Michael Shamansky, Bookseller Inc.
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Item Number: 118640
Title: Etruschi : L'ideale eroico e il 'vino lucente'
Author: Mandolesi, Alessandro ; Maurizio Sannibale
Price: Not Available
ISBN: 9788837090166
Description: Milano: Electa, 2012. 28cm., pbk., 280pp., 290 illus., numerous color plates. Exhibition held at Palazzo Mazzetti, Asti. Summary: The exhibition is divided into two parts, starting with a tour of the fascinating vaulted brick basements of Palazzo Mazzetti. The first describes the spread of "Homeric" heroic ideals and customs in Etruria, through a series of themes that are characteristic of the earliest phases of Etruscan civilization: commerce, myths, war, athletics, attire, body care. Refined nineteenth century tempera that faithfully reproduce two of the most representative painted tombs of Tarquinia - "the Chariots" and "the Triclinium" - allow us to experience the atmosphere of athletic games and ceremonies held in honour of dead nobles. The second part of the exhibition opens with a banquet and things associated with it, documented by fine cutlery and crockery, furniture and eloquent images of paintings and sculpture. We see a reconstruction of an original painted chamber tomb ("the Black Sow", whose paintings were detached from the hypogeum for conservation purposes), together with a lively banquet scene from the fifth century BC. Also on display for the first time in its entirety is the remarkable sarcophagus of Vipinana from Tuscania with representations of a banquet for the deceased on the lid and the myth of Niobe on the case. The section ends with a fascinating collection of images of Etruscans, consisting of votive heads from shrines, figures of all ages from the child in swaddling clothes to the old man, and finally two grotesque faces of great emotional intensity, borrowed for the occasion, and on show for the first time, from the storerooms of the Vatican Museums. Closing the show is a rarity and a return to the land of Piedmont. On display is the sumptuous "Etruscan" study of the Castle of Racconigi, commissioned by King Charles Albert from the artistic genius of Pelagio Palagi. For the first time original drawings, furnishings and decorations of the neoclassical study can be seen together: a tribute to the house of Savoy's "Etruscan" artistic taste which was to spread throughout Europe between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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Michael Shamansky, Bookseller Inc.
P.O. Box 3904, Kingston, New York 12402 US
Phone: 845-331-8519
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Email: michael@artbooks.com

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