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Sepulchral architecture as illustrated by the rock façades of Central Etruria1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

The name Central Etruria is applied in this article to the region which is, roughly speaking, bounded by the river Mignone on the south, by the Ciminian Hills and the Plain of Viterbo on the east, by the Lake of Bolsena and the River Fiora on the north, and by the Roman Maremma on the west (fig. 1). Even now it is sparsely populated and covered with scrub; and the peculiar conformation of the ground has from the earliest times imposed on its scattered inhabitants special conditions of choice both for the position of their cities and for the type of their sepulchres.

The present aspect of this vast region is very strange. It may be compared to the Roman Campagna, but to a Campagna the monotonous desolation of which is relieved by frequent ravines, carving the landscape into fantastic and romantic pictures.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Gino Rosi 1925. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 3 note 1 Bull. dell' Ist. 1832.

page 3 note 2 Bull. dell' Ist. 1843, p. 155–9.

page 3 note 3 Röm. Mitth. xxx (1915), pp. 161310Google Scholar.

page 4 note 1 In our rapid survey of the principal localities the direction taken will be from south to north.

page 5 note 1 Servius ad Aen. viii, 597Google Scholar.

page 5 note 2 One monolithic column of cipollino, which perhaps belonged to the narthex, has recently been removed to S. Giovanni di Bieda for the monument commemorating those who fell in the war. It is about 7 m. high.

page 9 note 1 Le sedi episcopali dell’ agro Romano,’ in Arch. Romano di Storia Patria, x (1892)Google Scholar.

page 9 note 2 vi, 4.

page 9 note 3 op. cit. vol. i, pp. 195, 304, where he says (n. 2) that ‘we have no clue whatever to the site of these towns.’

page 11 note 1 See below, p. 32.

page 11 note 2 Ann. dell' Ist. 1830.

page 11 note 3 Etruria Mar. ii, p. 49.

page 11 note 4 x, 74.

page 11 note 5 Röm. Mitth. xxxv, 255.

page 11 note 6 loc. cit.

page 13 note 1 Ann. dell' Ist. 1832.

page 13 note 2 Cities and Cemeteries i, pp. 196 ff.

page 13 note 3 N.S. 1914, p. 297.

page 13 note 4 Vol. xxx, fasc. iii-iv.

page 14 note 1 This inscription, which was copied by Orioli, has recently been studied by Dr. Gargana, who has been able to show that it is the fortieth milestone on the road from Rome.

page 14 note 2 Dei Sepolcrali Edifizi dell' Eturia media.

page 14 note 3 vii, 20.

page 14 note 4 Viterbo e i suoi monumenti (Capaccini, Roma)

page 16 note 1 Dennis, , op. cit. vol. i, p. 387Google Scholar.

page 16 note 2 ibid. vol. ii, p. 4.

page 17 note 1 Ptol. Geog. p. 72, ed. Bert.

page 17 note 2 H.N. iii, 8.

page 17 note 3 It has at last seen a spring of pure mountain water gushing forth in its piazza; let us hope that this may be a sign of its renascence.

page 17 note 4 In this rapid survey of the principal forms of rock architecture I might be criticised for not having spoken sufficiently of the niche tombs, whether for cinerary urns or for inhumation, but I have confined myself to those which have some architectural interest. Even the tomb of the raised sarcophagus type at Saturnia (N. S. 1882, plate x, so important for history, is but a simple rock levelled off and polished without any decoration. As this a study of primary forms only, I have omitted any mention of modifications (niches, loculi, etc., introduce d into the architecture of the tombs, even in the Etruscan period. As to the reconstructions on paper they have been made only when there was sufficient data for reproducing with certainty, the real, original shapes without any imaginary element. In other words they are completions and restorations rather than real reconstructions.

page 18 note 1 Mon. dei Lincei, vol. iv (1894).Google Scholar Narce, etc.

page 19 note 1 To monuments of real artistic value, I have left their traditional names, when they had any, or named them afresh.

page 19 note 2 It was surely unnecessary to mark numbers in red indelible paint on the exterior walls of the tombs. This affects the landscape and does not give the student any more help than do the plates.

page 20 note 1 The bell, besides being re-entrant in section, may also be a simple ovolo (fig. 8) without a lip moulding (e.g. figs. 10, 16, 17 and 12 c, e, l, m, n, p).

page 25 note 1 A series of mouldings which suggest a similar tomb are carved on a mass of fallen rock a little further to the south of tomb 8 (also at Norchia, fig. 4). The toothed moulding at the base of the bell is noteworthy (fig. 11, c).

