Startseite “Reading the Ritual”: Representation and Meaning on an Etruscan Funerary Monument in Perugia
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

“Reading the Ritual”: Representation and Meaning on an Etruscan Funerary Monument in Perugia

  • Laurel Taylor
    Laurel Taylor
    Departments of Art/Art History and of Classics, University of North Carolina Asheville University of North Carolina Asheville Departments of Art/Art History and of Classics North Carolina Asheville United States of America
    Diesen Autor / diese Autorin suchen:
    EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 7. Juli 2020
Veröffentlichen auch Sie bei De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

An unusual circular funerary monument in the National Archaeological Museum in Perugia (inv. no. 634) depicts a remarkable, multifigured narrative combining generic and unique scenes of Etruscan funerary ritual. Despite its singular character, this Archaic-period monument has never been the focus of an in-depth study. The monument features a frieze with two distinct scenes, each composed around a central focal point. On one side appears a prothesis scene in which a corpse occupies the central space with figures aligned on each side of the funerary bed. On the opposite side, figures are arranged on both sides of an altar featuring a burning fire, a scene without comparison in Etruscan funerary iconography. Though many of the figures have parallels within Etruscan imagery in both gesture and in attribute, much about this monument from its morphology to its pendant scenes is exceptional. Prothesis scenes, which appear almost exclusively in the Chiusi area and only during the Archaic period, are typically combined with images of funerary banqueting, dancing, and/or lamentation scenes. The pairing here with the altar/fire image raises interesting interpretive questions about the constitutive effect of these two events and how these may have been read and comprehended by the ancient viewer. Formally, the scenes invite connection and comparison, perhaps even to convey a symbolic and/or temporal relationship between these two events. The prothesis may have preceded and necessitated some sort of ritual purification by fire. Alternatively, the fire may reference a type of sacrifice part of funerary ritual. Neither, however, was part of the iconographic tradition. In attempting to these scenes, this paper uses a proxemics-based approach (a model used frequently in New World archaeology), to understand how the formal and physical characteristics of the monument reflect aspects of ancient visuality that is, the interplay between viewer, perception, and space. The figuration, composition, and morphology of this monument suggest that these scenes were intended less as narratives to be read and more as evocations of a ritual landscape whose broad contours could be perceived and understood with even a cursory engagement. These scenes are the visual evocation of ritual performance and environments. Though unusual in many aspects, the Perugia monument may have more far-reaching implications for ancient viewership.

Works Cited

Alexiou, M. 2002. The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.Suche in Google Scholar

Becker, H. 2007. Production, Consumption and Society in North Etruria during the Archaic and Classical Periods: The World of Lars Porsenna######. Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.##############################Suche in Google Scholar

Bonfante, L. 2003. Etruscan Dress. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Bradley, R. 2002. “Access, Style and Imagery: The Audience for Prehistoric Rock Art in Atlantic Spain and Portugal, 4000-2000 BC.” OJA 21.3:231–47.10.1111/1468-0092.00160Suche in Google Scholar

Bradley, R. 2009. Image and Audience: Rethinking Prehistoric Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780199533855.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar

Brigger, E., and A. Giovannini. 2004. “Prothésis: étude sur les rites funéraires chez les Grecs et les Étrusques.” MÉFRA 116:179–248. 10.3406/mefr.2004.10763Suche in Google Scholar

Briguet, M.F. 1972. “La sculpture en pierre fétide de Chiusi au Musée du Louvre.” MÉFRA 84.2:847–77. 10.3406/mefr.1972.935Suche in Google Scholar

Brody, J.J. 2005. Mimbres Painted Pottery. 2nd ed. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Bruni, S. 2009. “Rituals and Ideology of the Orientalising Aristocracies: Pisa and the Origins of the Funus Imaginarium.” In Etruscan by Definition: The Culture, Regional and Personal Identity of the Etruscans. Papers in Honour of Sybille Haynes, edited by J. Swaddling and P. Perkins, 74–80. London: British Museum.Suche in Google Scholar

Camporeale, G. 1959. “Le scene etrusche di protesi.” RM 66:31–44.Suche in Google Scholar

