The Etruscan art (c. 1000-100 B.C.) was contemporary with the Greek culture. This period is important in its own right due to its Greek and Roman connections. In spite of the few traces that remain of them, much is known by their buried tombs and necropoleis (city of the dead).
Through the 7th-5th c. B.C., their greatest power was the Etruscan fleet which controlled the western Meditteranean, making Eturia an important trading nation. The fleet had established trade routes throughout the Aegean, the Near East and North Africa and was actually responsible for extending Greek influence to northern Italy and Spain.
Like the Greeks, Etruscans had never formed a single nation but coexisted as separate city-states. But unlike the Romans, the Etruscans never formed an empire. As said, not much survived of the Etruscans aside from their burials. The only traces of their lost language remain on epitaphs. Very few Etruscan buildings still stand because the materials commonly used had been wood, mud, and tufa (a type of limestone).
The Etruscans had clearly believed in an afterlife which was closer to the Egyptian concept yet specifics of their beliefs are a mystery. Their burials were materialistic like ancient Egypt because the dead were buried with items such as mirrors, jewelry, weapons, and banquet ware.
During the 7th c. B.C. and earlier, cinerary containers for cremation were used (Fig. 1). These were found often in the form of the human head (Cinerary, from Meditteranean, 600 B.C). The urns were vessels themselves, there had been specific body markings for the different sexes. This created a generalized likeness in all the deceased. This was a rather somber memorial to the dead.
The heads were shown with exquisite modeling ...
... middle of paper ...
...omb walls.
The Etruscans were the borderline between the Greeks and Romans, still carrying over the Greek characteristics and laying the ground for what would become Roman art. The afterlife was the continuous burning question behind the inspiration for this movement. What had started as a simple vessel to carry the ashes of ones ancestors quickly transformed into a cultural identity.
Works Cited
Higher Education. A History of a Western Art. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. Book.
Stockstad, Mary. Art History: Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2008. Book.
An Etruscan Urn Puts A Face to the Deceased. Photographs. glyptoteket.com. N.p. Web. 6, Dec, 2013.
Sarcophagis From Cerveteri. Photograph. wordpress.com. Wordpress, 2013. Web. 6, Dec, 2013.
Banditacca. Photograph. travelswithnancy.com. N.p. Web. 6, Dec, 2013.
The way the Etruscans perspective the afterlife and death was unique compared to the others culture at the time. For example in their tombs, where death should be focused, the Etruscans focused more on life instead on death. In the history of the Etruscans art the notion of death is rarely shown or mention. There was no depiction of actually death or scenes of a spiritual journey to the afterlife. What the Etruscans did was creating a home for the dead, focusing on connecting the life of the body with the life of the spirit.
The Ancient Middle East the Roman time periods brought about many different works of art. The Votive Statue of Gudea, an Ancient Near Eastern work, and the Augustus of Primaporta, a Roman work, are good representations of art from their respective time periods. The two works have many similarities and differences within their formal elements, iconography, and historical significance to the time periods in which they were crafted.
Perhaps the most notorious of burial practices originating in Egypt is that of mummification. Why such an extraordinary attempt was made to preserve cadavers may seem
Etruscan art and culture plays a major role in the Roman society due to the power and command it once held over the Romans. The Etruscans were a strong network of city-states that ruled over Rome for more than a century during the Hellenistic period. These people, influenced by the culture of the Greeks, kept the same belief and value system present in that of Greek mythology. Greek ideals facilitated the style and the art that Etruscans produced and this is apparent in the visual language of structures, artwork, and early organization of the Roman state that the Etruscans established. During the Etruscan rule, acculturation between Romans and the Etruscan society occurred. This mixing of language, sharing of knowledge, religious ideas, art styles, and social organization are what influenced the early Roman society. This is about the Etruscan funerary techniques and how the Romans acquired, copied, and reapplied these methods of style to define their own societal meaning. Even though the Etruscans were overthrown soon after they occupied Rome, their influence is a major factor in how the Romans developed ideas and meaning within their own society
The elaborate sarcophagus is an indication of how important Etruscan funerary customs were to the Etruscan Elite and how they took careful preparations to ensure the deceased entered the afterlife in good standing. Although this piece may be stylized in appearance it still shows that the artist took care to incorporate local customs as well as worldly features in this sculpture.
