#midterm461

Object 18: Ash Urn Lid: Old Married Couple (Volterra)

Themes: Portraiture and aging, marriage, regional funerary tradition, terracotta ash urns

Visual Description

A terracotta ash urn or lid (hollow, with circular holes in each head for ash insertion) depicting an old married couple lying on a couch, found in the Ulimeto necropolis, Volterra (discovered 1743; collected by Mario Guarnacci). The man wears a tunic, mantle, and thick wreath on his receding hairline; he leans on cushions, resting a veined, be-ringed hand on a drinking bowl, gazing into the distance. The woman lies in front of him on her stomach in a contorted position — sleeveless tunic and mantle — her face in profile turned toward him with a grim, bitter expression. Her elegantly waved hair is gathered in a bun. The woman's forearm (missing) was probably raised to caress his cheek.

Significance

Sometimes called 'the portrait of marriage,' this urn is among the most emotionally powerful surviving Etruscan works. The man's apparently individual features (deep furrows, veined hand) are in fact paralleled on other Volterran urns, confirming that even 'realistic' features are generic Hellenistic portrait types with age-indicating additions. The woman's grim expression — in poignant contrast to her loving gesture — has been read as a 'life full of care.' The hollow terracotta construction (ashes could be inserted through the heads) is a uniquely Etruscan solution uniting the ash container with the image of the deceased. The choice of terracotta (rare in Volterra, where alabaster was common) may be a deliberate archaizing gesture.

Broader Themes & Connections

Realistic vs. idealized portraiture in Hellenistic Etruria; the ash urn as surrogate body; marriage as a theme in funerary art (compare Sarcophagus of Ramtha Visnai); terracotta as an archaizing material choice; Northern Etruscan funerary traditions; the Guarnacci Museum and the preservation of Etruscan heritage.

Object 16: Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa

Themes:

Elite funerary sculpture, idealized vs. real portraiture, terracotta production, women's identity

Visual Description

A terracotta sarcophagus found alone in a small chamber tomb at Poggio Cantarello, Chiusi, dated end of 4th to mid-3rd century BCE. The architectural pedestal box has a frieze of alternating triglyphs and rosettes. The lid (in two parts) shows a mature woman resting on a mattress and pillow, dressed in a sleeveless high-girt chiton and mantle. She holds a circular lidded mirror in her left hand and raises the edge of her mantle in a bridal gesture with her right. Her face has an idealized classicizing beauty (almost straight profile, slightly open lips); her jewelry (tiara, earrings, necklace, bracelets, rings) is restrained. Extensive remains of polychrome paint survive.

Significance

The sarcophagus is a landmark for the study of Etruscan portraiture and the gap between idealized representation and biological reality: skeletal analysis of bones reveals a woman of 50–55 who suffered serious injury (possibly from a horse or cart), resulting in arthritis, spinal curvature, and jaw deformation — none of which appears in the idealized image. The lady's name (cut into the wet clay) belongs to two known Chiusine aristocratic families. The bridal gesture of lifting the mantle, the mirror, and the careful polychrome finish all constitute a specific visual language of elite female Chiusine identity. The terracotta medium reflects regional economic patterns.

Broader Themes & Connections

The gap between idealized funerary portraiture and biological reality; the mirror as a symbol of female identity and status; the bridal gesture in Etruscan art; aristocratic family identity preserved in inscribed names; terracotta versus stone as regional economic choices; Chiusi as a center of sarcophagus production.

Key Terms

Object 15: Column-Krater from Tomb of Calsna (Kelebai)

Themes:

Funerary vase-painting, regional artistic style, portraiture vs. genericism, Hellenistic influence

Visual Description

Column-kraters (kelebai) made in Volterra used as ash urns. Distinguished by large-scale male and female heads in profile or three-quarter view, sketched rapidly in brush strokes on the belly or neck of the vase. The heads are vigorously painted with hatched shading that reflects Early Hellenistic pictorial techniques. Though tomb contexts suggest the heads 'stand for' the deceased, their generic quality and similarity to contemporary votive terracotta heads argue against reading them as true portraits. Tomb contexts indicate these vessels were manufactured between the last decade of the 4th and middle of the 3rd century BCE and distributed beyond Volterra into Northern Etruria.

