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Sepulchral architecture as illustrated by the rock façades of Central Etruria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

In cube tombs the mouldings which exhibit the greatest variation are the ‘lip’ and the ‘bell.’ It has been said above (J.R.S. XV, p. 22) that the ‘bell’ is the dynamic element of the upper part of the decorated façade.

Generally the depth of the ‘bell’ is equal to its height. When the former exceeds the latter, the crowning member naturally recedes, and the whole appearance of the upper decoration is less heavy. In the contrary case it becomes heavier. The large band is almost always somewhat high and is proportional to the height of the ‘bell.’

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Gino Rosi 1927. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 59 note 1 Part I appeared in J.R.S. XV, 1–59.

page 59 note 2 It is interesting to note that the most common measure employed in these monuments is about 42 cm. or its multiple, thus confirming the Etruscan foot found at Chiusi and again at Orvieto (N.S. 1884).

page 60 note 1 The measurement of the architrave with ‘ears’ is taken externally, that is, as far as the lower extremity of the ‘ears’ (see below, p. 81).

page 61 note 1 The tendency to curve in such tombs is particularly noticeable in the inside lines of the façade —i.e. the door-posts—a fact not observed elsewhere.

page 61 note 2 The tumuli may be compared in shape to a cask rather than to a vat.

page 64 note 1 As I was unable to make squeezes or tracings, I could only copy them.

page 65 note 1 Likewise on the two sarcophagi of Norchia, in the Museum at Viterbo, the name Veltburius appears; Velius occurs in the inscriptions of Bieda.

page 65 note 2 e.g. Caere, Vulci.

page 65 note 3 The reason why rock-tumuli have lost their heaped-up cones, whereas the so-called montarozzi of Cerveteri, Corneto, Vulci and Vetulonia have preserved theirs, may be explained by the fact that, these last being built on the level, their earth cones are at an angle of 45 degrees and are not subject to landslip; whereas the former, being on slopes or at the bottoms of valleys, or on a cliff-edge, have suffered in consequence.

page 66 note 1 It is now preserved in the house of Signor Sagretti at Barbarano.

page 66 note 2 Dei sepolcrali Edifizi, p. 65.

page 66 note 3 Dennis, , The cities and cemeteries of Etruria, 2nd ed., vol. II, p. 8Google Scholar, note.

page 66 note 4 See J.R.S. XV, fig. 23, and also Dennis, , op cit. vol. II, p. 11Google Scholar, and Mon. dell' Inst, iii, pl. LVII, figs. 7 and 8.

page 67 note 1 Rom. Mitt. XXX (1915), 195Google Scholar. About 1,000 rock two tombs are still visible; and another thousand or two tombs are hidden or destroyed, especially on the plateaux.

page 68 note 1 Röm. Mitt. XXX (1915), p. 198Google Scholar.

page 69 note 1 For obvious reasons the stories had to be marked on the maps in planes.

page 71 note 1 Bazzichelli in N.S. 1877, p. 151, Bieda and S. Giovenale. This feature is common at Giuliano, S. (cf. Röm. Mitt. XXX, fig. 15Google Scholar).

page 73 note 1 Röm. Mitt. XXX, p. 205.

page 74 note 1 Dennis, , op. cit. vol. I, p. 98Google Scholar.

page 74 note 2 op. cit.

page 75 note 1 J.R.S. XV, p. 59.

page 77 note 1 One of them reproduced in an erroneous design by Durm, , Die Baustile, II Teil, 2nd ed. p. 130Google Scholar. Other cippi of the same type were found in 1925 in excavating the Roman theatre at Ferento, where they had been used as building material.

page 77 note 2 Mon. dei Lincei, xxiv, 1912Google Scholar, illustrated by E. Galli, and now in the Museo Civico at Orvieto.

page 77 note 3 Martha, L'Art Etrusque, Pl. IV.

page 78 note 1 The Museum of Viterbo contains many sarcophagi and only a small number of cinerary urns.

page 79 note 1 Herodotus, iv. 108.

page 79 note 2 Vitruvius (iii. 3) calls the Etruscan buildings ‘barycephalae, humiles, latae.’

page 79 note 3 Ann. d. Ist., 1833, p. 42.

page 79 note 4 Vitruvius on the origin of the orders, Bks. III and IV.

page 80 note 1 Cf. an urn in the Museum at Florence, Martha op. cit., fig. 129. Milani, , Museo arch. di Firenze, vol. ii, Pl. XLIXGoogle Scholar.

page 80 note 2 Published in a somewhat imaginative way by Canina, op. cit., Pl. CIX, fig. 7.

page 81 note 1 Also reproduced by Mingarelli, N.S. 1900, p. 407.

