- Marie-Laurence Haack –
the opposition of the Germans who, following Niebuhr, made the Etruscans a Northern
people and placed the cradle of their race in Tyrol.
At fi rst, direct surveys of Etruria’s territory multiplied. Wealthy amateurs directed
excavation sites in southern Italy and in Etruria and marketed their fi nds. First, the
Chevalier Edmond-Antoine Durand (1768–1835), thanks to several stays in the Italian
peninsula, gathered bronzes, pieces of pottery, mirrors, arms etc., which the Louvre
acquired in 1825. But systematic and large-scale excavations carried out from 1828
by Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino (1775–1840), second brother of Napoleon I,
were unquestionably the most productive. After the fall of the Empire in 1815, Lucien
Bonaparte indeed devoted himself to archaeology and the excavations he carried out in
the Etruscan necropoleis of Vulci, Corneto and Canino revealed between 15 and 20,000
vases which enabled him to overcome some fi nancial diffi culties, especially by organizing
several major sales in 1834, 1837, 1838 and 1840. Conducted in an empirical way, the
excavations supplied the art market and nourished the inspiration of artists and creators
of the time. The vases of the Durand and Canino collections were irreparably scattered
around the world: they were bought by major European museums Paris, London,
Munich, Berlin but also by a new generation of wealthy collectors eager to put together
an amateur cabinet for themselves.
In those years, the Campanari family, living in Tuscania, became famous for its
archaeological discoveries in Veii, Vulci and Tuscania, and in their collection the Campanari
possessed dozens of Etruscan sarcophagi found in those cities. In 1837, they organized
an exhibition of Etruscan sarcophagi (placed in the decor of recreated tombs) in London
in the West End district, at 121 Pall Mall. They came above all from Tuscania, and on
this occasion were called “the city of Etruscan sarcophagi.” After seeing the exhibition,
G. Dennis decided to go to Italy, to Tuscania, to see the Campanari garden that had been
turned into a small necropolis with the sarcophagi of the Vipinanas. In 1839, in their
house at Toscanella, the Campanari faithfully reconstructed a semidado tomb where they
had already placed the sarcophagi of the Vipinanas tomb (24 sarcophagi) discovered in
the Calcarello necropolis. We owe them, among other discoveries, that of the Campanari
tomb (1833) in Vulci, that of the Statlanes and the Vipinanas in Tuscania.
Foreigners were not outdone, for Italy occupied the place of choice in their grand tour.
E. C. Hamilton-Gray gave an account of her visits in Tour to the Sepulchres of Etruria (1839).
But above all, we should mention G. Dennis who, with his friend, artist Samuel James
Ainsley, wrote Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, published in 1848 by the British Museum,
the fruit of fi eld trips made in Etruria between 1842 and 1844; it is a sort of guide with
lyrical evocations of Etruscan landscapes. It opened up the exclusive scholarship of the
“cabinets” to adventure, to new horizons.
Scientists, travelers, local owners, amateurs, treasure hunters went all over the still-
wild regions of Etruria, infringing legal limits. This was the case of Marquis Giampietro
Campana di Cavelli, a passionate collector, who started excavation in Cerveteri and Veii
and bought sculptures, terracotta ware, jewels, bronzes, paintings almost 15,000 works
in total! In 1846, when the new Pope, Pius IX, visited his collection in the city of
Campana the reputation of the collection was confi rmed. He piled up his collections in
Roman palaces but he lived in grand style and his fortune was swallowed up. Living on
his fame, he ran up debts, and he was arrested in 1857. The Marquis’ collections were
seized and put up for sale by the papal government. On April 28th, 1859, he ceded his
collection to the papal government. In 1861, Russia bought 467 pieces including ancient