journey to the afterlife. Above, the deceased is shown in a reclining
position, but he is not at a festive banquet, and his wife is not present.
His somber expression contrasts sharply with the smiling, confident
faces of the Archaic era when Etruria enjoyed its greatest prosperity.
Similar heads—realistic but generic types, not true portraits—are
found on all later Etruscan sarcophagi and in tomb paintings. They
are symptomatic of the economic and political decline of the once-
mighty Etruscan city-states. Nonetheless, Lars Pulena is a proud man.
He wears a wreath around his neck and displays a partially unfurled
scroll inscribed with the record of his life’s accomplishments.AULE METELEAn even later Etruscan portrait is the statue
(FIG. 9-16) of the magistrate Aule Metele raising his arm to address
an assembly—hence his modern nickname Arringatore (Orator).
This life-size statue proves that Etruscan artists continued to be ex-
perts at bronze-casting long after the heyday of Etruscan prosperity.
The Arringatore was most likely produced at about the time the
Romans achieved total hegemony over the Etruscans. The so-called
Social War of the early first century BCEended in 89 BCEwith the
conferring of Roman citizenship on all of Italy’s inhabitants. In fact,
Aule Metele—his Etruscan name and his father’s and mother’s
names are inscribed on the hem of his garment—wears the short
toga and high laced boots of a Roman magistrate. His head, with its
close-cropped hair and signs of age in the face, resembles portraits
produced in Rome at the time. This orator is Etruscan in name only.
If the origin of the Etruscans remains debatable, the question of
their demise has a ready answer. Aule Metele and his compatriots
became Romans, and Etruscan art became Roman art.234 Chapter 9 THE ETRUSCANS9-16Aule Metele
(Arringatore), from
Cortona, near
Lake Trasimeno,
Italy, early first
century bce.
Bronze, 5 7 high.
Museo Archeologico
Nazionale, Florence.
Inscribed in
Etruscan, this
bronze statue of an
orator is Etruscan
in name only. Aule
Metele wears the
short toga and high
boots of a Roman
magistrate, and the
style of the portrait
is also Roman.1 ft.