- chapter 63: Modern approaches to Etruscan culture –
adopt Etruscan motifs. The Pollaiuolo brothers reproduced in painting putti wearing
garlands around their necks, fi ghts between lions, fi ghts between dragons and hunting
scenes.
Lorenzo the Magnifi cent is described as being offered four “Etruscan” vases that were
found in the course of excavations carried out in Arezzo. In the sixteenth^ century, the
Medici having been driven out of Florence once again and the Republic restored and
Pope Leo X, son of Il Magnifi co, having a passion for Etruscan archaeology turned the
Etruscans into his objective allies when his family returned to Florence. During the
Roman ceremonies organized in 1513 to bestow the title of Roman citizen on Giuliano
de Medici and Lorenzo de Medici, the idea of a cooperation between the Roman and
Etruscan peoples in the service of the monarchic ideal embodied by the Tarquins was
glorifi ed. At that time, Etruria played an even more signifi cant role under the reign of
Cosimo I (1537–1574), because three exceptional bronze statues were discovered in
Arezzo: the Minerva (1552), the Chimaera (1553) and the Arringatore (1566). Cosimo I
immediately claimed the Chimaera and after its restoration by B. Cellini showed it to
the public in the Leo X room of the Palazzo Vecchio. He thus revived the mythical Etruria
in the guise of the Principate at the very time when he was gaining control of the Sienese
State. G. Vasari, a propagandist of Cosimo’s power, gave the statue of the Chimaera
the value of a political symbol: in his Ragionamenti (1567), he compared Cosimo to
Bellerophon and to Leo X, who through his liberality, subjugated all men as we are
reminded by the frescoes of the very Vasari, in the eponymous room where the Chimaera
was exhibited. Cosimo, heir of the two heroes, also tamed a chimera himself, namely the
Florentines who felt nostalgic for the republican regime, which was blamed for arousing
civil discord. The statue of the Chimaera also gave rise to speculation on the “Tuscan
style” in art. In Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori (1568), Vasari defi ned
the “Tuscan style” by its realistic and dramatic treatment of the subject and by the
adoption of a sophisticated posture. Men of letters worked to relate the story of Etruscan
origins within a Florentine Academy founded by Cosimo in 1541. In 1546, Giambullari
published Il Gello, a work offi cially approved by the Academy and dedicated to Cosimo.
He used the same framework as Annio da Viterbo: he made the Florentine language
derive from the Etruscan, which like Hebrew supposedly had Aramaic as its matrix.
In 1551, G. Postel published Des origines, institutions et mœurs de la région d’Etrurie
in Florence, the fi rst synthesis on knowledge about Etruria. Then, despite the lack
of new discoveries and criticism of Annio’s and Postel’s Etruscan theories, Etruscan
descent became a subject of major importance in political propaganda. In 1569, Cosimo
had the Pope recognize the title of grand duke and had Etruscan descent mentioned
in the title. M.-A. Muret, a French humanist at the court of Pius V, thus celebrated
Cosimo as Dux Magnus Etruscus, the third one to hold the title after Janus and Porsenna.
Ferdinando de Medici who built the villa Medici in 1576, rivaled his father’s model
resting on the exaltation of the fi gure of Augustus by having the gardens laid out as an
Etruscan tumulus. The presence of underground galleries may allude to King Porsenna’s
labyrinthine tomb. In 1589, on the occasion of Ferdinando’s wedding feast, a painting
by J. Ligozzi, placed above the entrance to Palazzo Vecchio, showed Cosimo I crowning a
woman who represents Tuscany while on her side King Porsenna holding a broken crown
in his hands, ancient Etruria’s crown, once worn by the king of Chiusi, a crown that was
lost and that Ferdinando, in his turn, is about to receive in the name of his ancestors.