Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

If you came directly to this page you may wish to read a page on the town first.

Accademia Etrusca: (left) symbol (the Delphic tripod) and motto "Obscura de re lucida pango" (Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Book IV - On themes so dark I make my verses bright - transl. by Christopher Kelk); (right) some exhibits which are displayed in an old-fashioned way

This city boasts chiefly of its academy of Antiquarians who have a public Museum and a library that does honour to Tuscany.
Thomas Nugent - The Grand Tour - 1749
Cortona, for more than a century past, has been the seat of an antiquarian society, the Accademia Etrusca, which has published many volumes of art treatises. It has formed also a Museum of Etruscan relics, found in the neighbourhood. There is little pottery here - no painted vases of great beauty or interest; merely the black or red ware, often with bands of small archaic figures in relief.
George Dennis - The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria - 1848
The Accademia Etrusca was founded, in 1726, by the eminent antiquary Venuti; it is at present in the Palazzo Pretorio, where are also the library and museum. The Academy has published 10 volumes of memoirs; its president is honoured with the title of "Lucumo," the ancient name of the kings of Etruria.
John Murray - Handbook for travellers in central Italy - 1853

(left) Monument to Pietro Berrettini in the main square; it was erected in 1752 by Cardinal Neri Corsini, Lucumone of the Etruscan Academy and a collector of antiquities; (right) Accademia Etrusca: ink drawing by Pietro Berrettini of reliefs of the lower part of Colonna Trajana

Cortona, being considered as the capital of ancient Etruria, is the seat of the Etruscan academy, and of course swarms with antiquaries. In the museum is a portrait of the late Lord Cowper, as Lucumone of that academy; and in the library, I conversed with the canon Maccari, who is secretary and father of the Institute. This venerable man has greatly enriched its present collection, and hinted a design of leaving it all that he possesses. Italy owes half its public institutions to the celibacy of rich men.
J. Forsyth - Remarks on Antiquities, Arts and Letters in Italy - 1803 (publ. 1813)
George Clavering-Cowper (1738-1789) settled in Florence in 1759 and he lived there until his death. He gathered an important collection of Italian Renaissance paintings. Cardinal Neri Corsini showed the importance he attached to his title of Lucumone of the Academy by erecting a bust to Pietro Berrettini, a leading painter and architect of the XVIIth century who was born at Cortona, thus he is best known as Pietro da Cortona. The town is also the birthplace of Luca Signorelli, a leading Renaissance painter.

Accademia Etrusca: "Tempietto Ginori", a 1756 gift to the Academy; the medallions portray members of the Medici family starting from Cosimo il Vecchio, the father of Lorenzo de' Medici

Cortona possesses many valuable paintings, a museum, and a public library, and glories in an academy of great and deserved reputation: its grand object is to discover and to elucidate Etrurian antiquities, and its success has in this respect kept pace with the talents and the zeal of its members. To visit this museum and to discourse with some of the learned members of the Tuscan academy was a desirable object; we were now in the centre of Etruria, under the walls of its capital and within a few miles of Clusium, (now Chiusi) the seat of one of its most powerful monarchs. We had thus an opportunity of making some researches into the history of the wonderful people who gave their name to this territory. (..) Of this extraordinary people, we have indeed few architectural monuments; but in vases, tombs, and altars, we possess abundant proofs of their ingenuity, and without doubt might discover many more by making excavations in, or near the site of some of their ancient cities. But however well inclined to indulge in such amusing researches, time and circumstances dragged us irresistibly along, and obliged us to forego the satisfaction of visiting the venerable walls of Cortona.
J. C. Eustace - Classical Tour of Italy in 1802 (publ. 1813)
A visit to Accademia Etrusca would have provided Eustace also with a better knowledge of the political and economic development of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during the XVIIIth century. Marquis Carlo Ginori (1702-1757) pioneered the development of porcelain in Tuscany and had a political role during the transition of the Grand Duchy from the Medici to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Accademia Etrusca: Polymnia, one of the Muses who was usually portrayed as very serious and meditative (XVIth century AD)

There is a fine head of a Muse (Polymnia) painted in a kind of encaustic, and on slate, of singular beauty, supposed to be Greek, discovered near Valiano, with other ancient remains; if Greek, as there is reason to believe, it is the only work of this kind in existence. Murray
The museum was closed and I missed a sight of the famous painted Muse, the art-treasure of Cortona and supposedly the most precious, as it falls little short of being the only sample of the Greek painted picture that has come down to us. James
This collection boasts also of an ancient picture of the Muse Polyhymnia, with a garland of leaves round her head, and the fragment of a lyre by her side, painted in encaustic on a slate. It was found at a spot between Chiusi and Montepulciano. (..) It has been pronounced Greek, but from its resemblance to the frescoes of Pompeii, it may more correctly be designated Graeco-Roman. Dennis 1878
The exhibit is an oil painting on slate, a technique that became broadly common in the first half of the XVIth century. Why it was found with ancient remains can only be explained by a deliberate attempt to increase its value.

