The "Taste" for Violence in Etruscan Art: Debunking the Myth

This chapter reviews the three principal contexts in which violent imagery appears in Etruria: the sanctuary, the tomb, and the home. The analysis considers how the selected scenes not only relate to their specific locations but also to the ideologies of their consumers, the elite men and women who commissioned and paid for them and for whom they must have had a strong emotional resonance. The chapter also includes a case study focusing on the use and function of violent imagery on the reverses of engraved bronze mirrors, luxurious artifacts that had both practical and symbolic functions, first within the private sphere of the home and later in the funerary environment. Mirrors were not only associated with adornment, gift exchange, status, wealth, marriage, and prophecy, but were also treasured gifts within the tomb for many wealthy Etruscans.