Significance

The kelebai illustrate the tension in Etruscan funerary art between the desire to individualize the dead and the conventions of generic artistic types. The fluid, Hellenistic-influenced brushwork shows how northern Etruscan artists absorbed and adapted new pictorial techniques arriving from the Hellenistic Greek world. As ash urns, these vases belong to a specifically northern Etruscan tradition of cremation (compare Chiusi's Canopic urns) that persisted even as inhumation sarcophagi flourished in the south — revealing continued regional diversity within Etruria.

Broader Themes & Connections

Regional variation in funerary practice (Northern vs. Southern Etruria); Hellenistic pictorial influence on Etruscan painting; the tension between individual portraiture and generic type; the ash urn as a vehicle for the image of the dead; distribution and trade of funerary goods within Etruria.

Key Terms

Object 14: Sarcophagus of Ramtha Visnai and Arnth Tetnies (Ponte Rotto)

Themes:

Marital identity, gender roles, aristocratic status, funerary sculpture

Visual Description

A stone sarcophagus from Ponte Rotto, Southern Etruria. On the lid, the married couple Ramtha Visnai and Arnth Tetnies lie in high-relief loving embrace on their marital bed under the same cover. Ramtha wears a light chiton, disc-earrings, and bracelet; her hair is braided and wound around her head. Arnth is clean-shaven with short hair framing a heavy middle-aged face; he is naked under a light mantle. Although depicted together, the inscription states Ramtha alone occupied the sarcophagus. The front relief shows the couple united: Ramtha's left hand on his shoulder, he clasping her right wrist; a youth holds an umbrella over them; three women attendants carry a wine jug, fan, situla, and kithara. Arnth's side shows four attendants with the symbols of a high magistrate: ivory folding seat, curved staff, war trumpet, and double pipes. Short sides depict their parallel departures to the underworld.

Significance

This sarcophagus is a masterpiece of Etruscan gender symmetry: the reliefs are carefully balanced to show Ramtha and Arnth as equally important in their separate spheres — she in the priestly/domestic sphere, he in the civic/military sphere. The umbrella and fan are ancient status symbols; the wine jug and situla may relate to Ramtha's priestly duties. The fact that she alone occupiedthe sarcophagus despite their joint depiction suggests the lid image represents marital identity and social role rather than literal co-burial. The short side panels with winged death demons hovering over the couple's departure are among the most powerful Etruscan images of the transition to the underworld.

Broader Themes & Connections

Etruscan women's religious and civic roles; gender symmetry in funerary art; status symbols (umbrella, fan) and their ancient Near Eastern origins; the sarcophagus as a document of aristocratic identity; Etruscan concepts of death and the underworld; the relationship between inscription and image.

Key Terms

Object 13: Lead Curse Statuettes (Sovana)

Themes:

Magic and ritual, defixio (curse tablet tradition), personal identity, cross-cultural practice

Visual Description

Two small cast-lead nude figures, both with hands behind their backs as if tied, discovered in 1908 in a tomb at Sovana. Their 'Polyclitan' stance (one leg relaxed) and hairstyle suggest a 4th–3rd century BCE date. Names are incised on the thigh of each: the male is Sertur Cecnas (Sertorius Caecina), the female Velia Satnea. The figures were secreted into an old chamber tomb from the early 6th century BCE — a tomb no longer in active use — several centuries after its original burial. Significance

The lead curse statuettes (defixiones) provide rare evidence for magical practice in Etruscan society. The deposition of images of hated persons in a tomb — an old, underworld-connected space — was believed to be an efficacious way to bring about their death. This practice is part of a wide Mediterranean tradition of curse tablets (lead tablets thrown into wells or other places connected to chthonic deities). The inscribed names make the identification of target specific and personal — a named individual could be magically 'bound.' The reuse of an ancient tomb for this purpose underscores Etruscan beliefs about the power of the dead and underworld spaces to harm the living.

Broader Themes & Connections

Defixio (curse tablet) tradition across the Mediterranean; the tomb as underworld space and locus of magical power; lead as a chthonic material; personal names and individual identity in Etruscan inscriptions; the intersection of official religion (haruspicy) and popular magic; comparison with Greek and Roman curse practices.

Key Terms

Object 12: Bronze Liver from Piacenza

Themes:

Etruscan religion, divination, cosmology, Haruspicy, Mesopotamian influence

Visual Description

A life-sized stylized bronze model of a sheep's liver found near Piacenza, dated to the second half of the 2nd century BCE. On the visceral (concave) side, incised lines subdivide the circumference into 16 compartments, with 24 further irregularly shaped fields inside — all inscribed with the names of Etruscan and Italic divinities (42 inscriptions total; no Greek gods are named). On the convex side, only two names appear: Usil (sun) and Tivr (moon). The script indicates anorthern Etruscan maker.

