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Metalworking skills are also evident in the 7th century B.C. oval-backed bronze throne from the Louvre in Paris. Other treasures almost get lost in the plethora of objects, such as the small Ploughman with two oxen, cast in solid bronze during the 4th century B.C., and a belt from the 8th century B.C. that looks surprisingly like a modern heavyweight boxing trophy. Among the more refined pieces are a woman's gold necklace with satyr pendants and 2,600-year-old gold loop earrings and bracelets that would be at home today on a Versace catwalk. Women were responsible for displaying a family's accumulated wealth, and gold jewelry was the way to do it.
Tomb paintings and reliefs suggest that Etruscan wives-shown lying alongside their husbands at banquets during which "business" was discussed-held a social status that would have shocked the Greeks and Romans, with women often taking place of honor at Etruscan burials. Palazzo Grassi curators have managed to piece together a woman's luxurious wedding chariot, found near Perugia in 1812. Its bronze panels and delicate figurines had been auctioned off separately and taken to four European museums. Now in Venice, the two-wheel chariot is an elegant vehicle once more for embossed scenes of animal hunts and mythological scenes.
The religious section of the show offers several examples of the haruspex, or priest-interpreter of omens, at work. Small figurines, reliefs and sealstones show the priest poring over a fresh sheep's liver. He wears a leather cone-shaped hat and draped tunic, and frequently has a bronze crook in his hand. A small bronze model of a sheep's liver with 56 compartments identifying the gods relating to each area of the celestial vault is one of the more unusual items on display, a kind of haruspex travel guide. While the hefty catalog for "The Etruscans" is available in English, and well worth the $30 price, it might be advisable to have a dictionary handy. Not only for words such as "haruspex," but also "stela" (a commemorative stone slab, normally inscribed), "olla" (an earthenware vessel with looped handles) and "fibula" (an ancient clasp resembling a safety pin).
Several items alone would warrant a trip to Venice for Etruscan buffs. The Torlonia frescoes, taken from the François Tomb at Vulci, 80 km northwest of Rome, had never been shown publicly before this exhibition. The recently discovered Cortona bronze tablet, containing 206 words in Etruscan about the division of land, is also on display, as is the reconstruction of the Tomb of the Bronze Chariot, discovered at Vulci in 1965. Venice may not have been the center of Etruscan life and culture historically, but it will be for the next four months.
With reporting by Ann Natanson/Venice