Imagine Alexander being confronted with Etruscan art

After his eastern campaign, Alexander returned to Babylon and started his preparations to conquer the West. His plans included Arabia, Northern Africa focusing on Carthage, and the Italic peninsula where Rome was building up its power. 

The Etruscan civilization had reached its apogee around 750 BC and flourished in three city confederations: Etruria, which covered modern Tuscany, Latium and Umbria; the Po Valley with the eastern part of the Alps; and Campania. Their culture was influenced by that of the ancient Greeks who started to found colonies in southern Italy to become the later Magna Graecia. 

[A pair of terracotta winged horses from the Temple of the Ara della Regina, Tarquinia. Etruscan, c. 350 BC (National Archaeological Museum, Tarquinia, Italy. Picture from World History]

In Alexander’s days, the Etruscans had started to be assimilated by the Romans – a process that ended in 27 BC when they were totally incorporated into the Roman Empire. Their art, however, had been heavily influenced by Greece’s Classical period of the 5^th and 4^th century BC, which was familiar to Alexander. 

This very idea hit me after looking at an article in World History, in which a gallery of 25 top pieces from Etruscan art are being presented. Overall, this art is best known from the frescoed walls inside the many tombs like those centered in the necropolises of Tarquinia and Cerveteri. But scrolling through the images from the above mentioned gallery there are also very telling terracotta figures, unique friezes and fine bronze statues. 

I like to think that Alexander would have felt very much at home walking among these images. The  Etruscans did not shy away from other forms of art and readily acquired foreign artifacts (even from the East!) to embellish their houses and tombs. It is surprising to learn that they sculpted the first nude women, way before the Greek culture accepted the very idea (see: Was Alexander the Great aware of Cnidos?) 

It is worth flipping through the pictures in the gallery presented by Word History to get a comprehensive view of this particular civilization that enjoyed life so much! 

It would have been interesting to know Alexander’s reaction if confronted with the Etruscans and their rich culture.