Cult of beauty - Minerva

Italian exhibitions
in Rome – a public institution that collected
donations from wealthy members
of society, to be made available
as nancial loans to people in need.
However, his passion for collecting
Etruscan art and antiquities bankrupted
him in 1854, and he was forced
to pawn part of his collection to the
Monte di Pietà, funds from which he
redirected to secure cash to alleviate
his nancial troubles. In 1857 he was
arrested, tried for embezzlement, and
sentenced to 20 years in prison. anks
to the support of his friends and a section
of the press, the Pope commuted
the sentence to exile outside the papal
state. As a result of Campana’s legal
and nancial plight, the works of art
in his collections were put on sale: on
20 May, 1861, the French government
of Napoleon III signed the contract to
purchase the majority of the artefacts.
e remainder of the collection was
acquired by British buyers and Russian
Tsar Alexander II.
One of the most fascinating objects
acquired by the Louvre in 1863 is a 3 rd -
century BC terracotta head depicting
Ariadne (Fig 4). Found in 1829 in the
ruins of a small building near a theatre
at Falerii Novi, about 50km north
of Rome, the head is a fragment of a
large statue, fashioned by hand in separate
parts. Ariadne is represented covered
with jewels and in the process of
hiding her face with a veil, a gesture
(anakalypsis) typical of sacred
unions (hierogamies). She
wears a Bacchic crown of
ivy, further proof that this
was originally a cult gure,
part of a group representing
the wedding of Dionysos
and Ariadne. It is
surprising that this
magnicent example
of Hellenistic
clay sculpture lay
all but forgotten
in the deposits of
the Louvre, even
though it had been
a centrepiece in
Campana museum.
Another beautiful
object is the terracotta
askos vessel in the
shape of a duck, painted
with a nude female victory
bearing a vase (Fig 6).
Discovered at Chiusi, the
vessel dates to c. 320 BC
and originally contained
scented oil. Unfortunately,
its provenance is unknown
but an attribution to the
painter of Montediano and
to the group of ceramics
14
Fig 9. Terracotta
kantharos with the
head of a maenad
and satyr. Probably
from Chiusi, Etruria,
second half of the 4 th
century BC. H.17cm.
Paris Musée du
Louvre ©RMN – Hervé
Lewandowski.
Fig 10. Fragment of
a funerary slab with
a scene of prothesis,
probably Chiusi,
Etruria, early 5 th
century BC. H. 39cm;
L. 57cm. Paris, Musée
du Louvre. © RMN –
Hervé Lewandowski.
Fig 11. Map of Italy
with the geographical
extent of ancient
Etruria, shaded dark
green.
Fig 12. Bronze
oinochoe in the
shape of the head of a
young man. Probably
from Orvieto,
Etruria, late
5 th / early 4 th
century BC.
H. 30.2cm.
Paris,
Musée
du Louvre.
©RMN
– Les frères
Chuzeville.
Fig 13. Bronze
kouros from
Falterona, Etruria,
early 5 th century
BC. H. 22cm. Paris
Musée du Louvre
(C) RMN – © Hervé
Lewandowski.
13
9 10
with red gures present in Northern
Etruria has been advanced. Among
the outstanding artworks on view in
Cortona, there is also a peculiar 3rd- century BC bronze vase, part of a
funerary ensemble from Orvieto (Fig
5). In the shape of a woman’s head that
originally wore a now lost gold crown,
the inscription ‘Suthina’ was incised
across the forehead.
A well preserved terracotta anthropomorphic
canopic vase, possibly
made in Chiusi during the 6th century
BC, is a further example of the quality
of the objects on display in the exhibition
(Fig 7). e vase consists of
an ovoid container with mobile
handles. e lid is shaped like
a female head, complete with
stylised hair and holes in the
ears that once held earrings.
Two small bronze votive
statuettes of kouroi, dating
to the 5th and 4th centuries,
were part of an exceptional
hoard found on the shores of
the so-called Lake of the Idols
on Mount Falterona, located along
the road linking northern Etruria
with the Po Valley. e site was
found by chance in 1838 and
more than 600 small bronze statuettes
and 2000 fragments of exvotos
were unearthed (Figs 8, 13).
e hoard was dispersed among vari -
ous museums, including the Louvre
and the British Museum, following a
series of public sales that took place
aer the artefacts had been placed on
show in Rome in 1842 at the Istituto
di Corrispondenza Archeologica. A
re-excavation of the site on Mount
Falterona in 1972 produced further
statuettes and anatomical ex-votos
similar to those found the previous
century, providing further proof that
this remote location was probably
home to a special shrine dedicated to
healing and the deities of war.
e exhibition groups the loans from
Paris according to the areas where they
are believed to having been found, displaying
them alongside similar nds
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Populonia
Volterra
Adria
Bologna
Spina
Roselle
Chiusi
Vetulonia
Vulci
Tarquinia
Arno
Caere
Fiesole
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Arezzo
Cortona
Perugia
Tevere
Orvieto
Bomarzo
Verucchio
Capua
Fermo
Civita Castellana (Falerii)
Veio
Pontecagnano
excavated in recent years. us, the
visitor progresses through a sequence
of sites from Fiesole to Chiusi, from
Orvieto to Bomarzo, and from Perugia
to Falerii (Fig 11). e exhibition provides
a rich display of outstanding
artefacts from a region with a rich and
highly complex archaeology.
e exhibition runs until 3 July, and
was made possible through a threeyear
collaboration project signed
between the MAEC and the Louvre.
A catalogue is available: Le collezioni
del Louvre a Cortona, Skira, Milan,
2011. For additional details, Tel (39)
0575 637 235; email prenotazioni@
cortonamaec.org.
Minerva May/June 2011