of life
The cemetary at Ceverteri = small town
Underground tombs
corbel vaulting, tufa

15. Burial chamber, tomb of the Triclinium, Tarquinia, 480-470 BCE

16. Tomb of the Lionesses
Tarquinia, 5th bce

17. Tomb of Hunting & Fishing

18. Plastered, painted walls Stone and stucco furniture
Excavated from rock
Plastered, painted walls
Tomb of the Reliefs,
Ceverteri, 3rd bce
Stone and stucco furniture

19. Sarcophagus from Cerveteri, 520 BCE, 6’7”
terra cotta sculpture
reclining on a triclinium
archaic smile
Sarcophagus from Cerveteri, 520 BCE, 6’7”

20. Sarcophagus from Ceverteri,
terra cotta , 6’7” long, 520 bce

21. Etruscan sarcophagi

22. Cinerary urns, terra-cotta
c. 600 and 400 BCE

23. Terra cotta portrait heads
2nd cent. BCE
Terra cotta portrait heads

24. Bronze Portrait Heads c. 300 bce
masters of the art of bronze sculpture
Bronze Portrait Heads c. 300 bce
Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder write about how valued these statues were in Italy and Beyond
Brutus (founder and first consul
of the first Roman republic)?
Bronze and painted ivory, 12” h.

25. Head of young Man, Cervereri, 3rd Cent BCE

26. Etruscan She-Wolf , c. 500 BCE
bronze, glass paste, 33”
Naturalism and stylization

28. Chimera, bronze, 5th – 4th cent. BCE
"a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind,
a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire“
Homer, The Illiad.