Carr, C. 1995. “A Unified Middle-Range Theory of Artifact Design.” In Style, Society, and Person, edited by C. Carr and J. E. Neitzel, 171–258. New York: Plenum Press. 10.1007/978-1-4899-1097-4_7Suche in Google Scholar

Cerchiai, L. 1995. “Un programma figurativo dell’hydria Ricci,” AntK 38:81–91. Suche in Google Scholar

Clark, C. 2009. “To Kneel or Not to Kneel: Gendered Nonverbal Behavior in Greek Ritual.” In Women, Gender and Religion edited by S. Calef and R. Simkins, 6–20. Journal of Religion and Society, Supp. 5. [http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2009/2009-7.pdf].Suche in Google Scholar

D’Agostino, B. 1989. “Image and Society in Archaic Etruria.” JRS 79:1–10.10.2307/301176Suche in Google Scholar

Damgaard Andersen, H. 1993. “The Etruscan Ancestral Cult: Its Origin and Development and the Importance of Anthropomorphization.” AnalRom 25:7–66. Suche in Google Scholar

de Puma, R.D. 2013. Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Suche in Google Scholar

de Souza, C., and C. Dias. 2018. “The Iconography of Death: Continuity and Change in Prothesis Ritual Through Iconographical Techniques, Motifs, and Gestures Depicted in Greek Pottery.” Classica – Revista Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos 31:61–87. 10.24277/classica.v31i1.619Suche in Google Scholar

Durand, J.-L. 1989. “Greek Animals: Toward a Topology of Edible Bodies.” In The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks, edited by M. Detienne and J. P. Vernant, 87–118. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Gastaldi, P. 1998. Studi su Chiusi arcaica. Annali di Archeologia e Storia Antica. Nuova Serie 5. Naples: Istituto universitario orientale.Suche in Google Scholar

Gerhard, E. 1974. Etruskische Spiegel. Part 5. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110884142-002Suche in Google Scholar

Hall, E.T. 1966. The Hidden Dimension. New York: Doubleday.Suche in Google Scholar

Hall, E.T. 1968. “Proxemics.” Current Anthropology 9.2–3:83–95.10.1086/200975Suche in Google Scholar

Havelock, C. 1982. “Mourners on Greek Vases: Remarks on the Social History of Women.” In Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany, edited by N. Broude and M. Garrard, 45–61. New York: Harper & Row.Suche in Google Scholar

Hemelrijk, J.M., in collaboration with E. den Boer. 2007. “Four New Campana Dinoi, a New Painter, Old Questions,” Babesch 82.2:365–90. 10.2143/BAB.82.2.2020783Suche in Google Scholar

Iozzo, M., and F. Galli, eds. 2003. Museo archeologico nazionale Chiusi. Chiusi: Edizioni Luì.Suche in Google Scholar

Jannot J.R. 1984. Les reliefs archaïques de Chiusi. Rome: Collections de l’École française de Rome.Suche in Google Scholar

Jannot J.R. 1987. “Chiusi au Ve siècle. Des reliefs archaïques aux statues assises.” Latomus 46.1:37–51.Suche in Google Scholar

Jannot J.R. 1998. “Les magistrats, leurs insignes et les jeux étrusques.” MÉFRA 110.2:635–45.Suche in Google Scholar

Jannot J.R. 2004. “Assemblées de femmes: une survivance clusienne des valeurs familiales archaïques.” RA 1:33–49.Suche in Google Scholar

Jannot J.R. 2010. “Les reliefs de Chiusi: mise à jour de nos connaissances.” MÉFRA 122.1:51–72. Suche in Google Scholar

Kurtz, D.C. 1985. “Vases for the Dead: An Attic Selection, 750–400 B.C.” In Ancient Greek and Related Pottery, edited by H. A. G. Brijder, 314–28. Allard Pierson Series, 5. Amsterdam: A. Pierson Museum.Suche in Google Scholar

Laurens, A.-F. 1986. Pour une “systhematique” iconographique: lecture du vase ricci de la villa giulia. Athens: École francaise d’Athenes.Suche in Google Scholar