page 28 note 1 The drawing given by Orioli (op. cit. pl. vi) is faulty in perspective.

page 30 note 1 op. cit. vol. ii, p. 11.

page 30 note 2 See Mon. dell' 1st. iii, pl. lvii, fig. 7.

page 31 note 1 Röm. Mitth. 1915, Bieda, figs. 24 and 25.

page 32 note 1 op. cit. vol. i, p. 18.

page 32 note 2 Ann. dell' 1st. 1832, p. 276.

page 36 note 1 Dennis, , op. cit. vol. ii, p. iiGoogle Scholar.

page 37 note 1 I am inclined to think that it was a pier, because of the rectangular form of the capital, whereas the abacus of the capital of a column can only be square.

page 38 note 1 After crossing the chain of limestone hills to the east, the Via Annia entered the territory of Sutrium, a Faliscan town.

page 38 note 2 op. cit. i, p. 203.

page 41 note 1 Other monsters appear on the sarcophagus found here and are now in the Berlin Museum (see Beschreibung der antiken Skulpturen, 1891, p. 488, no. 1263), described by Fabretti (Corpus Inscr. Ital. 2070). Another sarcophagus is preserved at Vetralla by Sig. Pompeo Pompa. On it is carved a sea-horse very like the monster carved on this tomb. It is noteworthy that the letters of the inscription are in relief.

page 42 note 1 Op. cit. pl. x.

page 42 note 2 Mon. Etruschi, pl. xxii.

page 42 note 3 I owe to the courtesy of Dr. Thomas Ashby, formerly Director of the British School in Rome, the photographs (plates vi, no. 2; vii, no. 2) of Ainsley's original drawings, now in the British Museum.

page 42 note 4 Vol. ii, ch. xxxiv.

page 42 note 5 With great generosity the Rev. P. P. Mackey of the Collegio Angelico, Rome, has allowed me to publish the large and fine photograph which he made of the general view of the two façades.

page 42 note 6 Vitruvius, iii: ‘cum habebit in fronte antas …et inter antas in medio columnas.’

page 42 note 7 The terracotta leaves on the crowning cornice of the pediment of the Telamon temple in the Florence Museum are similar.

page 43 note 1 Prof. A. Scriattoli, Honorary Inspector at Vetralla, first remarked on its peculiar character and called my attention to it.

page 43 note 2 For ornamental shields put up in sacred places outside Etruria, compare the shield of the Lion in the Cave of Zeus on Mount Ida (Museo Italiano di Antichità Classica, vol. ii, p. 818).

page 44 note 1 Room xxi; no. 73, 603.

page 44 note 2 Op. cit. p. 61.

page 45 note 1 Op. cit. i, p. 68; cf. Dennis, , op. cit. i, p. 200Google Scholar.

page 45 note 2 Libertini, , ‘Di un Tempio etrusco al Tela monaccio,’ in Atti. dell'Accademia Pontifica, Ser. ii, vol. xvGoogle Scholar.

page 46 note 1 Canina and others err in this case in adopting the reconstruction with four columns.

page 46 note 2 N.S. 1920, p. 262.

page 46 note 3 Notiziario Archeologico del Min. delle Colonie, fasc. iii, p. 81 ff, figs. 11, 18.

page 47 note 1 Thanks to the initiative of the Hon. Inspector of Antiquities of Pitigiiano, Prof. Evandro Baldini, a large oak growing out of the pediment, which it has already damaged and to which it was a constant menace, has recently been cut down.

page 47 note 2 Ann. I. 1843, p. 234; op. cit. ii, p. 7.

page 48 note 1 Op. cit. ii, p. 12.

page 48 note 2 Op. cit. vol. ii, p. 10, no. 8.

page 49 note 1 It is my desire that this nameless ruin should perpetuate the memory of the dead city's most illustrious son—the monk Hildebrand who became Pope Gregory VII.

page 50 note 1 iv, 7.

page 51 note 1 Vitruvius iv, 6.

page 54 note 1 In reality, owing to the narrowing, it is geometrically a trapezium; but the expression used here seems to be clearer.

page 55 note 1 We might add to these another door at S. Giuliano between tombs 8 and 9 (fig. 2), which has a similar architrave added to it. Here, however, the extremities do not broaden out into brackets, but the contrary. Besides, it is badiy designed, sloping and unsymmetrical, and very roughly carved.