This volume considers how the discovery of Etruscan sites and artifacts has inspired artists, architects, statesmen, collectors, scholars and travelers to Italy from the 16th through to the 20th century, from Ferdinando de' Medici to Piranesi and Federico Fellini. Subjects include the reclaiming of Etruscan identity and its influence on Italian political history, the collecting and reproduction of Etruscan artifacts, as well as new insights into the lives and activities of early British Etruscologists and the pleasures and perils which they encountered on their travels. Other essays look at Etruscan concepts in jewelry, gems and pottery. The extent of Etruscan influence on European culture has often been underestimated, but still less well known till now is how knowledge of certain aspects of Etruscan civilization spread to the United States of America, as demonstrated, for example, by the tomb of a Civil War officer which was inscribed with an intriguing Etruscan-like inscription.
A key theme under consideration is the impact that Etruscan discoveries have had on the public imagination, in particular the Campanari display of reconstructed Etruscan tombs staged in Pall Mall in 1837 - the first archaeological ‘blockbuster’ exhibition of its kind. The British Museum acquired much of this material, and the excavation of Etruscan tombs with their stunning wall-paintings was to have a lasting impression on displays in the major museums of Europe. But before that, Etruscan material was among Sir Hans Sloane’s collection, the founding collection of the British Museum, and it has been on display since the Museum first opened its doors to the public in 1759.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: George Dennis: In and out of Etruria (Tom Rasmussen)
Chapter 2: The Etruscan Academy of Cortona: its role in establishing modern archaeology and the preservation of cultural heritage (Paolo Bruschetti)
Chapter 3: The re-use of Etruscan artefacts from antiquity to the 19th century (Giovannangelo Camporeale)
Chapter 4: Exhibiting the Etruscans in Bloomsbury and Pall Mall (Judith Swaddling)
Chapter 5: Following the Greeks ‘at a respectful distance’: Etruscan objects in Charles Townley’s collection (Dirk Booms)
Chapter 6: Making copies of Etruscan paintings: the history of the Facsimile Gallery in Florence (Susanna Sarti)
Chapter 7: Glyptomania: the study, collection, reproduction and re-use of Etruscan engraved gems in the 18th and 19th centuries (Ulf R. Hansson)
Chapter 8: ‘Non restando sopra il letto, che il segno di quanto avevo veduto’: Etruscan skeletons on display in the 19th century (Laurent Haumesser)
Chapter 9: Nascent modern Etruscology and its roots in Roman antiquarianism at the turn of the 17th century (Bruno Gialluca)
Chapter 10: The curious case of Castellina in Chianti and evidence for the reception of Etruscan culture in 16th-century Europe (Nancy T. de Grummond)
Chapter 11: A Tuscan forger, Cotton Mather and the Salem Witch Trials, 1693 (Ingrid Rowland)
Chapter 12: Becoming Augustus or Porsenna? The ambiguities of Ferdinando de Medici's garden at Rome (Vincent Jolivet)
Chapter 13: Piranesi’s Carceri and 18th-century reflection in Venice on the Etruscans’ contribution to architecture (Lola Kantor-Kazovsky)
Chapter 14: Collecting Etruscan antiquities in the 17th century: the evidence and legacy of the Chigi collection in Formello (Iefke van Kampen)
Chapter 15: The ideal of the Etruscans in the Italian Risorgimento: the evidence of the collection of the Counts Faina (Giuseppe M. Della Fina)
Chapter 16: James Byres: a note on Catholicism, Jacobitism and the Etruscans (Peter Davidson)
Chapter 17: The ‘Etruscan’ impact on Wedgwood: a misattribution (Nancy Hirschland Ramage)
Chapter 18: An Egyptian tomb, an Etruscan inscription and the funerary monument of an American Civil War officer (Lisa Pieraccini)
Bibliography
Index
