Etruscan Art - Notes

Chapter 22 Wall Paintings and Stone Reliefs
[Note: References to plates are included in the text. The plates are not included in this computer document.]

I N D E X

Post-Archaic Wall Painting at Tarquinia
Decorative Systems and Zonal Divisions
Tomb of Hunting and Fishing
Tomb of the Baron.

T E X T
Post-Archaic Wall Painting at Tarquinia
Decorative Systems and Zonal Divisions. Among the wall paintings at Tarquinia which are here assigned to the interval between Late Archaic and Classical art, two are outstanding: those in the Tomb of the Chariots, and in the Tomb of the Banquet [180-5]. The recently discovered Tomb of the Ship,[1] though not of the finest execution, attracts attention also, because of its unusual subject matter [187]. These are exceptions, however. In general an unmistakable standardization of themes as well as of their presentation was taken place throughout the period. A series of closely allied wall paintings, a few among them of the first order but all enjoyable, resulted from this competent if somewhat conventional art.[2]

The decorative systems into which the figural paintings were fitted require a brief examination. They mostly correspond to the manner of arrangement classified above as the third phase of Tarquinian wall painting [pp. 185 ff]; that is, they follow the example first set in the Tomb of the Lionesses, to our knowledge, rather than the basic Archaic scheme [the 'second style'] as exemplified by the Tomb of the Augurs. The distinquishing symptom is the decoration of the upper margins of the walls. In the tombs of the second phase one finds in this place a broad band of parallel stripes which functions as an upper cornice, perhaps an imitation of a beam or wooden plank painted with various colours. The device is continuous around the chamber and thereby, quite logically, also serves as a base for the pedimental triangles above the small walls. The underlying rationalization, as explained previously, was of an architectural order. By contrast, in the Tomb of the Lionesses the upper third approximately of the walls was reserved for the representational decoration which thus moved into the place of a large, figured upper frieze. The logical consequence was that the striped band which might be expected above the frieze was omitted; the figured frieze itself replaced the geometric decoration of the upper-most zone [120]. Thus far an architectural reasoning might yet apply to the revised arrangement. But the illusionistic representations, which on all sides seem to depict a locality transcending the actual bounds of the chamber, cast doubt on any interpretation of the decoration as a consistently rendered interior architecture. The thin frame-line which separates the frieze from the gable would in a real structure provide an intolerably tenuous foundation for the pedimental group. The painter's first concern was with the spectacle he set out to illustrate, not with a sham architecture for the room in which he painted it.

The trend thus begun outlasted the Archaic style. During the decades around 500 one can observe a growing tendency to place figured representations in the upper third of a wall; sometimes the traditional striped architrave was simultaneously shown, as in the Tomb of the Baron [127]. The decorative system employed in the Tomb of the Chariots, which heads the list of Tarquinian wall paintings after 480 [below, pp. 266 ff.], is probably best explained by the same Archaic antecedents. A smaller figured frieze runs on top of the main zone, which represents dancers [183]; again, the combination impresses us as pseudo-architectural. The arrangement apparently was an innovation in its own time; it yielded two zones of figures instead of one, and peopled pediments in addition. The thought was ingenious, but apparently failed to set an example. We know of no attempts at repeating it.

Instead, the majority of zonal systems in this period falls in line with the third style as above [p. 263] defined, the principles of which they vary with considerable freedom. Gradually the striped cornices either disappear from the upper borders of the walls or else are turned into ornaments of a different form and function. The wish to save more wall space for the pictorial elements probably instigated this rather experimental approach. Thus in the Tomb of the Funeral Couch,[3] which I should date near the end of the transitional period [177], one still recognizes the after-effects of zonal divisions in the manner of the Tomb of the Lionesses [120]. But the proportions have changed and, in a sense, become distorted. The figured frieze now occupies about half the height of the lateral walls, and still more of the rear wall. The action represented, not wholly explained so far, is continuous, but it has lost the character of a frieze in favour of that of an entablature. A striped band topped by a laurel garland on which the figured zone rests serves as a divider between the upper half of the wall and the dado; in this location it can hardly have carried a reference to normal architecture. Dolphins and the sea reappear in the dado, as we saw them in the Tomb of the Lionesses; and just as was true there, in the Tomb of the Funeral Couch the upper cornice has also been omitted. The undulating drapes hanging from the ceiling or, on the rear wall, from upright posts, form part of the representation, not of the architecture of the tomb. They belong to the building wherein the banquet and ceremonies take place which the paintings illustrate. At one point, however, the liberty which the later decorator took with tradition far exceeds the example of the Tomb of the Lionesses. In his design the rear wall has been entirely surrendered to the representational paintings, with the enormous funeral couch--if this is indeed the explanation--occupying the centre.[4] No space was left for the customary architecture of a pediment, supported by a kingpost. In the . . . . [p. 164]