Etruscan Art in The Metropolitan Museum

De Puma, Richard, and Christopher Lightfoot (2013)

This title is out of print.

Read online

Download PDF

Watsonline WorldCat

Honorable Mention, Los Angeles Book Festival (2014)

Publication Details

Description

The Metropolitan Museum's outstanding collection of ancient Etruscan art includes over one thousand objects dating from about 900 B.C. to about 100 B.C. They have been acquired either in groups or individually since the first group of Etruscan vases was donated in 1875 by Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the Museum's first director from 1879 to 1904. In 2007, the Department of Greek and Roman Art updated and greatly enhanced the display of Etruscan art with the opening of a reinstalled permanent gallery devoted to more than 550 of the most important works from pre-Roman Italy, assembled on the mezzanine that overlooks the new Leon Levy and Shelby White Court. In addition, the adjacent Study Collection gallery that covers all aspects of the collection of the Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Art holds another 150 objects from ancient Etruria.

Now, the collection is thoroughly documented in print, combining the most up-to-date scholarship with brilliant digital photography. Many of the objects had never been published before or only many decades ago. In addition, visual and textual information on these works has been augmented digitally on the Museum's ever-expanding website.

The art of ancient Etruria retains its fascination even to the modern age. Artists and writers—notably Alberto Giacometti and D. H. Lawrence—have found inspiration in these intriguing objects. Contemporary artists, scholars, and the Metropolitan Museum's broad public will now benefit greatly from this informative volume on these extraordinary works of art.

Table of contents

Foreword by Thomas P. Campbell
Preface by Carlos A. Picón
Acknowledgments
Note to the Reader

I. Histories: Etruscan Studies and the Collection of Etruscan Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Brief History of Etruscan Studies
History of the Collection of Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

II. Introduction to Pre-Roman Italy

Social Structure
Lifestyle
Language
Belief System
Etruscan Divinities
From Etruria to Rome
The Question of the Origin of the Etruscans

III. Proto-Etruscan (Villanovan) and Italic Art (ca. 900–600 B.C.)

Villanovan (Proto-Etruscan), Etruscan, and Italic Fibulae
Additional Bronze Jewelry
Additional Early Bronzes
Bronze Vessels
Terracotta Vases

IV. The Orientalizing and Archaic Periods (ca. 750‐480 B.C.)

The Monteleone di Spoleto Tomb Group, Colle del Capitano (The Captain's Hill)
1. The Monteleone di Spoleto Chariot
2. Bronze Vessels from the Monteleone di Spoleto Tomb Group
3. Iron Objects from the Monteleone di Spoleto Tomb Group
4. Terracotta Vessels from the Monteleone di Spoleto Tomb Group
Etruscan Stone Funerary Sculpture
Etruscan Bronzes
Etruscan Bronze Vessels, Utensils (Tripods, Helmet Attachments, Handles, Handle Attachments)
Etruscan Impasto and Bucchero Pottery
Various Early Types of Terracotta Pottery
1. Italo-Geometric
2. Faliscan and Capenate
3. White-on-Red Ware
4. Etrusco-Corinthian
5. Chiusine Cinerary Urns
6. Caeretan Red Ware
7. Pontic Ware
8. Additional Etruscan Black-Figure
Etruscan Architectural Terracottas
Etruscan Terracotta Antefix Fragments

V. The Classical Period (ca. 480–330 B.C.)

The Civita Castellana Tomb Group
Etruscan Superposed Red Pottery
Etruscan Bronze Figurines
Etruscan Bronze Vessels, Incense Burners, and Utensils
Etruscan and Italic Bronze Armor
Etruscan Miniature Votive Armor

VI. The Etrusco-Hellenistic Period (ca. 330–100 B.C)

Etruscan and Praenestine Engraved Mirrors
1. Mirrors Engraved with Subjects or Characters from Homer's Illiad and Odyssey and Hesiod's Theogony
The Bolsena Tomb Group
1. Vessels from the Bolsena Tomb Group
2. Iron Implements from the Bolsena Tomb Group
3. Additional Objects from the Bolsena Tomb Group
Praenestine Bronze Cistae
Etrusco-Hellenistic Vases
1. Black-Gloss Vases
2. Etruscan and Faliscan Red-Figure Vases
3. Volsinian Silvered Ware Terracottas
Etrusco-Hellenistic Terracotta Sculpture
Etrusco-Hellenistic Bronzes
Etrusco-Hellenistic Cinerary Urns

VII. Overview of Etruscan and Italic Jewelry, Ambers, and Gems

Jewelry
1. Repoussé
2. Filigree
3. Granulation
The Vulci Group, about 475–425 B.C.
Wreaths and Diadems
Necklaces, Clasps, and Pendants
Hair Spirals, Pins, Rings, and Earrings
Gold and Silver Etruscan Fibulae
Amber
1. Fibulae
2. Pendants
Engraved Gems
1. Techniques and Materials
2. Functions
3. Subject Matter
4. The Following Group of Etruscan Gems are Gift of John Taylor Johnston, 1881
5. Group of Glass Gems, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
6. Group of Varied Etruscan Acquisitions
7. Group of Etruscan Ring Stones and Scarabs, Bequest of W. Gedney Beatty, 1941
8. Group of Etruscan a globolo Style Scarabs, Bequest of W. Gedney Beatty, 1941
9. Group of Additional Etruscan Scarabs

VIII. Forgeries, Pastiches, and Objects of Uncertain Authenticity

Forgeries
Pastiches
Of Uncertain Authenticity

Concordance
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the authors

Richard de Puma is F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor Emeritus, School of Art and Art History, University of Iowa.

Christopher S. Lightfoot is Curator in the Department of Greek and Roman Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Press reviews

American Journal of Archaeology

"a wonderful addition to an ever-growing body of recent publications on Etruscan art and culture. As one might expect from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the volume is spectacularly illustrated, with many full-page color photographs of the collection’s bronzes, ceramics, and jewelry, including an ample number of objects presented in multiple views. However, while this handsome volume can certainly be admired for its beauty, its value does not lie in attractiveness alone. De Puma’s book will be equally at home on the coffee tables of museum-goers as in the libraries of art historians and archaeologists."

Etruscan Art

"This informative and engaging book on the Museum's outstanding collection of Etruscan art also provides an introduction to the fascinating and diverse culture of ancient Etruria ... For the first time in more than 70 years, this incredible body of work is published in a comprehensive and beautifully designed book that draws upon decades of exhaustive research ... Richard Daniel De Puma, one of the foremost experts on Etruscan art, provides an invaluable new contribution to the study of ancient Italy."

Related Titles

Titles by thematic category (314)

Greek and Roman Art in the Ancient World

Titles by author (18)

Richard Daniel De Puma

Christopher Lightfoot

MetPublications