Significance

The Piacenza Liver is one of the most important surviving documents of Etruscan religious thought. It was likely a teaching tool for haruspices — priests who read the will of the gods by inspecting animal entrails. The liver maps the Etruscan cosmological system onto a single organ: the 16 celestial regions each inhabited by a deity correspond to 16 compartments on the liver's rim, enacting the Etruscan idea that macrocosm and microcosm mirror each other. This practice of divination had precedents in Mesopotamia and was transmitted to Greece and Rome; the Etruscans were famous throughout antiquity for this skill. The absence of Greek gods is striking — the liver preserves a purely indigenous religious vocabulary.

Broader Themes & Connections

Haruspicy as a distinctly Etruscan religious practice; the macrocosm-microcosm correspondence in Etruscan cosmology; Mesopotamian origins and transmission of divination; the role of priests in Etruscan society; the liver as a map of the universe; Roman adoption of Etruscan religious practices.

Key Terms

Object 11: Wall Painting: Charun and Vanth (Tomb of the Anina Family)

Themes:

Etruscan underworld, death demons, religious syncretism, funerary painting

Visual Description

A wall painting from the entrance wall of the Tomb of the Anina Family. Vanth is typically depicted in a short belted chiton with crossed straps, boots, and wings; her attributes include torch, snake, sword, and scroll. She is a messenger of death or escort to the beyond. Charun (derived from Greek Charon but distinctly Etruscan) typically carries a large hammer as his main attribute, and occasionally a key. His face is human but disfigured by canine teeth and animal ears. He usually wears a short tunic and boots. In Hellenistic examples, multiple Charun figures appear together with different epithets and attributes, suggesting a pluralization of what may once have been a single divinity.

Significance

Charun and Vanth reveal how Etruscan religion adopted Greek mythological figures and fundamentally transformed them. Greek Charon is a passive ferryman; Etruscan Charun is an active, sometimes terrifying gatekeeper of the underworld whose hammer opens (or forces entry through) the gates of Hades. Vanth has no direct Greek equivalent — she is a specifically Etruscan spirit of compassion and guidance at death. The proliferation of both figures in late Etruscan tomb painting reflects increasing Etruscan anxiety about death and the afterlife during the period of Roman conquest, and demonstrates how religious imagery can adapt to changing historical circumstances.

Broader Themes & Connections

Etruscan transformation of Greek mythology; the Etruscan underworld as a distinct religious system; Charun's hammer as a symbol of gate-keeping rather than ferrying; Vanth as a uniquely Etruscan female death spirit; late Etruscan funerary anxiety and multiplying death demons; syncretism and religious change.

Key Terms

Object 10: Canopic Urns (Chiusi)

Themes:

Cremation tradition, anthropomorphization of the dead, Egyptian influence, regional variation

Visual Description

Canopic urns from the inland region of Chiusi, where cremation continued into the Orientalizing period unlike coastal Southern Etruria. The ash urn is housed inside a large ziro (terracotta storage jar), set in rock-cut pits covered by stone slabs. The urn itself evolved from a Villanovan biconic form: the globular lid progressively became more human — first roughly indicating facial features, then becoming a full head with hair, and the body of the vessel acquiring sternums, nipples, and rudimentary arms. Some urns were made in hammered bronze. Both pottery and bronze specimens were placed on miniature thrones of stone, terracotta, or bronze, sometimes accompanied by small tables.

Significance

The Canopic urn tradition in Chiusi shows how a conservative regional practice — cremation — adapted to new ideas about the individuality and dignity of the dead. By progressively humanizing the container of the ashes, the urn became a surrogate body for the deceased. The throne elevates the urn-person to an ancestral, dignified status (compare the Tomb of Five Chairs). The Egyptian reference in the name 'Canopic' is superficial; what matters is the indigenous logic of giving the dead a face and a seated position of authority. The tradition documents both regional variation within Etruria and the broader pan-Mediterranean interest in representing the deceased as an individualized presence.

Broader Themes & Connections

Regional variation in Etruscan funerary practice; the progressive anthropomorphization of the ash urn; the throne as a symbol of dignity (linking Objects 5, 8, and 20); false Egyptian parallel — the significance of local vs. borrowed forms; continuity of cremation in an inhumation era.

Key Terms