The Etruscans on display in Milan: the journey of the chimera at the Civic Archaeological Museum (with preview of the future Etruscan Museum)

From December 12, 2018 to May 12, 2019, the exhibition Il viaggio della chimera, dedicated to the relationship between Milan and the Etruscans, is on view at the Civico Museo Archeologico in Milan. The exhibition is conceived and realized by the Civico Museo Archeologico di Milano and the Luigi Rovati Foundation, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the Metropolitan City of Milan. The exhibition project highlights the link between Milan and the civilization of the Etruscans born in the mid-19th century with the establishment of the oldest nucleus of the Milan Archaeological Collections and strengthened after the war, when Palazzo Reale hosted the major exhibition in 1955. This date marks the beginning of a fruitful season for Etruscology in Milan: from the Lerici Foundation of the Milan Polytechnic to the campaigns conducted by the University of Milan in Tarquinia and in the Etruria Padana at the Forcello di Bagnolo San Vito. A solid and virtuous link that has continued with the recent excavations conducted at Populonia and will continue with the imminent opening to the public of the Luigi Rovati Foundation’s Etruscan Museum at Corso Venezia 52.

Culture Councillor Filippo Del Corno emphasized that “this exhibition represents an ideal bridge toward the upcoming opening in Milan of a new, important museum dedicated to Etruscan culture, created thanks to the Rovati Foundation.” Lucio Rovati, president of the Luigi Rovati Foundation, said it was “a source of satisfaction to have established with the Civico Museo Archeologico and the Superintendence for the Metropolitan City of Milan a fruitful collaboration that has led to the creation of this exhibition, the first important stage in the path that will lead to the opening of the new Etruscan Museum in Milan.” The exhibition is divided into five sections, displaying more than two hundred artifacts from major Italian archaeological museums, the collections of the Civico Museo Archeologico di Milano and the collections of the Luigi Rovati Foundation.

The exhibition opens with the section entitled The Origins of Etruscan Collecting in Milan: a contribution to Etruscology and the Civic Collections. The artifacts gathered in this first section are linked by the theme of human depiction in Etruscan art and introduce the visitor to the image and identity of the deceased. The itinerary begins with the Trivulzio Crater, on loan from the Vatican Museums, purchased on the Milan antiques market in 1933 following a citizen’s subscription to be donated to Pope Pius XI, who assigned it to the Gregorian Etruscan Museum. Alongside the private collections that flowed into the Civico Museo Archeologico’s collections, part of the collection of Pelagio Palagi, who was active in Milan for a long time before moving to Bologna, where the collection is now preserved, is on display. Also on display is a selection of Etruscan objects that belonged to art dealer Giulio Sambon (1836-1921), which flowed by citizen subscription in 1911 to the Museo Teatrale della Scala and since 2004 to the Soprintendenza.

The second section(Milan and the postwar period. The Great Exhibition of 1955) recounts the rediscovery of the Etruscans in the postwar period, which passed through Milan: in 1955 Massimo Pallottino opened the Exhibition of Etruscan Art and Civilization at Palazzo Reale, the starting point of a renewed interest in the study of this culture that would flow into a series of scientific excavation campaigns. The centrality of the 1955 exhibition is here underscored by the presence of precious artifacts that were displayed at the Royal Palace such as “La Pietrera,” the 7th-century B.C. female bust from the National Archaeological Museum in Florence and considered the oldest Etruscan statue. The section is enriched by documents of the period such as the original press review from the Museo Antichità Etrusche e Italiche of Rome’s Sapienza University.

Proceeding, the third section(The Universities of Milan and archaeological research: the Lerici prospections, the excavations in Tarquinia, Capua and Populonia) is connected to the previous one through the theme of the animal world, with its real and fantastic creatures that populated the imagination of the deceased in their afterlife journey. The vase depicting the Chimera (which gives the exhibition its title) comes from the Milanese civic collections and is placed side by side with materials pertaining to the grave goods excavated by the Lerici Foundation, now in storage at the same museum. Represented in this section are some important excavation campaigns conducted by Milanese universities in Cerveteri, Capua, Populonia and Tarquinia.

The section entitled A Chimera: Etruscans in Milan and Lombardy (the fourth), features excavations that highlighted the Etruscan presence in Lombardy. On display is a small nucleus of materials from research carried out by the University of Milan at Forcello di Bagnolo San Vito (Mantua), the main Etruscan-Paduan settlement north of the Po River, dating from the 6th-5th centuries BC. Contacts between Etruscans and indigenous communities were not only commercial but also cultural, as evidenced by the adoption of the Etruscan alphabet by local groups, albeit modified in regional variants. There are several epigraphic evidences in the exhibition, including the indication of the toponym Mesiolano in the Celtic Cisalpine alphabet.

Finally, with the fifth and last section(Contemporary collecting: the future Etruscan Museum of Milan), the exhibition itinerary previews a small selection of artifacts from the Luigi Rovati Foundation, which will flow into the Etruscan Museum at the historic Palazzo Rizzoli-Bocconi-Carraro, soon to be opened. Evidence of Etruscan writing, such as the bronze pallet with a dedication to Selvans, deity of woods, lands and even borders, will be presented here, as well as splendid goldsmithing and objects of high craftsmanship.

Exhibition opening hours: Tuesday through Sunday: 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (last admission 4:30 p.m.). Admission: euro 5; reduced euro 3; free under 18. Free admission on the first and third Tuesday of the month from 2 p.m. For more information you can visit the Archaeological Museum website.

Pictured: Statuette of a goat, from Bibbona (late 6th century B.C.; bronze; Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale)

The Etruscans on display in Milan: the journey of the chimera at the Civic Archaeological Museum (with preview of the future Etruscan Museum)

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