page 81 note 2 Cf. the hut-tombs of Norchia and Sovana.

page 81 note 3 N.S., 1915, p. 361–362.

page 81 note 4 Florence Museum, Sala xxi.

page 82 note 1 op. cit. Pl. XI, 2.

page 82 note 2 Vitruvius vi, 3: ‘… asseribus stillicidiorum in medium compluvium dejectis.’ On many of the cube-shaped cippi one sees a similar cavity in the upper part.

page 82 note 3 Vitruvius, loc. cit.: ‘Displuviata (cava aedium) autem sunt, in quibus deliciae arcem sustinentes stillicidia reiciunt.’

page 82 note 4 op. cit. (2nd ed.), vol. ii, p. 11.

page 83 note 1 Vitruvius (ii, 9) by this word intends wood and clay put together.

page 83 note 2 Gsell, Fouilles de Vulci (figs. 81, 85 and 86).

page 83 note 3 See above, p. 80, note 2.

page 83 note 4 Byres Hypogaei, Pl. VII; reproduced by Weege, Die etrus. Malerei, p. 74, fig. 66.

page 83 note 5 Milani, , op. cit. vol. ii. Pl. XLIX (top)Google Scholar.

page 83 note 6 See the interior of the tumulus at Bieda, , Röm. Mitt. XXX, plan 1, 18, fig. 28Google Scholar, seventh-sixth century, and also the Grande Ruota at Grotta Porcina.

page 83 note 7 op. cit. vol. i, p. 190, n. 3.

page 83 note 8 Festus attributes to the Etruscans the invention of the atrium. Servius (ad. Aen. I. 730) praise its ampleness.

page 83 note 9 Orioli, op. cit. p. 39, explains the re-entrances of the panel in tomb 7 of Castel d'Asso (Pl. XXIII, fig. 53) as the foreshortened representation of a suite of rooms, but it is more probable that it was a way of reinforcing the impost of the door. We shall return to the spread of such a practice.

page 84 note 1 On the Orvieto tombs of a late period the false door is very small and can only be symbolical.

page 84 note 2 Published by Fabretti in Corpus Inscr. Ital.

page 84 note 3 Giglioli in N.S. 1923.

page 84 note 4 See above, p. 77.

page 85 note 1 I am infinitely grateful to the Superintendent of Antiquities, Prof. Paribeni, for the permission granted me to carry out some work of investigation in the tombs of the principal localities which I have studied—Norchia and S. Giuliano. During last autumn Dr. Bianchi-Bandinelli had the tombs of the necropolis of Sovana cleared, and made drawings and casts of them. He was able to confirm almost all my observations, including those regarding their chronology. He found, however, that the two central supports of the pronaos of the Grotta Ildebranda were not pilasters as I had suggested, but columns like the rest. At Castel d'Asso, Alexander Hardcastle, who has done so much for the restoration of the temples of Agrigentum and the theatre at Ferento, has financed the clearing of the rock façades, to the great advantage of the view.

page 85 note 2 They are preserved in the Museum of Viterbo.

page 85 note 3 No. 5591, Sala XXI: see also Milani, op. cit. vol. II, pl. xlviiiGoogle Scholar.

page 86 note 1 At Mycenae the tombs with two or four gables (in the lower city) belong to the last period of Mycenaean civilisation, and show already the influence of the new barbaric architecture, i.e. Doric.

page 86 note 2 cf. N.S. 1877, p. 151 on the tumuli of San Giovenale.

page 86 note 3 op. cit. vol. i, p. 184.

page 87 note 1 Springer-Ricci, : Man. di storia dell' arte, vol. i, fig. 40Google Scholar.

page 87 note 2 Perrot-Chipiez, : Hist. de l'art dans l'antiquité, vol. iv, figs. 179 to 193Google Scholar.

page 87 note 3 They have triglyphs and paterae resembling many later Etruscan monuments.

page 87 note 4 It is unnecessary to consider here the rare Phoenician tombs with egg-shaped pediments adorned with a central rosette (Perrot-Chipiez, , op. cit. vol. iii, p. 149Google Scholar, fig. 115), or the stelae of Sardinia which are a Phoenician importation.

page 87 note 5 Savignoni and De Sanctis in Mon. dei Lincei vol. xi, fig. 32.

page 87 note 6 Orsi, ibid. vol. vi, pp. 88 ff, fig. 32.

page 87 note 7 id. vol. ix, pp. 33 ff, fig. 32.

page 87 note 8 Taramelli, ibid. vol. xix, fig. 48.

page 88 note 1 Pinza, ibid. vol. xi.

page 88 note 2 Perrot-Chipiez, , op. cit. vol. iii, p. 119Google Scholar.