Accademia Etrusca: bronze lamp (illustration from Dennis's book)

But the wonder of ancient wonders in the Museum of Cortona, is a bronze lamp of such surpassing beauty and elaboration of workman­ship as to throw in the shade every toreutic work yet discovered in the soil of Etruria. Were there nothing else to be seen at Cortona, this alone would demand a visit. It merits therefore a more detailed description than I have generally given to individual articles. It is circular, about twenty-three inches in diameter, hollow like a bowl, but from the centre rises a sort of conical chimney or tube, to which must have been attached a chain for its suspension. Round the rim are sixteen lamps, of classical form, fed by oil from the great bowl, and adorned with elegant foliage in ridge. Alternating with them are heads of the horned and bearded Bacchus. At the bottom of each lamp is a figure in relief - alternately a draped Siren with wings outspread, and a naked Satyr playing the double-pipes, or the syrinx. The bottom is hollowed in the centre, and contains a huge Gorgon's face. (..) In a band encircling it, are lions, leopards, wolves, and griffons, in pairs, devouring a bull, a horse, a boar, and a stag; and in an outer band is the favourite wave-ornament, with dolphins sporting above it. Between two of the lamps was a small tablet with an Etruscan inscription, marking this as a dedicatory offering. (..) From the high decoration of the bottom of the lamp, and the comparative plainness of the upper part, as well as from the analogy of similar monuments, there is every reason to believe that it was suspended, perhaps in a tomb, perhaps in a temple, as a sacrificial lamp; which in truth its remarkable size and beauty seem to indicate. The style of art proves this monument to be of no very early date, yet there is a certain archaicism about it which marks it as of ante-Roman times. (..) This singular relic of Etruscan antiquity was discovered in 1840, at a spot called La Fratta, at the foot of the Mount of Cortona, on the road to Montepulciano; not in a tomb, but in a ditch, at a slight depth below the surface. Dennis

Accademia Etrusca: bronze lamp: (left) cast of its lower part; (right) detail showing one of the lamps

In the Museum of the Academy there is a small collection of antiquities, among which coins and bronzes predominate. (..) The gem of the museum is the Bronze Lamp, of which Micali (..) says that no other Etruscan work in bronze, except the larger statues (e.g. the Chimera), can rival it in mastery of art. (..) It is a circular bowl, nearly 2 ft. in diameter, having 16 lamps round the rim, alternating with heads of Bacchus, and a Gorgon's face of inexpressible fierceness at the bottom. Murray
The lamp is still the "must see" of the Academy collection.
(*) Giuseppe Micali (1768-1844), a Tuscan archaeologist and historian, best known for his Storia degli antichi popoli italiani.

Accademia Etrusca: cinerary urns which are typical of Chiusi

There are several small cinerary urns of terra-cotta, with toga-wrapt figures on the lids, and the usual subjects in relief. Dennis
The lids most likely are not those of the urns. The workshops of Chiusi had a large production of cinerary urns depicting the fight between Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Oedipus who killed each other, between two female deities. Why this Greek myth was so popular among the Etruscans is still a matter for debate, but it must be noted that also the legendary foundation of Rome is based on the fight between two brothers.

MAEC - Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca e della città di Cortona: (left) model of Tumulo del Sodo (II); (right) monumental access staircase to the altar-platform

The collections of Accademia Etrusca are now part of a larger museum which occupies most of Palazzo Casali. It was inaugurated in 2005 and it displays its exhibits in a more effective way.
Tumulo del Sodo is a circular mound which housed two large family tombs and some minor ones, similar to those of Cerveteri. The two sculptural groups (early VIth century BC) which decorate the staircase show evidence of Egyptian influence as they depict sphinxes devouring warriors.

MAEC: Tumulo del Sodo (II): (above) contents of a cinerary urn; (below) jewels and bronze amulets

The tombs were excavated in 1928 and in 1990. They had been rifled, but some cinerary urns were found intact. They contained (in addition to burnt fragments of the bones): iron and bronze brooches, necklaces, pins, decorated bones, amulets and other personal belongings.

MAEC: (left) Villanovan urn (IXth century BC); (right) VIIth century BC urn with its ribbed container

The term Villanovan, after Villanova, a site near Bologna where an Etruscan necropolis was found in 1853, applies to the early phases of the Etruscan civilization. The urn on display at the museum has an incised and combed geometric decoration. In 2005 a group of tombs was found east of Tumulo del Sodo; of particular interest is a painted cinerary urn having the shape of an amphora with three handles which was contained (or hidden) inside another urn with a simpler decoration.

