Journal - Comune di Monteleone di Spoleto

58
attested from excavations) developed in the Greek – eastern
mediterranean sphere where the motif had reemerged a
century earlier? Substantiation of the latter hypothesis is
found in the face of the panther on achilles’s shield on the
front panel, in particular in the relief articulation of the
whiskers and the two swellings under the eyes. (The boar
and the panther on the proper right panel have only one
swelling under each eye.) Here, too, the closest parallels for
both features are found on representations of lions from the
near east, first of the late second millennium 82 and then of
the achaemenid period, for instance on a rhyton in the
metropolitan museum (54.3.3). The swellings under the
eyes do not appear in etruscan art (apart from on our chariot),
while in the Greek world they occur in rhodes, Corinth,
and areas of southern italy that had close ties with Corinth. 83
The warts on the foreheads of all the felines on the chariot
tell a similar story. The detail came into vogue in etruria in
the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. (especially at Tarquinia),
and llewellyn Brown has questioned whether the features
came from Greece or the near east. 84
a woman wearing her cloak over her head, like Thetis on
the front panel of the monteleone chariot, has been taken
to represent “the mother.” The iconography appears on the
Caeretan hydriae, produced in etruria about 530 – 510 B.C.
by a group of ionian artists. 85 The motif of a cloak over a
woman’s head can be found in etruria from as early as the
end of the seventh century B.C., 86 but not worn as it is on
the chariot as well as the alabaster-like gypsum statuette
from the isis Tomb at Vulci and the Vix krater, with the drapery
over the forearm, following ionian conventions. 87
The gorgoneion is depicted twice on the chariot, once on
achilles’s shield on the front panel (cat. 1a) and again on the
hero’s shield on the proper right panel (cat. 3a). all the
details on the shield on the side panel have been completely
finished in the bronze, so that one can guess how the gorgoneion
on the front must have looked when it still had the
ivory inlays for its eyes and teeth. The difference in the quality
of execution reflects the varying abilities of the two
craftsmen, the master and his principal assistant. The head
of the gorgoneion on the side panel, executed by the assistant,
lacks the finely traced beard of the one on the main
panel, a simplification perhaps necessitated by its different
position within the oval shape of the Boeotian shield.
unfortunately, the fact that the gorgoneion on the side
panel was finished in bronze, and therefore looks complete,
has caused scholars to take it as the representative
gorgoneion on the chariot. ingrid Krauskopf maintains that
the gorgoneion on the side panel shows the almost standard
etruscan type of the last quarter of the sixth century. 88
The shape of the head is basically oval, the open mouth
occupies the full width of the face and shows the fangs, the
protruding tongue coincides with the shape of the chin so
that it does not extend beyond the outlines of the face, the
wrinkles on the base of the nose widen out toward the tip,
and the hair is parted in the center, falling in wavy locks
that reveal the ears, which are attached very high. But as
Krauskopf has pointed out, like many etruscan gorgoneia of
the period this one seems to be missing a beard. This gorgoneion
shares features with some terracotta plaques from the
columen, or gable post, perhaps from a mutulus, or part of
a doric cornice, and from antefixes of the so-called upper
Building of Poggio Civitate (murlo) that are earlier (580 –
575 B.C.) and with a type of antefix from Vulci from which
those of murlo may be derived. 89 The hair parted in the
middle of the forehead — rather rare — is the same, although
the eyes are still large and the mouth less so. Here, too, the
beard is lacking.
The terracotta workers from murlo and Vulci must have
simplified a bearded model, which also served for the gorgoneion
on the main panel of the monteleone chariot. on
the face of the gorgoneion on the cart from Castel San
mariano of 580 – 570 or 560 B.C.(?) the section of the forehead
that would have shown the top of the hair is missing,
but the locks flowing down behind the ears strongly suggest
a central part. 90 artistic quality aside, such a gorgoneion is
based on the same model as the one the master of the chariot
adopted for the bearded gorgoneion. no evidence exists
in or outside etruria to indicate the origin of this model,
though all of its aspects point toward an ionian setting. 91
There is a connection between the panther heads on the
central and proper right panels analogous to the one
observed between the gorgon heads on the same panels.
The panther face on the side panel was fashioned by the
main collaborator and simplifies the model executed by the
master craftsman on the shield in the central panel. The iconography
of the copy recalls the two panther heads on the
ends of the overfold of the gorgon’s garment on the short
side of the Castel San mariano chariot; the only significant
difference is the absence on the cart of the swellings below
the eyes. This feature is totally foreign to etruscan art but
occurs on the monteleone chariot and, as i have said, in
rhodes, Corinth, and southern italy.
The head of the panther in the proper right frieze (cat. 11)
relates to a different iconography represented by a series of
terracotta plaques from the so-called upper Building of
Poggio Civitate (murlo). 92 in both examples the face is
round, the ears have the same wavy leaf shape with outer
and inner ridges forming an inverted V, and the forehead has
a central vertical groove. The eyes are markedly oblique,
and the arc of the eyebrows is identical. The felines on the
Poggio Civitate plaques do not have the characteristic warts
of those on the monteleone chariot, however. While the
composition of this frieze is unique, the individual elements
occur in ionian gold work, as marisa Bonamici has noted.