page 88 note 3 Perrot-Chipiez, , op. cit. vol. v, pp. 83Google Scholar ff.

page 88 note 4 Texier, Description, etc., Plate lx.

page 88 note 5 Exploration de la Galatie el de la Bithynie, p. 229.

page 88 note 6 J.H.S. iii (1882), p. 28Google Scholar; x (1889).

page 88 note 7 Ath. Mitt. xxiii, 1898, pp. 82 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 88 note 8 Benndorf, and Niemann, , Reisen in Kleinasien, vol. ii, pl. iii and xiiGoogle Scholar. Note the thickness of the dentil, due to the influence of the local style.

page 88 note 9 ibid. pl. vii, v and ix.

page 89 note 1 Hist, de l'architecture, I, 216, 217, 256.

page 89 note 2 op. cit. pp. 250, 254.

page 89 note 3 ibid. pl. xii.

page 89 note 4 There are examples of such at Myra and at Adanda.

page 89 note 5 Beaufort, Karamania, p. 189.

page 89 note 6 Benndorf, and Niemann, , op. cit. vol. ii, pl. xvGoogle Scholar.

page 89 note 7 Texier, The Principal Ruins of Asia Minor, pl. 47.

page 89 note 8 Paribeni, and Romanelli, , ‘Studi e Ricerche Archeol. nell Anatolia Merid.’ in Mon. dei Lincei, vol. xxiii, 1, 1914, p. 253Google Scholar.

page 89 note 9 Milani, , op. cit. vol. iiGoogle Scholar, pl. left hand.

page 90 note 1 Florence Museum, Sala xxi.

page 90 note 2 loc. cit.

page 90 note 3 Bull. dell' Ist., 1843, p. 156.

page 91 note 1 Vitruvius, iv. 6.

page 91 note 2 One must except the protomae of the Doric tombs and the monuments of Sovana, in which, however, many figured parts present elements of primitive Etruscan art, still resisting Greek influence.

page 91 note 3 Cf. also the sarcophagus of Orvieto mentioned on p. 77.

page 91 note 4 Milani, , op. cit. vol. ii, pl. 48Google Scholar, at the top.

page 91 note 5 I keep the traditional name used by Ainsley and Dennis, though the present state of the relief does not allow one to accept it with any certainty.

page 92 note 1 In the Florence Museum in Sab xx, urns N. 77 and 632 from the Villa Strada, and another in Sala xxii, N. 5786, have figures identical with the one on the pediment of Sovana. See also Micali, Mon. Inst. pl. xxiv, cx and cxi.

page 92 note 2 Milani, op. cit. p. 93, explained it erroneously as a triton. Libertini recognizes Scylla. I believe it to be a monster strictly belonging to Etruscan mythology.

page 92 note 3 Florence Museum, sarcophagus of Chiusi, N.77.977.

page 92 note 4 cf. the characteristic and significant ‘Temple of Mars’ at Todi (Micali, Mon. Inst. pl. xiii).

page 92 note 5 Canina's reconstruction (op. cit. pl. xciv) cited by Martha (op. cit. fig. 140) is somewhat fantastical.

page 93 note 1 It was also perhaps a little higher.

page 93 note 2 Milani, , op. cit. vol. ii, pl. lxxxGoogle Scholar, on the left: urn of ‘pietra fetida’ Martha, op. cit. fig. 188; sarcophagus of Bomarzo in the form of a temple with antefixes. Also the Temple of Telamonaccio already mentioned (J.R.S. xv, 45.)

page 93 note 3 e.g. the Temple of Zeus at Olympus.

page 93 note 4 Mon. Inst. ii, pl. xx, fig. 7.

page 93 note 5 Dennis, , op. cit. vol. ii, pp. 241 and 118Google Scholar.

page 94 note 1 Which are marked by a small red square on the plans in J.R.S. xv, figs. 2–6.

page 94 note 2 Campagna Romana, vol. ii, p. 163, fig. 33.

page 94 note 3 Livy, xli, 16.

page 94 note 4 Analisi, etc, vol. i, p. 74.

page 94 note 5 Picturae Antiquae Criptarum Romanarum et Sepulri Nasonium (Roma, 1791Google Scholar).

page 94 note 6 Antica Veio, p. 95.

page 94 note 7 J.R.S. XI, pp. 139–40 and notes.

page 95 note 1 See Mélanges, xxiii (1903), 396Google Scholar.

page 95 note 2 N.S. 1889, p. 244.

page 95 note 3 J.R.S. xv, 5.

page 95 note 4 Gli Italiani e l'Esplorazione dell' Oriente Ellenico (Ist. Coloniale Italiano, Tip. dell' Un. Editrice, Roma, 1920) p. 82Google Scholar.