Maras, D. 2018. “Kings and Tablemates. The Political Role of Comrade Associations in Archaic Rome and Etruria.” In Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte der Etrusker: Akten der internationalen Tagung, Wien, 8.–10.6.2016, edited by L. Aigner-Foresti and P. Amann, 91–108. Vienna: Holzhausen Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar

Mayer-Prokop, I. 1967. Die gravierten etruskischen Griffspiegel archaischen Stils. Heidelberg: F. H. Kerle.Suche in Google Scholar

Meyers, G. 2013. “Women and the Production of Ceremonial Textiles: A Reevaluation of Ceramic Textile Tools in Etrusco-Italic Sanctuaries.” AJA 117.2:247–74.10.3764/aja.117.2.0247Suche in Google Scholar

Moore, J.D. 1996. “The Archaeology of Plazas and the Proxemics of Ritual: Three Andean Traditions.” American Anthropologist 98.4:789–802.10.1525/aa.1996.98.4.02a00090Suche in Google Scholar

Munson, M. 2011. The Archaeology of Art in the American Southwest. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Oakley, J.H. 2003. “Death and the Child.” In Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past, edited by J. Neils and J. Oakley, 163–94. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Parker, R. 1983. Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Suche in Google Scholar

Paribeni, E. 1938. “I rilievi chiusini arcaici.” StEtr 12:57–139. Suche in Google Scholar

Paribeni, E. 1939. “I rilievi chiusini arcaici.” StEtr 13:179–203.Suche in Google Scholar

Parise Badoni, F. 1968. Ceramica Campana a figure nere. Florence: Sansoni.Suche in Google Scholar

Pieraccini, L. 2000. “Families, Feasting, and Funerals: Funerary Ritual at Ancient Caere.” EtrStud 7:35–49.10.1515/etst.2000.7.1.35Suche in Google Scholar

Pieraccini, L. 2003. Around the Hearth: Caeretan Cylinder-Stamped Braziers. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.Suche in Google Scholar

Pieraccini, L. 2011. “The Wonders of Wine in Etruria.” In The Archaeology of Sanctuaries and Ritual in Etruria, edited by N. de Grummond and I. Edlund-Berry, 127–36. JRA Suppl. 81. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology.Suche in Google Scholar

Rafanelli, S. 2004. “Il sacrificio nel mondo etrusco.” In Thesaurus cultus et rituum antiquorum I (ThesCRA): Processions. Sacrifices. Libations. Fumigations. Dedications, 2.a. Sacrifices /Sacrifices/ Opfer / sacrifici, Etr., edited by V. Lambrinoudakis and J. C. Balty, 136–82. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum.Suche in Google Scholar

Rafanelli, S., 2008. “La religione etrusca in età ellenistica. Rituale e iconografia fra tradizione e contaminazioni.” Bollettino di archeologia online, volume speciale. Suche in Google Scholar

Rastrelli, A. 1998. “La necropoli di Poggio Gaiella.” In Studi su Chiusi Arcaica, AnnArchStorAnt, n.s. 5, edited by P. Gastaldi, 57–80. Naples: Istituto universitario orientale.Suche in Google Scholar

Rathje, A. 1990 “The Adoption of the Homeric Banquet in Central Italy in the Orientalizing Period.” In Sympotica: A Symposium on the Symposion, edited by O. Murray, 279–88. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 10.1093/oso/9780198148616.003.0021Suche in Google Scholar

Ricci, G. 1946-49. “Una hydria ionica da Caere,” ASAtene 24–6, n.s.8–10: 47–57.Suche in Google Scholar

Richter, G. 1940. Handbook of the Etruscan Collection. New York: Marchbanks Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Riva, C. 2010 a. The Urbanisation of Etruria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781316136515Suche in Google Scholar

Riva, C. 2010 b. “Nuove tecnologie del sé: il banchetto rituale collettivo in Etruria,” SAGVNTVM Extra 9:69–80. Suche in Google Scholar

Roncalli, F. 1966. Le lastre dipinte da Cerveteri. Florence: Sansoni.Suche in Google Scholar

Shapiro, H. 1991. “The Iconography of Mourning in Athenian Art.” AJA 95.4:629–56.10.2307/505896Suche in Google Scholar

Steingräber, S. 1995. “Funerary Architecture in Chiusi.” EtrStud 2.1:53–84.10.1515/etst.1995.2.1.53Suche in Google Scholar

