Etruscan painted slabs with myths from Cerveteri on display at Florence's National Archaeological Museum

From Dec. 20, 2024, to April 7, 2025, the National Archaeological Museum in Florence will offer the exhibition Visions of Etruscan Myths and Rituals in Florence, curated by Daniele Federico Maras, an Etruscologist and director of the museum. On display for the occasion will be four whole painted slabs, dating from the late 6th century B.C., recovered in Cerveteri in 2019 by the Guardia di Finanza. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, the General Directorate of Museums of the Ministry of Culture, the Rome Nucleo di Polizia economico-finanziaria of the Guardia di Finanza - Sezione Tutela Beni demaniali e di interesse pubblico, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the province of Viterbo and for Southern Etruria, in agreement with the Regional Directorate National Museums of Tuscany.

The painted slabs

The four painted terracotta slabs, reconstructed from a series of fragments, were recovered in the summer of 2019 by the Guardia di Finanza during an operation to combat the clandestine trade in archaeological finds. They were produced in the last decades of the sixth century B.C. in a workshop in the Etruscan city of Caere (modern-day Cerveteri), probably to decorate the walls of a temple. The frieze at the top, common to all four, depicts a broken meander framing panels with waterfowl and star-shaped floral motifs. The surface has been damaged by the clumsy attempts of art thieves to clean them out of their context.

One slab depicts the duel between Achilles and Penthesilea: the Greek hero on the left, encased in heavy armor, takes cover behind his shield and prepares to strike the queen of the Amazons, who hurls herself at him wielding a bloody sword. Another depicts a man wielding a golden-leafed branch while chasing a curly-haired woman armed with a bow: this could be Apollo and Artemis with their respective divine attributes, or the virgin hunter Atalanta challenged to the race by her future husband Melanion, who won the race by dropping three golden apples to distract her. Yet another depicts the Judgment of Paris: the messenger of the gods Hermes, with colorful wings and holding a scepter, precedes Hera, first of the three goddesses vying to choose the most beautiful among them. Originally the other two goddesses (Athena and Aphrodite) and the young Paris called to judge were depicted on two adjacent slabs, unfortunately lost. And finally, on the last slab is depicted a long-haired young priest who has just completed a divination rite by observing birds with the lituo (the curved staff he now holds on his shoulder) and is communicating the will of the gods to his companion, who hurries off holding a twig with red fruits.

“Thanks to exhibition initiatives such as this one, which follows a brief preview in the spring of 2024 in Vetulonia, the cycle of protection for the four slabs is brought to completion, from protection (ensured by the Guardia di Finanza), to preservation (made possible by the Superintendence) to enhancement (guaranteed in the context of the Museum). Only in this way will the ethereal gaze of Penthesilea, the exuberant vitality of the running couple, the explosion of colors of Hermes’ wings, and the enigmatic gestures of the haruspices return to the function for which they were created: communicating with the public and conveying the voice of the artists of the past,” said Maras, from the beginning within the Superintendency’s working group that studied the slabs to make them visible to the public.

The four slabs are joined by the recently acquired Etruscan Traveler: a fragment of a painted slab depicting the profile of a richly hairstyled young man in a travel outfit, which may actually be the stage costume of an actor intent on a performance with a mythological subject. The fragment, which was found in Cerveteri at an unspecified time, remained in private American collections until 2020, when it was purchased by the Luigi Rovati Foundation of Milan, with the intention of ceding it to the state, then handing it over to the A.B.A.P. Superintendence for the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria.

After being presented in Venice and Rome, the Traveler returned to Etruria to be displayed in the Florentine exhibition. “Cultural heritage,” Maras concludes, “fulfills its mission when it is enabled to reach the public and promote the development of culture. This is the purpose of an exhibition on works of ancient painting such as those we are presenting today, which - although left without context due to clandestine excavators - still continue to narrate history, myth and art through images.”

Etruscan painted slabs with myths from Cerveteri on display at Florence's National Archaeological Museum

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