but for real, nothing can match the tenderness, the warmth, the private & public love & fondness of the couple portrayed in the Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses…I mean. look at them:
the way they chose to be pictured in this loving moment, so they could remain together for eternity! she used to be holding what we assume was a tiny pomegranate (a symbol for eternity), and she was pouring perfume in his hand… i….the tenderness. but also the way their bodies connect, almost being inextricably tied to one another; the playfulness of their expressions, the intelligence of their eyes, the expressiveness of their gestures (italian legends lol), and the sweet domesticity of their position, which was typical for dinners with friends - husbands and wives remained under the same blanket and conversed w their guests over dinner……..
but most of all. how wordlessly beautiful it is to see their heads from behind, looking (with all the differences in costumes of their time) like a couple we could easily see sitting in front of us at a restaurant. they’re lost in a lively conversation with their friends. the man’s arm is around her shoulders, and she’s laughing, moving her hands animatedly while telling a story. they love each other. it’s a story that never ends.
It should also be stated that this piece was meant to hold the ashes. This was someone’s burial piece, and it was the most important thing to them that they and their spouse be depicted together and very visibly in love, and participating in a banquet as was the norm in Etruscan culture.
Etruscan art, especially funerary art, is made of couples. The Boston Museum of Fine Art holds the burial tomb of the Tetnies families, and both the husband and wife and then their son and his wife? The tenderness on both pieces is absolutely remarkable.
But nothing, and I truly mean nothing, prepares one for seeing il Sarcofago degli Sposi in person. You can see them down the corridor in Villa Gulia, and the closer to get, the more inviting they are. Warmth radiates off of them, off of every angle of this piece, and there is a fluidity and life present that the photographs capture, but seeing them in person only amplifies.
Etruscan art has such liveliness and joy in it, and nothing captures it better than these two.
If you are ever, ever in Rome, go visit them. It is worth every moment.
Oh, wow. I’d never seen the Tetnies sarcophagi before, and they’re wonderful. Incredibly intimate:
And that sent me down an Etruscan sarcophagus rabbit hole — this was my other favorite couple. I love that they’re sculpted as they must have been in life, with their age showing clearly in their faces, and the pose is wonderful too:
The solo sarcophagi are also great! Love that they were probably all painted, and some of them still have a lot of their paint left:
anyway, a+ genre of ancient funerary art that I knew almost nothing about
