Review of P. Gregory Warden, From the Temple and the Tomb

Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies Volume 2 | Issue 1 Article 6 2009 Review of P. Gregory Warden, From the Temple and the Tomb Peter Nulton Rhode Island School of Design, Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/rasenna Recommended Citation Nulton, Peter (2010) "Review of P. Gregory Warden, From the Temple and the Tomb," Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/rasenna/vol2/iss1/6 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the CES Electronic Resources at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact . From the Temple and the Tomb: Etruscan Treasures from Tuscany. P. Gregory Warden, (ed.). Dallas: Meadows Museum, SMU, 2009. Pp. 359. ISBN 978-1-60702755-3. $45.00. Reviewed by Peter Nulton, Rhode Island School of Design Exhibition catalogues have traditionally contained a number of related essays, but this volume is exceptional in the depth and breadth of the articles included. With topics ranging from urban landscape, to language, to gender studies, From the Temple and the Tomb can serve as a primer for the study of Etruscan culture. It is detailed enough to bring scholars working in tangentially-related specialties up to date on the rapid changes taking place in Etruscology. Importantly, for such a work, high-quality images abound. If one could have wished for the color photos that lavishly illustrate the articles in the first half to continue into the catalogue, the reasonable price of the volume more than compensates. The exhibit in question took place at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows Museum from January 4th through May 27th, 2009, and brought to Dallas over 300 objects from museums in Tuscany and private collections. Some of the material had recently been displayed in Madrid for Los Etruscos, but much was exclusive to the Dallas exhibit, organized by Giuseppina Carlotta Cianferoni of the Florence Archaeological Museum and P. Gregory Warden of SMU. The title of both the volume and the exhibit reflects the importance of context in the state of knowledge of the Etruscans, as a vast majority of noteworthy artifacts come from ritual or funerary contexts. This is a result of centuries of selective excavation, which modern archaeologists are attempting to remedy, but also a matter of site preservation, and lastly, the lavishness with which the Etruscan elite supplied material goods for these contexts. After a foreword by Fulvia Lo Schiavo, archaeological superintendent of Tuscany, and a preface by Mark A. Roglán, director of the Meadows Museum, P. Gregory Warden offers the acknowledgements. This is followed by a map of Etruria and a concise chronology page covering the major periods between the Villanovan and Roman. Warden’s chapter, “The Etruscan Social and Urban Landscape,” is the first of the long articles. After briefly addressing the history of the use of Etruscan culture as a lynchpin for Tuscan identity, the author reminds us of the reputation of the Etruscans as an unusually religious culture, and introduces a recurring theme in the articles, the lack of dichotomy between sacred and secular space. What the artifacts in the exhibit were unable to demonstrate, he offers, was Etruscan sophistication and the urban context. Warden points to the foundation of Rome through Etruscan ritual (the pomerium) and Etruscan engineering knowledge (the cloaca maxima). He is right to recognize that Rasenna, Volume 2, (2010) 2 Vitruvius’ description of Etruscan temples is biased, though it seems to apply to some (the Portonaccio temple, at Veii, for example), and may over-generalize based on such structures as the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Rome, but also points out that Vitruvius’ terminology refers to “Tuscan-style” temples, which mitigates the issue. For the Etruscans, a city is defined less by its population density then by its ritual structure. A brief overview of urbanization offers insights into development of Etruscan culture. As the Villanovan geometric culture becomes increasingly stratified, and population centers develop during the Orientalizing period, what we recognize as truly Etruscan comes to take shape, especially in the sphere of the elites. Stratification itself becomes a defining characteristic of the Etruscan city. Descriptions of Tarquinia and Marzabotto fill out the discussion, and the existence of Gonfienti, similarly aligned, but on the other side of the Apennines, spurs the suggestion that a “proper” city alignment might have existed. This essay is correctly placed first in the volume as it sets a spatial and chronological framework for the reader, and introduces important concepts that will be used in the subsequent chapters. “Looking at Etruscan Art in the Meadows Museum,” by Jocelyn Penny Small, offers much more than a tour through the exhibit. A caveat against interpreting Etruscan art in terms of Greek art begins the chapter. Throughout the centuries, many art historians have seen Etruscans as pale reflections, or barbaric imitators, of the “greater” art of Greece. If one is to appreciate the achievements of Etruscan art, it must be engaged on its own terms. Rather than the imitation of nature that was a guiding principle in Greek art, Etruscan art concerns itself with combining abstraction and design with naturalism, to arrive at its characteristic stylization. Although Etruscans borrowed motifs and forms from Greek art, they did so only if they found in them a purely local significance. Small argues that Etruscans did not imitate the Greek lekythos because it had no place in their culture, and some of the less appealing Etruscan art derives from attempts to imitate Greek art. Etruscans surpassed the achievements of Greek art in numerous areas: portraiture, jewelry and metalwork, and a sense of motion in painting. Highlights of the exhibit included the large terracotta mother-and-child group known as “Mater Matuta,” the Hellenistic terracotta pediment from Talamone, with the subject of Seven Against Thebes, and many funerary urns, several of which must have used the Talamone pediment as a source. Included are urns with sculptures of the deceased reclining on the lid, often described by Livy’s phrase, obesus Etruscus. Small points out that the lids of these urns might have come blank, or with stock faces that could be modified into a likeness. One should be cautious, though, lest features that appear “imperfect” through modern eyes or through the window of Greek art, be taken as “likeness,” when, in fact, it might also be read as an idealization of the values of gravitas (as in the many portraits of aristocrats from the Roman republic), and perhaps, prosperity. Review of Warden, From the Temple and the Tomb 3 S (...truncated)