A life-size cinerary statue in Florence belongs to a category of largescale stone sculptures found in the Chiusi region that were used as repositories for cremation burials. The type, an anthropomorphic container for the cinerary remains of a person, can be traced to pottery containers with lids in the shape of human heads. In the sixth century BCE, large-scale stone statues with internal cavities for the ashes join the pottery and metal anthropomorphic containers in the tombs of members of the upper classes. While this practice is strictly Etruscan, the Florence statue is inspired by East Greek sculpture of the sixth century BCE. This article, in honor of Nancy de Grummond, is an analysis of the Chiusine sculpture in Florence in the context of function and style.1 Camporeale (2013, 885-902) is a fine summary with updated bibliography on this topic.
by H e l e n N a g y T he proliferation of new fascicules of the Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum and recent scholarly interest in production and attribution provide fertile ground for the examination of the transmission of images on Etruscan mirrors. 1 Of particular interest to the author is the manner in which a workshop extended its offerings by "copying" and combining individual figures and gestures from a range of contexts. Individual visual elements communicate through a set of preconceived figural conventions that derive their meaning either by association with their original contexts or by a more abstract process of juxtaposing poses and gestures that vary their significance in each new context. A tang mirror in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California provides an example of this process. 1 (Fig. 1) Although commonly identified as representing Menelaos threatening Helen after the fall of Troy, the combination of figural units on the mirror lends itself to more than one interpretation.Etruscan mirrors speak in a figural language at times accompanied by inscribed words. When alone, the figures become the words, or formulae, to communicate through pose and gesture, as well as through attribute, an intended story or concept. While in many cases the incised images that decorate the obverse of mirrors may be interpreted as depicting narrative elements based on literary themes, the majority of decorated mirrors show mainly symbolic, or emblematic images that refer to an entity or power, such as the winged Lasas, or an event, such as the many generic scenes of combat that gain specificity only when accompanied by inscribed labels. 2 The majority of the Dioskouroi mirrors fall into this emblematic category. With only a few exceptions, such as when rescuing their sister, Helen, or when framing a multifigured "sacra conversazione," 3 the Dioskouroi stand alone, symmetrically facing one another, often with no attribute other than a curious Phrygian cap, or a shield or spear to identify them as the divine twins. Yet, we recognize them as the sons of Zeus, without the aid of additional attributes, scenery or props because we have come to know their gener--89 -Brought to you by | Rutgers University Authenticated Download Date | 6/3/15 5:24 AM
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.