- Helen Nagy –
trouble and corrected its head and legs, and then squeezed Troilus on top, so that his head
is far too small and projects into the striped border. The naked young prince sports fancy
pointed soft leather shoes (calcei repandi), indicating his high status. A large fi g tree in the
center and various other plants as well as the frieze of trees hung with swags below the
main panel, set the action in a grove. The artist is not yet comfortable with converting
vase painting into a large-scale fi gural scene, but the attempt indicates that he has gone
beyond the essentially decorative confi nes of pottery and the result is not an attempted
copy but a new rendering on a large fl at surface of a great dramatic event. The emphasis
on landscape elements of trees and plants, especially the wonderful fi g tree in the center,
are the hallmark of this Etruscan hand.
The Tomb of Hunting and Fishing (circa 510–500 bc, Fig. 56.4) is one of the most
remarkable creations of the Archaic period in Etruria.^17 It is almost as if the artist had
decided to convert the formulaic waves, dolphins and birds of the dado zone of the Tomb
of the Lionesses (Fig. 56.2) into a panorama of life on the sea on all four walls of the small
back chamber. The water is a narrow dado zone teeming with life. Birds, dolphins and men
are engaged in a variety of activities: net and spear fi shing from colorful boats, diving off
a striped rock sprouting plants, and hunting birds with a slingshot from another colorful
rock.^18 Garlands hang into this happy atmosphere from the upper zone and a lively banquet
is in progress in the tympanum of the rear wall. The overall composition is astonishing in
its spontaneity, yet it is surprisingly well balanced. The blank background reads not as solid
surface; this landscape could easily exist as a lovely seascape without the human fi gures.^19
At this period of Etruscan painting overlapping is the only technique used to create
spatial relationships. Small and large fi gures and objects share the same space, perhaps to
be read according to hierarchic relationships as in the tympana of the Tomb of Hunting
and Fishing (Fig. 56.4) and the Tomb of the Lionesses (Fig. 56.2). Landscape elements
such as trees, plants, waves, rocks and interspersed animals provide a sense of life within
these dark burial chambers. One of the most touching examples of this is the little mouse,
precariously perched on the tip of a leaf in the Tomb of the Mouse (Fig. 56.5).^20
The fi gural conventions of Etruscan wall paintings continue to follow the stylistic
developments in Greek vase painting: increasingly complex poses, overlapping and a
trend toward naturalism in the depiction of the human fi gure. The varied and contorted
Figure 56.4 Tarquinia, Tomb of Hunting and Fishing: Rear wall of inner chamber. Image courtesy of
the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Etruria Meridionale.