Steingräber, S. 2006. Abundance of Life: Etruscan Wall Painting. Los Angeles: Getty Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Steingräber, S. 2009. “The Cima Tumulus at San Giuliano—An Aristocratic Tomb and Monument for the Cult of the Ancestors of the Late Orientalizing Period.” In Votives, Places and Rituals in Etruscan Religion. Studies in Honor of Jean MacIntosh Turfa, edited by M. Gleba and H. Becker, 123–33. Leiden: Brill. 10.1163/ej.9789004170452.i-292.58Suche in Google Scholar

Taylor, L. 2011. “Mourning Becomes Etruria: Ritual, Performance and Iconography in the Seventh and Sixth Centuries.” EtrStud 14:39–54.10.1515/etst.2011.14.1.39Suche in Google Scholar

Taylor, L. 2014. “Performing the Prothesis: Gender, Gesture, Ritual and Role on the Chiusine Reliefs from Archaic Etruria.” EtrStud 17:1–27.10.1515/etst-2014-0007Suche in Google Scholar

Thuillier, J-P. 1997. “Un relief archaïque inédit de Chiusi.” RA 2:243–60. Suche in Google Scholar

Tuck, A. 1994. “The Etruscan Seated Banquet: Villanova Ritual and Etruscan Iconography.” AJA 98:617–28.10.2307/506549Suche in Google Scholar

Warden, G. 2008. “Ritual and Representation on a Campana Dinos in Boston,” EtrStud 11: 121–133.10.1515/etst.2008.11.1.121Suche in Google Scholar

Online erschienen: 2020-07-07
Erschienen im Druck: 2020-11-04

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Frontmatter
  3. Editorial
  4. Letter from the Editor
  5. “Reading the Ritual”: Representation and Meaning on an Etruscan Funerary Monument in Perugia
  6. A Late Archaic Boxing-Dance in Etruria: Identification, Comparison, and Function
  7. Athenian Vases and Heroes out of Context: Discovering what Theseus is doing in Etruria
  8. A Blurring Frontier: The Territory of Caere in the Fourth and Third Centuries B. C. E.
  9. Book Review
  10. The Peoples of Ancient Italy
  11. Northern Italy in the Roman World. From the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity
  12. Gli Etruschi. La scrittura, la lingua, la società
  13. An Etruscan Affair: The Impact of Early Etruscan Discoveries on European Culture
  14. L’Intrepido Larth: storia di un guerriero etrusco
  15. L’Etruria di Alessandro Morani: riproduzioni di pitture etrusche dalle collezioni dell’Istituto Svedese di Studi Classici a Roma
  16. Catalogue of Etruscan Objects in the World Museum, Liverpool
  17. The Rise of Rome: From the Iron Age to the Punic Wars
  18. Cippi, stele, statue-stele e semata. Testimonianze in Etruria, nel mondo italico e in Magna Grecia dalla prima Età del Ferro fino all’Ellenismo: atti del convegno internazionale, Sutri, Villa Savorelli, 24–25 aprile 2015.
  19. Veii
  20. The Early Roman Expansion into Italy: Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas
  21. At the Crossroads of Greco-Roman History, Culture, and Religion. Papers in Memory of Carin M. C. Green
  22. Iconografia del leone in Etruria. Tra la fine dell’età arcaica e l’età ellenistica
  23. Collecting and Collectors from Antiquity to Modernity
  24. Roof-Tiles and Tile-Roofs at Poggio Civitate (Murlo): The Emergence of Central Italic Tile Industry
  25. The Fortifications of Pompeii and Ancient Italy
  26. Dai giardini dell’Etruria agli horti romani. La nascita del giardino nell’Italia anticaGiardino e sacro nell’Italia preromana. Vegetazione, paesaggio tra cultura e religione
  27. The Archaeology of Nuragic Sardinia
  28. 2020 Fellowship Award Recipients
Heruntergeladen am 8.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/etst-2019-0009/html?lang=de&srsltid=AfmBOoofiJ51KVbaT5YO8TCMx7kWqs69Pv9i6onLNHawT2v5G_gcBSne
Button zum nach oben scrollen