- Adrian P. Harrison –
The overall evaluation of the popularity of Etruscan animal motifs spanning from
approximately 900 bc to 700 bc and including 20 items and 32 animal motifs are shown
in Fig. 60.4. It is interesting to note that there are no strictly “mythical” animal motifs
among those items catalogued for this period (although there are composite creatures, as
on the Bologna askos). Likewise, very few “exotic” animals are represented, and those that
are fall into the sub-category C II (exotic terrestrial).
The vast majority of animal motifs for this period are those assigned to A II
(domesticated farmstead, e.g. horses, cattle, sheep), with B I (wild airborne, e.g. swan,
geese, owl, partridge, eagle, heron (see Fig. 60.3 no. 11 = GR 1873.8–20.44, British
Museum) and B II (wild terrestrial, e.g. deer, hare, boar, stag, snake, deer calf [fawn]
and mouse) proving the second most popular. If we were to draw conclusions from
these fi ndings, bearing in mind the biases mentioned previously, it would appear that
the early Iron Age Etruscan peoples were particularly taken with their domesticated
farmstead animals and chose to represent them on their pottery and metal objects. They
were also very fond of the wild species that surrounded them, depicting both wild birds
and wild terrestrial animals on their possessions. This is perhaps not that surprising for
a group of Iron Age Etruscans who were very dependent on hunting and farming for
their existence.
Outstanding examples of such homestead and hunting motifs are to be found on the
bronze trolley (Tomb 2) and bronze situla (Tomb 22) found in the Olmo Bello necropolis
in Bisenzio – late eighth century bc (Sgubini 2008: 27). The bronze trolley of Tomb 2 is
thought to be a censer or offering trolley, and its rich sculptural decoration is indicative
of the emerging Etruscan aristocracy in its activities of war, hunting and farming. The
situla of Tomb 22 is equally impressive, decorated with scenes of dancing and farming,
around a top that shows a hunting or ritual scene with a chained bear in the centre of
a ring of eight men bearing spears (Rm 25 Case 1; Villa Giulia, Rome; Haynes 1985:
no. 5).
The Orientalizing periodIn the fi rst decades of the seventh century bc the phenomenon of Etruscan-geometric
pottery rapidly develops from simple linear and circular patterns into systems of fi gurative
motifs, for example, the heron and fi sh.
Importantly, lions begin to appear in Etruscan art as a result of the infl uences prevailing
during the Orientalizing period (see Fig. 60.2n GR 1873.8–20.269 and Fig. 60.2s
GR 1824.4–46.22; British Museum), although the Etruscan artists committed a great
many errors in terms of representation, for example, multiple teats, which do not occur
naturally (see William Llewelyn Brown, The Etruscan Lion, 1960), but since lions have
never been indigenous to Italy, an Etruscan artist would not have had the opportunity for
direct observation, and most likely used the wolf as the primary model. See the recently
discovered Tomb of the Roaring Lions of Veii, Fig. 56.1.
The overall evaluation of the popularity of Etruscan animal motifs spanning
approximately 780 bc to 600 bc: 86 items and 149 animal motifs are shown in Fig.
60.5. In contrast to the previous period, this phase of Etruscan civilization is dominated
by the “exotic” type of animal motifs – C II (exotic terrestrial, e.g. lion, ostrich, leopard,
panther, monkey and elephant).