As these materials have magical means, often seen in Egyptian religious beliefs, a magical mean of the ushabti followed after-life of its deceased. The figurine appears to be inscribed with a special spell that contains summons; the intent of figure is placed in the tomb to act as substitute for its deceased body. This magical figurine was detailed to respond in the
Chamberlain, Andrew, and Pearson Michael Parker. Earthly Remains: The History and Science of Preserved Human Bodies. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
For centuries, other cultures have tried to preserve their dead. The Egyptians were the first know society to preserve their dead through embalming techniques (“Brief,” par 2). After the collapse of the Egyptian society there were few reports of embalming (2). European Catholic dignitaries, monarchs, and aristocrats first used funeral embalming techniques in the 13th century to transport mortal bodies across long distances (Pascale and Lemonnier, 9). . The mortal bodies were filled with expensive scented herbs that had antiseptic qualities (10). It was not until the Civil War during 1860 that embalming the dead was practiced in the United States (“Brief,” par 7). Today, in the 21st century, this popular and traditional choice is made by most United States citizens. In our egotistical society, the cost of $500 to $1,200 is paid without hesitation to ensure we still look presentable for our last gathering with friends and family.
Roman art was also deeply influenced by the art of the Hellenistic world, which had spread to southern Italy and Sicily through the Greek colonies there. The Etruscans and Babylonians can also be seen as inspirations. “With the founding of the Republic, the term Roman art was virtually synonymous with the art of the city of Rome, which still bore the stamp of its Etruscan art” (Honour and Fleming,1999). During the last two centuries, notably that of Greece, Roman art shook off its dependence on Etruscan art. In the last two centuries before Christ, a distinctive Roman manner of building, sculpting, and painting emerged. Indeed, because of the extraordinary geographical extent of the Roman Empire and the number of diverse populations encompassed within its boundaries, “the art and architecture of the Romans was always eclectic and is characterized by varying styles attributable to differing regional tastes and the...
The Mesopotamian people also believed in an afterlife. Through the Epic of Gilgamesh, we see that this civilization had an ancient version of what we consider to be heaven and hell. Their hell was controlled by the Queen of Darkness, and was believed to be a place of no return. The epic describes this place as a place of darkness where "dust is their food and clay is their meat"(sources, p5). Their underworld was where everyone who stood in the way of the gods.
Perhaps one of the most defining and easily identifiable aspects of the ancient Greek culture was the immortalization of humans and gods in sculpture. Sculpture had existed in the world for thousands of years before the ancient Greeks made their stake in the art, but the Greeks added an entirely new set of aspects to their sculptures. Unlike the Egyptian and Mesopotamian sculpture centuries earlier, the Greeks set forth not just to capture the image of a man but to capture that which made him a man. The Greeks set in place three base tenants to display the tone of a sculpture. Through the use of Humanism, Realism, and Idealism the ancient Greeks were able to capture humans and gods forever in marble.
The Romans have adopted many features from the Greek style of art and architecture during the third and second centuries B.C. During that time period the Romans discovered that they have taking a liking to Greek statues, which they placed in many different places. The Roman sculptors then decided to also start making statues alongside the Greeks. The statues that the Romans created were realistic looking with, sometime, unpleasant details of the body. The Greeks made statues with, what they thought of, ideal appearances in the statues figure. Sculpture was possibly considered the highest form of art by the Romans, but figure painting was very high considered as well. Very little of Roman painting has survived the tests of time.
There is an entire process of the body becoming mummified before it is even placed in the tomb with these funerary objects. There are two stages to the process of mummification (example of Egyptian mummy above). When an important figure has passed, they need to embalm the body. The body is washed with palm wine and then rinsed with water from the Nile River. Next, an incision is made and the organs are removed, washed in natron, and placed into sacred jars called canopic jars (example in photo below). A large hook is used to remove the brain through a nostril. The body is then covered and stuffed with natro...
Embalming is the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them from decomposition. The intention of embalming is to keep them suitable for public display at a funeral or a religious part of one’s life. Although many people do not get to witness the process of embalming, it has been used since the ancient Egyptians era of mummification (Britannica, 2014). It is required for the body to be embalmed, the embalming fluid preserves the body indefinitely, and smoking the embalming fluid are three unknown facts about the embalming.
Roman artwork is extremely intricate and diverse, however, a lot of what is referred to as Roman art can better be described by the cultures it conquered. The ancient Greeks were the most influential of these cultures, from their temples and sculptures, to their reliefs and paintings. Greece was the first culture to create major programs for sculpture, painting, and architecture. Many of the first Roman artists were of Greek descent as their artwork reflects the Classical and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece. A lot of what is considered to be Roman artwork is criticized as being mere copies of Greek artwork since they modeled their forms and styles after the Greeks, but other cultures influenced the Romans as well, mainly the Etruscans,