DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.37251#0088
SALA DEI FASTI CONSOLARI
1. ARCHAIC SHE-WOLF (pi. 17).
H. m., L. i-i^. m. Bronze. Restored (in bronze): twins and nipples (?)
(z\ z'zz/ka); chest from in front of first pair of teats to a point on the neck, patch on r.
side of lower r. fore leg, the whole 1. fore leg (?), all in antiquity (?). The under
surface of the 1. hind leg behind the hock has been split open with frre. A raised line
runs above the hock to cover errors in casting (?). Tire r. side of the r. hind !eg below
the hock has also been split, and there is a similar raised line.
A she-wolf stands firmly on all four legs with the 1. hind leg
slightly drawn back. She turns her head to 1. and has her mouth open
as if she were snarling at the approach of an enemy. The two pairs of
large fangs of the mouth cross each other, and the smaller teeth are
clearly marked though now much corroded. The iris and pupil are indi-
cated by shallow concentric circles. The eyebrows run up to an acute
angle high above the eyes. The nostrils are worked in a very formal
manner. The veins on the muzzle are indicated. The ears are stiffly
erect. The mane is worked in a number of close-lying curls which have
been chased and are arranged in a studied disorder, a treatment paralleled
in the torso of a lion (perhaps the copy of an early sepulchral monument),
now lying on the site of the Porta Salaria in Rome. A collar of hair runs
round the head in front of the ears and is rendered by a number of small
curls which lie horizontally and end in spirals. Round the body just
behind the fore legs runs a line of curls, each formed of ten lines, which
curve downwards and end in a point. On the back from between the ears
to the base of the tail is a double line of curls, which are made up in the
same way as the last and overlap. This line interrupts the one just men-
tioned. The tail is covered entirely with pointed locks of hair. The
body is spare, and the ribs are clearly marked.
The style of the Z^g points clearly to the sixth or early fifth century
n. c., but the School that produced it is more difficult to determine.
According to one group of archaeologists it is of Greek rather than of
Etruscan origin, being probably, in their view, the work of an Ionic
or Chalcidian settler in Italy. (See Helbig P, p. 563 f. with reff.) This
view has been repeated with only slight modifications by P. Ducati
in his recent work Z'yfrA? CA-swzba (1920), p. 236. Fourteen years ago,
however, E. Strong (Z<?777<?72 Ac7/^/7Z7'<?, P- 3° note) maintained that
the work was non-Greek—-though it was an error to speak of it as
possibly Roman, no Roman art having yet developed at that early date—
and now its Etruscan, or more correctly speaking, its Italic character has
been vindicated through the recently discovered Veientine statues (Giglioli
in 1919, pp. 13-37). These include an Apollo and
other fragments in terra-cotta from a group believed to have represented
Apollo and Heracles contending for the sacred hind. The close resem-
blance of the body of the hind to that of the wolf is undoubted; both
exhibit the same leanness, and the same emphasis of the bony structure
visible in the rendering of the ribs, which, however, is characteristic of both
animals in actual life (Giglioli, <7^- cz'A, p. 33 n. ; A. della Seta in Z^ZzZ,
i, P- 57°)- These Italic artists were inspired by the Etruscans, whose own
art was originally derived from the Greeks, but by the time the statues
1. ARCHAIC SHE-WOLF (pi. 17).
H. m., L. i-i^. m. Bronze. Restored (in bronze): twins and nipples (?)
(z\ z'zz/ka); chest from in front of first pair of teats to a point on the neck, patch on r.
side of lower r. fore leg, the whole 1. fore leg (?), all in antiquity (?). The under
surface of the 1. hind leg behind the hock has been split open with frre. A raised line
runs above the hock to cover errors in casting (?). Tire r. side of the r. hind !eg below
the hock has also been split, and there is a similar raised line.
A she-wolf stands firmly on all four legs with the 1. hind leg
slightly drawn back. She turns her head to 1. and has her mouth open
as if she were snarling at the approach of an enemy. The two pairs of
large fangs of the mouth cross each other, and the smaller teeth are
clearly marked though now much corroded. The iris and pupil are indi-
cated by shallow concentric circles. The eyebrows run up to an acute
angle high above the eyes. The nostrils are worked in a very formal
manner. The veins on the muzzle are indicated. The ears are stiffly
erect. The mane is worked in a number of close-lying curls which have
been chased and are arranged in a studied disorder, a treatment paralleled
in the torso of a lion (perhaps the copy of an early sepulchral monument),
now lying on the site of the Porta Salaria in Rome. A collar of hair runs
round the head in front of the ears and is rendered by a number of small
curls which lie horizontally and end in spirals. Round the body just
behind the fore legs runs a line of curls, each formed of ten lines, which
curve downwards and end in a point. On the back from between the ears
to the base of the tail is a double line of curls, which are made up in the
same way as the last and overlap. This line interrupts the one just men-
tioned. The tail is covered entirely with pointed locks of hair. The
body is spare, and the ribs are clearly marked.
The style of the Z^g points clearly to the sixth or early fifth century
n. c., but the School that produced it is more difficult to determine.
According to one group of archaeologists it is of Greek rather than of
Etruscan origin, being probably, in their view, the work of an Ionic
or Chalcidian settler in Italy. (See Helbig P, p. 563 f. with reff.) This
view has been repeated with only slight modifications by P. Ducati
in his recent work Z'yfrA? CA-swzba (1920), p. 236. Fourteen years ago,
however, E. Strong (Z<?777<?72 Ac7/^/7Z7'<?, P- 3° note) maintained that
the work was non-Greek—-though it was an error to speak of it as
possibly Roman, no Roman art having yet developed at that early date—
and now its Etruscan, or more correctly speaking, its Italic character has
been vindicated through the recently discovered Veientine statues (Giglioli
in 1919, pp. 13-37). These include an Apollo and
other fragments in terra-cotta from a group believed to have represented
Apollo and Heracles contending for the sacred hind. The close resem-
blance of the body of the hind to that of the wolf is undoubted; both
exhibit the same leanness, and the same emphasis of the bony structure
visible in the rendering of the ribs, which, however, is characteristic of both
animals in actual life (Giglioli, <7^- cz'A, p. 33 n. ; A. della Seta in Z^ZzZ,
i, P- 57°)- These Italic artists were inspired by the Etruscans, whose own
art was originally derived from the Greeks, but by the time the statues