Description:
This is the rectangular terracotta lid of a cinerary urn, made of pale, orange-beige clay with traces of red paint. On the lid a child is depicted in the traditional way, reclining at the funerary meal, leaning on his left arm, which rests on a rectangular cushion. He is holding a patera umbilicata in his right hand, and he is draped around his lower body. There is a small, square vent hole on top of his head.
The Etruscans cremated their dead, and especially during the last phase of Etruscan civilisation cremation burials became increasingly common. The ashes were placed in urns that were made in stone or, more commonly, in terracotta. Most were small rectangular boxes, usually decorated with mythical or ornamental scenes in relief on the sides, often with an inscription at the top of the box identifying the deceased, and with a lid on which a reclining figure portrayed the deceased.
Although changes in Etruscan society during the Hellenistic period are evident in the funerary environment, the form and placement of cinerary urns and their lid effigies illustrate remarkable continuity in the Etruscan understanding of the afterlife.
The cinerary urns served as integral components of a dynamic funerary environment. Although on almost all cinerary urns there is a strong emphasis on the head of the deceased, the importance of the lid effigy did not lie in its physical resemblance; portraits were mass-produced and depict types rather than individuals. Through aspects of performance, interaction, and visual convention, these urns maintained the deceased's personhood in the afterlife, an identity that related to familial relationships and active participation in important social practices (Huntsman, 2014).
Bibliography:
Richard Daniel De Puma, Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013), p. 118; 243-249;
Theresa Rose Huntsman, Eternal Personae. Chiusine Cinerary Urns and the Construction of Etruscan Identity (Washington University, 2014);
Carlos A. Picón a.o., Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007), p. 311, fig. 369; p. 476-477.
Dating:
Probably from Chiusi, second century B.C.
Size:
Length 40 cm.
Provenance:
Swiss private collection, acquired from Galeria Serodine, Switserland, in 2001; thence Kunsthandel Mieke Zilverberg, Amsterdam.
Condition:
A small piece missing from the drapery, a tiny chip from the patera, otherwise intact.
Price:
€ 18,000
Stock number:
C2102