Villa Julia

SALVETE FAMILIA ET AMICI!!!!

 Sorry for the late posting but I have been rather occupied the last couple of days. So! I am going to start with last Thursday and speak in the present tense. Ehem, so today I went to the Villa Julia which was first build as an estate for Pope Julius III from 1550-1555. Today, the beautiful villa houses the famous national museum of Etruscan Art. Below I will pick out select images and explain them to my readers!!!

The first few pictures concern the villa itself:

First item: A recreation of an Etruscan Temple. Typically, Etruscan temples were build on raise stone platforms. The reason being is that the platform protects the mud walls from flooding waters. The columns and the infrastructure of the Temple was built out of wood. The roof sloped pass the walls in order to drain water without the water hitting the walls. The Etruscan roof was decorated with terracotta akroteria (Statues on the top of the roof which generally portrayed some story). Along the sides of the tiled terracotta roof was a sima (gutter) decorated with antefixes which drained the water. The antefixes were like medieval gargoyles. Typically they were strange beasts. The floor plan of the temple was 50% proanos (porch with columns) and cellas (Cella held the statues of the gods. They are the "house" of the gods). Typically there could be 1-5 Cellas in a temple for a respective god. Etruscan temple-style was found in Rome in its earlier phases.

A recreation Etruscan tomb from Cerveteri (see last post)

Older part of the Villa

Attic Red Figure painting vase imported from Greece by the Etruscans. The black in red figure painting was painted before the pottery was put in the kiln.

This is the Sarcophagus of the Married Couple! Etruscan society held women in higher regards than most Mediterranean civilizations. This would later influence Roman views towards women. This is apparent by the fact that we see women with their own sarcophagi. Moreover, in this scene the woman is reclining in a banquet along with her husband. The husband has his arm around her affectionately asking her to give him something. By the size of the woman's hand and the shape she is holding some perfume which has symbolic meanings in both banquets (to smell good) and burials (anointment). The sarcophagus is definitely an Etruscan archaic style. The woman has typical pointed shoes and the Etruscan hat. The archaic style is shown by the fact that the people both have neutral-like smiles. Their bodies are stiff. Furthermore, their bodies are disproportional. Lastly, their noses run diagonally from the forehead instead of the slight bend.

There is a large bronze shield in the back worn and discolored by weather and time. Furthermore, the black pottery is Etruscan which was found all over the Mediterranean. The black pottery is called Bucchero. Bucchero was made out of orange clay. The black color is a result of taking the oxygen out of the clay in a complex sequence.