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Etruscan Tomb Paintings, Their Subjects and Significance

Chapter 2: PREFACE
By Frederik Poulsen
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About This Book

A systematic study of painted funerary chambers in central Italy, documenting wall-decoration, figural motifs, and pictorial techniques from tombs at Corneto and Chiusi and comparing originals with museum facsimiles and drawings. The text catalogs recurring scenes—banquets, funerary processions, mythic and domestic tableaux—and follows their stylistic development and symbolic roles within burial contexts. It also recounts excavation and copying efforts, notes conservation problems that affected preservation, and explains methods used in recording the paintings. Interpretive chapters relate the imagery to religious practice, social customs, and external artistic influences, and extensive plates illustrate the points made for students and scholars.

PREFACE

The following sketch is based upon investigations made in the Etruscan Tombs at Corneto and Chiusi, and on comparison of the original wall-paintings with the facsimiles and drawings made from them and preserved in the Helbig Museum in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. It was originally published in Danish, in 1919, as a guide to students in that Department.

I am greatly indebted to Mr. G. F. Hill, of the British Museum, for his revision of the translation.

Meanwhile the first volume of the promised work of Fritz Weege (Etruskische Malerei, Halle, 1921) has appeared, copiously and splendidly illustrated. The text contains general views concerning Etruscan religion and society rather than descriptions of the paintings themselves, and I cannot refrain from saying that I find Weege’s statements and opinions, and the parallels which he adduces, too often more fanciful than convincing, in spite of the vast erudition displayed therein. I do not find anything in my own text which I feel inclined to alter after reading his book.

FREDERIK POULSEN.

Copenhagen,
January 1921.