CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN

THE TRADITION OF VOTIVE

BRONZES IN ETRURIA

Margherita Gilda Scarpellini

T

he Etruscans were famous among the peoples of ancient Italy for their production
of valuable bronzes. The Roman poet Horace mentions the Etruscan statuettes,
tyrrhena sigilla, which represented true treasures in the precious collections of the wealthy
Romans at the time of Augustus (Ep. 2.2.180–181) and Pliny the Elder refers to large
bronze statues, signa tuscanica that were known everywhere (HN 34.16.34). Pliny also
talks about an incident, described by Metrodorus of Scepsis who reported the Roman
theft of 2,000 statues in the temple at Volsinii in 264 bc, votive offerings of the faithful
to the gods. The episode makes us realize how much interest there was for bronze in
Antiquity, a material that could be melted down for other use. Furthermore, we see how
much the Etruscans were dedicated to practices of devotion: the Etruscan votive bronze
statuettes, the so-called “idols,” constituted valuable offerings to the deities. Such ex voto
bronzes were usually deposited at the sanctuaries, attached to a stone base through the
bronze strips intentionally left underneath the feet after the statuette had been made.
Nevertheless, when the cult place was moved, or the votive offerings had fi lled up all the
available space, they were buried in large pits (stipes), always located within the sacred
areas. We should also remember the presence of those votive bronzes thrown into sacred
places such as rivers, springs, or wells, of which the territory around Arezzo preserves
numerous examples (such as Brolio and Monte Falterona).
In ancient Italy, the production of anthropomorphic bronze statuettes begins in the later
phase of the early Iron Age in the eighth century bc^1 and is particularly well documented
in Etruria where the availability of metals (iron, copper, lead, and, in less quantity, silver
and tin) present in the Colline Metallifere, in the Campiglese area, on the island of Elba,
and in the Monti Rognosi in the Arretine territory,^2 provide the source for the formation
of a specialized craftsmanship (see Chapter 37). In particular, it was the search for tin that
determined the movement of groups from Etruria all over Europe, as is documented by
the fi nds of Etruscan bronzes in the Loire district, in Cornwall, and in Pomerania.^3
From the end of the eighth and in particular throughout the seventh century bc,
following the Greek example, the bronzes representing living creatures, men, women,
and animals, are an expression of their sacred destination in Etruria in general but