Milan: with an exhibition on Vulci, the Luigi Rovati Foundation inaugurates the cycle dedicated to Etruscan Metropolises

From March 20 to August 4, 2024, the exhibition Vulci opens at the Luigi Rovati Foundation in Milan. Producing for Men. Producing for the gods, which inaugurates the cycle dedicated to Etruscan Metropolises. Vulci is among the most dynamic cities of southern coastal Etruria and is characterized by the production of fine bronzes and ceramics and impressive stone and terracotta sculptures. The Foundation conceives of art as a historical continuum between the past and the present, and in the works on display Giuseppe Penone shapes time-matter with his own hands, in an ancestral gesture that is transformed into contemporary sculpture. The reconstruction of Vulci’s value as a metropolis, from its origins to the Roman conquest, allows for a parallel reconstruction of the anthropological-cultural evolution of the ruling elites, the artisans-artists and the entire Vulci population. On display will be masterpieces from the collections of important public institutions and private entities.

Among the most significant finds are the pair of silver, gold and copper alloy hands and the bone collar belonging to a Sphyrelaton, or polymaterial statue, found in 2013 in the Osteria necropolis; previously unpublished terracotta ossuaries from the Rovati Foundation collection; and a nucleus of ceramics attributed to the Swallow Painter on display together for the first time; among the unpublished bronzes a candelabrum and two colini from the Rovati Foundation, the sword with scabbard and the imposing bronze biconical urn and helmet-cover from the Mengarelli excavations of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the metropolitan area of Rome, the province of Viterbo and southern Etruria; the bronze mask-visor, a unicum for Etruria, probably of ceremonial use, from the Vatican Museums; imposing the previously unseen nenfro figured pillar from the Castiglione Bocci Collection in Ischia di Castro; also extraordinary is the reconstruction of the Ponte Rotto aedicule dedicated to the couple Dionysus and Ariadne, since 1889 part of the collections of the National Archaeological Museum in Florence and never exhibited in Italy since 1966. Two works by Giuseppe Penone from the Rovati Foundation’s collection and previously unseen by the Italian public are Cocci, from 1982, and Colonna di menti, from 1981. On display in the Art Pavilion in the garden is the Vulci 3000: Rebuilding an Etruscan Metropolis Today project, supported by the Luigi Rovati Foundation. Launched in 2014 at the initiative of Duke University in Durham (NC, USA) under the leadership of Professor Maurizio Forte, the goal is to explore the urban phases of the Etruscan and Roman city of Vulci through new archaeological excavations and diachronic landscape study. A 3D print model reproduces the ancient Etruscan and Roman city of Vulci, from the volcanic plateau to the urban settlements and necropolis. Projections show the evolution of research over time, from 19th-century maps to 20th-century aerial photographs to the present day. In addition, videos showing research results are presented, offering an overview of Vulci and the potential of new technologies in contemporary excavations.

The exhibition layout is divided into six thematic sections that explore different aspects of Vulci’s life and culture. The exhibition begins with the Simulacra of Immortality, where it shows how in the ancient phase of the city, characterized by the practice of cremation, a unique way of recomposing the physicality of the deceased developed through cinerariums and stylized human figures, symbols of the dominant social class. This is followed by the section on Immigrant Artisans, Local Artisans, where the Mediterranean influences on Vulci’s artistic production are highlighted, brought by goods and artisans from the Mediterranean, who innovated production techniques but did not forget local identities. In the next part, the focus is on the liminal landscape, representing the passage of death to the afterlife. Stone sculptures that use Eastern iconographies to symbolize the challenges that must be overcome to reach the afterlife are explored. The section From Athens to Vulci: Traveling Images highlights the relationship between the two cities through the import of high-quality Attic ceramics that profoundly influenced local art and culture. The next section analyzes the production of Bronze for War, Bronze for Peace, which was a fundamental aspect of Vulci’s identity. Expert bronze workers produced weapons and ceremonial objects, as well as utensils for daily life and women’s ornaments. Finally, the production of Clay Devotions is explored, which includes terracottas related to the sacred used for temple furnishings and devotional practices. Among the works on display is the architectural slab of the pediment of a temple with Dionysus and Ariadne, reconstructed and placed in its original context.

Accompanying the exhibition is the catalog Vulci. Producing for Men. Producing for the gods published by Fondazione Luigi Rovati with texts by Mario Abis, Simona Carosi, Carlo Casi, Alessandro Conti, Sara De Angelis, Maurizio Forte, Christian Mazet, Laura M. Michetti, Giuseppe Penone, Chiara Pizzirani, Carlo Regoli, Maurizio Sannibale, Giuseppe Sassatelli, and Giuliano Sergio.

“This exhibition is the outcome of the study and research activity, also thanks to the steering collaboration of the Scientific Committee, that the Foundation has conducted since before the opening of the Art Museum by supporting and funding Italian and international universities and research centers,” said Giovanna Forlanelli, President of the Luigi Rovati Foundation.

"Vulci inaugurates the cycle of exhibitions Etruscan Metropolis dedicated to some of the main Etruscan cities understood not only as urban realities, but also as places of historical complexity, according to the effective definition of the Greek Thucydides, for whom “men are the city, not walls or ships empty of men.” The Etruscans are the “people of cities,” the ones who invented them by overcoming the ancient way of living by villages typical of prehistory, and they are the ones who applied it throughout their lands, from the Po River in the Po Valley, to the Sele River in Campania, passing of course through the Tyrrhenian Etruria of Tarquinia, Vulci and Chiusi. The exhibition illustrates particularly significant themes of the city such as artistic productions and trade relations, religious events and funerary ritual, mirroring society and its historical transformations, also in the light of new and more recent discoveries. Not neglecting new ways of enhancing the city and the archaeological area in a valuable collaboration between public institutions and private entities. The exhibition was conceived and realized not only for insiders, but also and above all for an educated and interested public, both in the choice of themes to be illustrated and in the communication, once again in line with the founding principles of the Luigi Rovati Foundation," commented Giuseppe Sassatelli, president of the National Institute of Etruscan and Italic Studies.

“The exhibition is part of a very happy moment of resumption of studies on the city of Vulci, among the most important in Etruria but which has suffered more than others from the dispersion in museums around the world of a large quantity of finds, especially following the 19th-century excavations,” added Laura M. Michetti, full professor of Etruscology and Italic Antiquities at the Department of Antiquities at Sapienza University of Rome. “At the impetus of Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with École française de Rome and the various organs of the Ministry of Culture and local authorities, scholars and young researchers have recently been tackling the recovery of archival documentation in an effort to recompose and recontextualize the extremely rich archaeological heritage of the great Etruscan city. The most recent research activities confirm the leading role played by Vulci in a broader Mediterranean context, a role that the finds on display, some of which are exhibited here for the first time, help to illuminate.”

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Image: VULCI © Daniele Portanome for Fondazione Luigi Rovati

Milan: with an exhibition on Vulci, the Luigi Rovati Foundation inaugurates the cycle dedicated to Etruscan Metropolises

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