Etruscan Art

              FOREWORD
THis EXHIBIT is the result of an exchange of Etruscan objects for Pre-Columbian
objects several years ago with the Musio N azionale Preistorico Etnografico "Luigi
Pigorini" in Rome. Since that time the collection has grown and it seemed appro­priate
to show the group as a unit along with related material from local collections.
The result is a modest attempt to illustrate certain phases of artistic production in
Central and Southern Italy during the first I 000 years B.C.
Most of the material was found in tomb burials throughout the region of West­Central
Italy between Florence and Rome that includes the provinces of Tuscany
and parts of Umbria and Latium, referred to in Latin times as Etruria. The people
were called Etrusci or Tusci similar to the ancient and modern place names and in
Greek they were Tyrsenoi or Tyrrhenoi, thus Tyrrhenian Sea. The province of
Campania, between Rome and Naples, and that of Apulia in Southeast Italy are
represented by a group of ceramics, along with occasional objects from other Medi­terranean
sites within this time span.
Examples from many periods are exhibited and serve to indicate in part the succes­sive
development of Italic and Etruscan art in terracotta and metals. A selection of
color reproductions illustrate some of the famous tomb frescoes. The only signifi­cant
architectural remains to be seen today are the igloo-shaped tombs at Cerveteri
carved out of tufa and divided into room-like chambers: apparently a VII Century
B.C. development, common to the Etruscan regions as well as adjacent islands such
as Sardinia. The accompanying chart outlines dates, periods, and influences accord­ing
to generally accepted theories.
It is not possible to treat with matters Etruscan without becoming involved in diver­gent
theories of their origin and influences. Briefly, it is a matter of whether the
Etruscan civilization is a product of the indigenous peoples or the result of foreign
colonization. Herodotus (father of History) writing in the V Century, B.C. has
them migrating from Lydia (Southwest Turkey) as the result of a severe famine
around 1300 B.C., according to his own chronology, but held more likely 800 by
adherents of this theory. Dionysius of Halicarnassus writing from Rome in the
I Century A.D. finds no ethnic connection between the Lydians and Etruscans or
kinship between them and any known peoples.
Investigations which are still going on bring out the complications that are asso­ciated
with the formation of ethnic groups throughout the Mediterranean area from
Neolithic times. The movement of peoples and spread of influences were greatly
accelerated during the second millenium B.C. when the Eastern Mediterranean
shores were subjected to Egyptian, Babylonian, Mitannian, and Hittite domination
plus the influences arising out of the Hyksos invasions and Hurrian immigration.
Farther West the great Minoan civilization of Crete and the Mycenian civilization
of the Peloponnesus rose to their heights during this period and accounted for many
of the civilizing advances throughout the region. These turbulent 1000 years ended
with the Doric invasion of Greece about 1200 B.C., apparently in conjunction with
similar barbarian movements from the North in other parts of Europe and the Near
East. The affected populations such as the Aegeans (Peoples of the Sea) moved
on Turkey and the Phoenician coast. The Hittite Empire was destroyed and a mass
of displaced divergent elements moved by land and sea on Egypt and were defeated
by Rameses III at the Battle of Pelusium, after which they dispersed. Some settled
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