Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

are reminiscent of the panthers on each side of Medusa in the pedi-

ment (FIG. 5-17) of the Temple of Artemis at Corfu. But mythological

figures, whether Greek or Etruscan, are uncommon in Tarquinian

murals, and the Tomb of the Leopards has none. Instead, banqueting

couples (the men with dark skin, the women with light skin, in con-

formity with the age-old convention) adorn the walls—painted ver-

sions of the terracotta sarcophagus (FIG. 9-5) from Cerveteri. Pitcher-

and cup-bearers serve the guests, and musicians entertain them. The

banquet takes place in the open air or perhaps in a tent set up for the

occasion. In characteristic Etruscan fashion, the banqueters, servants,

and entertainers all make exaggerated gestures with unnaturally en-

larged hands (FIG. 9-1). The man on the couch at the far right on the

rear wall holds up an egg, the symbol of regeneration. The tone is joy-

ful. The painting is a celebration of life, food, wine, music, and dance,

rather than a somber contemplation of death.

In stylistic terms, the Etruscan figures are comparable to those

on sixth-century Greek vases before Late Archaic painters became

preoccupied with the problem of foreshortening. Etruscan painters

may be considered somewhat backward in this respect, but in other

ways they seem to have outpaced their counterparts in Greece, espe-

cially in their interest in rendering nature. In the Tomb of the Leop-

ards, the landscape is but a few trees and shrubs placed between the

entertainers (and leopards) and behind the banquet couches. But

elsewhere the natural environment was the chief interest of Tarquin-

ian painters.

TOMB OF HUNTING AND FISHINGScenes of Etrus-

cans enjoying the pleasures of nature decorate all the walls of the

main chamber of the aptly named Tomb of Hunting and Fishing at

Tarquinia. In the detail reproduced here (FIG. 9-10), a youth dives

off a rocky promontory, while others fish from a boat and birds fill

the sky all around. On another wall, youthful hunters aim their

slingshots at the brightly painted birds. The scenes of hunting and

fishing recall the paintings in Egyptian tombs (FIGS. 3-15and 3-28)

and may indicate knowledge of that Eastern funerary tradition. The

multicolored rocks resemble those of the Theran Spring Fresco (FIG.

4-9), but art historians know of nothing similar in contemporane-

ous Greek art save the Tomb of the Diver (FIG. 5-61) at Paestum.

That exceptional Greek work, however, is from a tomb in Italy dated

about a half century later than the Tarquinian tomb. In fact, the

Paestum composition probably emulated older Etruscan designs,

undermining the now-outdated judgment of art historians that

Etruscan art was merely derivative and that Etruscan artists never set

the standard for Greek artists.

230 Chapter 9 THE ETRUSCANS

9-10Diving and fishing, detail of a mural painting in the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, Tarquinia, Italy, ca. 530–520 bce.Detail, 5 61 – 2 high.

Scenes of young men enjoying the pleasures of nature cover the walls of this Tarquinian tomb. The Etruscan diving scene predates a similar

landscape painting (FIG. 5-61) in a Greek tomb at Paestum.

1 ft.

9-9ATomb of
the Triclinium,
Tarquinia, ca.
480–470 BCE.