MAEC: Funerary bed with grieving women from the tumulus of Camucia

Close to Camuscia, on the road to Montepulciano, is the tomb discovered in 1842 by Signor Sergardi of Siena, from whom it derives the name of the "Grotto Sergardi." (..) It is a huge tumulus, called "II Melone," within which were found 2 parallel sepulchres of double chambers. The tombs had been rifled in past ages; but a smaller chamber was discovered above them, which contained several iron and bronze articles, and some vases containing human ashes. The chambers are almost inaccessible from damp; but all the objects discovered in the tumulus may be seen in the neighbouring villa of Signor Sergardi. Dennis
The decoration of the funerary bed is based on eight kneeling women; the two central ones cover their eyes while the other ones beat their breasts. This subject, similar to the sphinxes, shows Egyptian influence because New Kingdom funeral depictions (XIIIth century BC) often featured female mourners wailing and gesturing dramatically.

MAEC: bronze statues of Selvans (with a panther skin) and Culsans with a double face (IIIrd century BC)

The two small bronze statues were found in 1847 near Porta Bifora. Both statues bear a small inscription on the left thig with the name of the donor and that of the god. Selvans was most likely the Etruscan counterpart of Silvanus, Roman god of woods and fields, whereas Culsans was that of Janus, Roman god of gates and passages.

MAEC: Wild goat bronze decoration belonging to a "lebes", a deep vessel (VIIth century BC) from the necropolis of Trestina

The museum houses also exhibits which were found at some distance from Cortona, e.g. at Trestina, near Città di Castello in Umbria, in the late XIXth century. One of the tombs must have belonged to a very important personage because archaeologists found there a set for a symposium, a formal banquet during which meat from sacrificed animals was served. The lebes is a type of ancient cauldron, normally in bronze, which was supported by a tripod. Its decoration often referred to the animals which were sacrificed, but in some instances to mythical ones, e.g. griffins as at Tomba Barberini of Palestrina.

MAEC: (left) Bronze cinerary urn (VIIth century BC); (right) "Tabula Cortonensis" (IInd century BC)

The Etruscans developed metalworking skills at a very early stage. Initially they decorated their bronze cinerary urns with the geometric patterns they had used for their Villanovan pottery urns, before realizing that the new material had the potential for more imaginative solutions.
In 1992 a long bronze inscription broken into seven fragments was handed over to local police authorities; apparently it was found in the immediate outskirts of Cortona. It is written in Etruscan and it reports in detail the sale of some land, a rather trivial transaction, which however was deemed so important to be written on a bronze plate; most likely it was hung at the entrance to the property. You may wish to see another long Etruscan inscription dealing with legal matters at Perugia.

MAEC: Bucchero vases from Accademia Etrusca (left) and from Tumulo del Sodo (right)

The Etruscans developed bucchero (a modern word), a unique kind of pottery. Its black fabric was given a glossy appearance by a particular method of firing, which makes the vases resemble bronze ones. Those found near Cortona were most likely manufactured at Chiusi, but perhaps the finest ones were made at Cerveteri.

Terracotta votive statues from Accademia Etrusca (left) and from Sinalunga, a town west of Cortona (right)

The Etruscans often utilized terracotta for the statues of their gods, with some striking results, e.g. at Veii, but archaeologists did not identify major temples at Cortona and in its countryside. The small votive statues come from rural shrines; that of Hercules is dated IInd century BC and most likely the hero/god was worshipped as protector of sheep and cattle. According to the Roman tradition Hercules battered Cacus, a thief who had attempted to stole his cattle.
The image used as background for this page shows a terracotta antefix, a typical Etruscan architectural decoration, from the roof of a small shrine near Cortona.

MAEC: floor mosaics from a Roman villa at Ossaia: (left) IIIrd century AD; (right) IVth century AD

Evidence of a Roman villa in the plain to the east of Cortona was identified in 1992. It was built in Augustan age, but the floor mosaics which were found are of later periods.

MAEC: (above) Mosaic from the Roman villa (IIIrd century AD); this subject can be seen also on sarcophagi; (below) bronze plaques portraying members of the Imperial family (IIIrd century AD): they are thought to have decorated small boxes containing a gift

Return to: page one: The Town or move to page three: Churches or go to
Orvieto - Medieval Monuments
Orvieto - Cathedral and Papal Palace
Orvieto - Renaissance Monuments
Orvieto - Museums
Città della Pieve
An Excursion to Chiusi
Castiglione del Lago
An Excursion to Montepulciano
An Excursion to Castiglion Fiorentino
An Excursion to Arezzo