Our knowledge about the Etruscan civilization is
extremely limited. Our understanding of their
language is still incomplete and most of the
information that is known comes to us through
the Romans, their one time subjects who grew to
become their masters. The Etruscans lived under
a series of autonomous city-states spread out
across northern and central Italy. By the 3rd
Century B.C., they would be absorbed into the
burgeoning Roman Empire. In Etruria from the
earliest times, cinerary urns were engraved with
images of a human face, perhaps intended to be
the portrait of the deceased whose ashes were
contained within. Later, sculpted masks served
as the covers of the urns. Eventually, as the style
evolved, the urns themselves were sculpted in
the shaped of human faces. Some of the most
splendid examples of Etruscan funerary art were
excavated from the necropolis of Chiusi, one of
the large population centers of Etruria. Whether
this portrait head of a woman served as a
cinerary urn or decorated one is unknown.
However, it is clearly concerned with the funerary
rites and no doubt yearned to capture the
essence of this woman’s physical being for all
eternity. And in this way, the artist was
successful. Here we are, more than two
thousand years later, confronted by a person
who does not seem so distant from us. We
recognize ourselves in her face, in her wavy hair
and gentle smile.
- (X.0048)
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