The Tomb of the Leopards (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

: ''Tomba dei Leopardi'') is an Etruscan burial chamber so called for the confronted

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, ...

s painted above a banquet scene. The tomb is located within the

Necropolis of Monterozzi The Monterozzi necropolis ( it, Necropoli dei Monterozzi) is an Etruscan necropolis on a hill east of Tarquinia in Lazio, Italy. The necropolis has about 6,000 graves, the oldest of which dates to the 7th century BC. About 200 of the tomb chamb ...

, near Tarquinia,

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, and dates to around 470–450 BC. The painting is one of the best-preserved murals of Tarquinia,Kleiner, ''A History of Roman Art'', p. xxxv. and is known for "its lively coloring, and its animated depictions rich with gestures," and is influenced by the Greek-Attic art of the first quarter of the fifth century BC. The banqueters are "elegantly dressed" male-female couples attended by two nude boys carrying serving implements. The women are depicted as fair-skinned and the men as dark, in keeping with the gender conventions established in

Archaic Greece Archaic Greece was the period in Greek history lasting from circa 800 BC to the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, following the Greek Dark Ages and succeeded by the Classical period. In the archaic period, Greeks settled across the M ...

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

and Ancient Egypt. The arrangement of the three couples prefigures the

triclinium A ''triclinium'' (plural: ''triclinia'') is a formal dining room in a Roman building. The word is adopted from the Greek ()—from (), "three", and (), a sort of couch or rather chaise longue. Each couch was sized to accommodate a diner who ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

dining. Musicians are pictured on the walls to the left and right of the banquet. On the right, a ''

komos The Kōmos ( grc, κῶμος; pl. kōmoi) was a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as komasts (κωμασταί, ''kōmastaí''). Its precise nature has been difficult to recon ...

'' of wreathed figures and musicians approaches the banquet; on the left, six musicians and giftbearers appear in a more stately procession. The man on the far-right couch holds up an egg, symbol of regeneration, and other banqueters hold wreaths.Steingräber, ''Abundance of Life'', p. 133. The scene is usually taken to represent the deceased's funerary banquet, or a family meal that would be held on the anniversary of his death. It is presented as a celebration of life, while Etruscan banquet scenes in earlier tombs have a more somber character. The scene appears to take place outdoors, within slender trees and vegetation, perhaps under a canopy. Although the figures are distinctly Etruscan, the artist of the central banquet draws on trends in

Greek art Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods (with further developments during the Hellenistic Period). It absorbed influences of E ...

and marks a transition from Archaic to Early Classical style in

Etruscan art Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy between the 10th and 1st centuries BC. From around 750 BC it was heavily influenced by Greek art, which was imported by the Etruscans, but always retained distinct charact ...

. The processions on the left and right are more markedly Archaic and were executed by different artists. The tomb was discovered in 1875. In the 1920s,

D.H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

described the painting in his travel essays ''Sketches of Etruscan Places'':

The walls of this little tomb are a dance of real delight. The room seems inhabited still by Etruscans of the sixth century before Christ, a vivid, life-accepting people, who must have lived with real fullness. On come the dancers and the music-players, moving in a broad frieze towards the front wall of the tomb, the wall facing us as we enter from the dark stairs, and where the banquet is going on in all its glory. … So that all is color, and we do not seem to be underground at all, but in some gay chamber of the past.
D.H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
, ''Sketches of Etruscan Places and other Italian Essays'' in ''The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D.H. Lawrence'', edited by Simonetta de Filippis (Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 47–48.

Artistically, the painting is regarded as less sophisticated and graceful than that found in the

Tomb of the Bigas A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immuremen ...

or the

Tomb of the Triclinium The Tomb of the Triclinium ( it, Tomba del Triclinio) ). is an Etruscan tomb in the Necropolis of Monterozzi (near Tarquinia, Italy) dated to approximately 470 BC. The tomb is named after the Roman ''triclinium'', a type of formal dining ...

Gallery

Danseurs et musiciens, tombe des léopards.jpg, Dancer and musicians Syriskos Painter - Psykter with Athlete and Servant Boy and Youth and a Dog - Walters 4877 - Side A.jpg, A

psykter A psykter (in Greek ψυκτήρ "cooler") is a type of Greek vase that is characterized by a bulbous body set on a high, narrow foot. It was used as a wine cooler, and specifically as part of the elite sympotic set in the ancient Greek symposium. ...

found in the Tomb of the Leopards, depicting an athlete, a servant boy, a youth and a dog

References

{{Authority control 1875 archaeological discoveries

Leopards The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus ''Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

Gallery

See also

References