Etruski Terrakotta Cinery uurna, jossa Equetleo esiintyy Marathonissa. 2. vuosisadalla eaa. 34 cm pituus.

Cinerary urn with the appearance of Equetleo in Marathon.

Etruscan, 2nd century BC.

34 cm length, 33 cm height and 19 cm depth.

PROVENANCE:

- Antoine Tarantino Collection, Paris, 2004.
- Art market, Paris, rue de la Grange-Batelière.
- Private collection, Michel Meignan, Paris, France. 1970.

CONDITION: Good condition, old restorations.

DESCRIPTION:

Etruscan cinerary urn conceived as a small sarcophagus, with a rectangular bowl decorated on the front with a relief scene, originally polychrome, and a sculptural lid with the representation of the recumbent deceased. The front relief shows a dynamic battle scene with four fighting figures armed with spears, swords and shields. During the Hellenistic period, large numbers of terracotta funerary urns decorated with polychrome high-relief work were produced in the workshops of Chiusi, intended to contain the ashes of the owner of the deceased after the cremation of the corpse. This terracotta urn decorated with reliefs is typical of funerary monuments produced in the workshops of central Etruria during the 2nd century BC. The Etruscans, who buried and cremated their dead until the end of the Hellenistic period, were famous for producing this type of memorial from the end of the 4th century BC. The form and iconography of these cinerary urns are fairly conventional: the container is generally decorated with a mythological scene executed in high relief, while the deceased is shown on the lid, usually reclining, as if at a banquet (fig. 1). On some examples the name of the deceased is given by a painted inscription.

The relief shows a complex compositional dynamism, clearly Greek in origin. The protagonist is a man in the centre of the scene, standing with his back to us but with his head in profile to the left, directing a plough towards his enemies, which he wields like a spear, with his legs wide open to propel him in his attack. He is probably a hero, as he is depicted as a young athlete, naked except for a sash around his waist and adorned with a ribbon encircling his hair. The direction of his attack leads our gaze to another combatant, identified as a monarch by his elaborate helmet and the cloak fluttering behind him. This one, also with his legs spread, lunges at the hero with his sword in his right hand, his shield in front of him closing the space in the background. In front of the king, between him and the hero, we see a third warrior crouching with his knee on the ground, facing the viewer, raising his sword while protecting himself with his shield, leaning his body backwards to avoid the plough. The sculptor crosses this soldier's sword with that of the king, in an elegant device to balance the diagonal lines. On the right-hand side, the composition is completed by a soldier with his body leaning to the right, covered with his shield, who raises his right hand and hides it behind his head.
His outstretched leg crosses that of the hero, echoing the crossed swords on the opposite side of the composition - and of the battle.

These four figures appear, in the Greek manner, intertwined in the composition, crossing legs, arms and weapons in a complex, dynamic and balanced composition that reflects the violence of the battle. Standing and crouching figures alternate, all leaning in the direction of their attack or defence, with the heads effectively extending beyond the relief frame and the shields playing an important role in the composition, either in frontal view, as circles, or as foreshortened ovals. Two cinerary urns with identical relief on the front are preserved in New York, both still preserving the polychromy to a greater or lesser extent (figs. 2 and 3).

This particular model of urn is thought to have been produced mainly in the Etruscan town of Chiusi. Today, the most widespread interpretation identifies the central figure with the Greek hero Echelius, who is said to have appeared at the battle of Marathon to help defeat the Persians, and who is often referred to in the sources as a farmer, as his name derives from the Greek word for plough. Already in Roman times Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, narrates that the hero confronted the Persians wielding a plough. However, there is no explanation as to how an ancient and obscure local Greek legend could have achieved such popularity in Etruria. Some historians suggest that it may be a depiction of an Etruscan theme, unknown to this day.

The lid of the urn is a sculpture in high relief depicting a recumbent figure, wrapped in a richly folded tunic and with his head resting on two cushions. Although it is the image of the deceased, the figure is shown lying in profile, with his legs bent and his arms wrapped around his torso, as if he were asleep rather than dead. In Etruscan funerary art the deceased is usually depicted in life, reclining but generally upright; the sleeping figure is rarer, and reflects the intimate relationship that existed for Greeks and Etruscans between death and sleep, embodied in the twin gods Thanatos and Hypnos. The two New York urns mentioned above share this iconographic particularity of the lid with the piece under study.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- BRENDEL, O. Etruscan Art. Yale University Press. 1995.
- HUNTSMAN, T. “Hellenistic Etruscan Cremation Urns from Chiusi”, en Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 49, 2014, pp. 141-150.
- IZZET, V. The Archaeology of Etruscan Society. Cambridge University Press. 2008.
- MCINTOSH TURFA, J. The Etruscan World. Routledge. 2018.
- WEIR, A. J. Footsteps of the Dead: Iconography of Beliefs about the Afterlife and Evidence for Funerary Practices in Etruscan Tarquinia. Tesis doctoral. University of St. Andrews. 2013.

PARALLELS:

Fig. 1 Cinerary urn. Etruscan, Chiusi, s. II BC. Terracotta polychrome. National Archaeological Museum in Parma (Italy).

Fig. 2 Cinerary urn. Etruscan, Chiusi, s. II BC. Terracotta polychromada. Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 96.9.219a, b.

Fig. 3 Cinerary urn. Etruscan, Chiusi, s. II BC. Terracotta polychrome. Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 96.9.220a, b.



Notes:

- The piece includes authenticity certificate.
- The piece includes Spanish Export License (Passport for European Union) - If the piece is destined outside the European Union a substitution of the export permit should be requested, can take between 1-2 weeks maximum.
- The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki.
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