The Etruscans In The Art History Of Ancient Italy

Masters of Bronze, Stone, and Mystery

What you'll learn
Students will learn the key developments, vocabulary terms, and works of art which are associated with the Etruscan civilization and style.
Students will be able to recognize major Etruscan artworks and building types.
Students will gain an appreciation of the themes that Etruscan material culture from its Greek and Roman counterparts.
A comprehensive vocabulary list is found at the end of the course.
Requirements
No prior experience needed!
Description
Before the Roman Empire, there was the Etruscan civilization on the Italian Peninsula which produced masterpieces of bronze, terra-cotta, sculpture, gold tablets, amazing rock-cut tombs, and long-gone wooden temples. “Etruria” is a region which today occupies parts of several regions of modern-day Italy: Lazio, Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and stretching as far north as the Veneto. We recall that in antiquity, Archaic Greek civilization had established colonial outposts in southern Italy and Sicily, while another ancient power, the Carthaginians, controlled Sardinia and the coast of north Africa. Like the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, the Etruscans didn’t call themselves Etruscans. Ancient Greek writers called them versions of Tryrrhenoi, the same root word for the Tyrrhenian Sea on Italy’s west coast. There are scattered Prehistoric sites around Italy, so the question of whether the Etruscan culture evolved from these indigenous people or whether it was imported from afar (a Near-Eastern origin) still remains a topic of debate. One tenacious theory which has survived from antiquity is that the Etruscans’ point of origin was a Lydian kingdom of Asia Minor. The Etruscan language, for instance, has a completely different structure from Indo-European languages (and it has baffled historians from antiquity through the present). Nevertheless, there was considerable migration and mixing going-on throughout antiquity, and the most probable model is that the indigenous Italian peoples mixed with groups which landed and settled their own communities, keeping some original elements (like the language) while introducing customs and artistic conventions from the wider world of antiquity from the late Bronze Age through the Classical period.This lecture is an overview of the distinct Etruscan civilization's works in the larger context of the Mediterranean Basin and Near Eastern civilizations. 

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Who Were the Etruscans?

Lecture 2 Equality Between the Sexes

Section 2: Material Culture

Lecture 3 Masters of Bronze

Lecture 4 Ancient Ties to the Mediterranean

Lecture 5 Masters of Stone

Section 3: Legacy in Roman Art

Lecture 6 Etruscan Architecture with Course Vocabulary Review

High school, university, and graduate students will find both a review of key pieces and developments as well as original research and connections which are exclusive to this course.