- Alexandra A. Carpino –
contemporary Canopic urns, the intention was to give material form to the likeness of
a person once alive. But the features do not show it. They are strictly typical and not
at all personalized.”^24 The same goes for the cippi in the form of female half-fi gures
(Figure 55.3), which have also been found in the Chiusi region: their physiognomic and
structural uniformity suggests that they do not represent specifi c individuals but rather
guardian fi gures.^25 In contrast, Brendel characterizes the hammered bronze bust of a
female (Figure 55.4) from the so-called “Isis” Tomb in Vulci as a “possible portrait” since
the forms of her face...do not quite fall in line with [known] types...but seem rather
more individual. This deviation from the norm would not in itself guarantee a true
representation of individuality, that is, the portrayal of a defi nite person, but it may
indicate an awareness of the fact that irregularities of form – deviations from the type- are essential characteristics of a human individuality. In this sense the bust evidently
does represent ‘a person,’ though it does not necessarily give a true portrait.^26
Sybille Haynes, however, interprets this bust as “one of the oldest surviving cult images
of a goddess” since, despite being discovered within a tomb, it was not “part of an
ash urn.”^27 Likewise, it is not clear if the seventh century bce busts from Marsiliana
d’Albegna functioned as “symbolically generalized image[s] of the deceased,”^28 or if they
portray images of divinities, though consensus favors the former hypothesis.
The statues of the men (Figure 55.5), women (Figure 55.6) and couples (Figure 55.7)
which appear on the covers of Etruscan sarcophagi and cinerary urns from the Classical
and Hellenistic periods further attest to the long-standing nature and persistence of
memorial portraiture in Etruria. While some of these, despite the presence of names,
correspond more to types and might better be termed quasi-portraits “with features and
traits that fall within a coded social vocabulary,”^29 and others depict similarities that may
result from familial resemblances,^30 enough of the extant heads display a “remarkable
diversity of visages...[which] support the claim that a genuine concept of portraiture,
Figure 55.3 Pietra fetida cippus in the form of a female half-fi gure from Chiusi, fi rst half of the sixth
century bce. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Chiusi. (Photograph: author).