“Dancers in the Tomb of Triclinium”
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This joyous painting of “Dancers in the Tomb of Triclinium” is a fresco painted on the wall of one of the chamber tombs of the Etruscan Necropolis of Tarquinia. Made by an unknown artist, it dates to approximately 470 to 440 BC.
The Etruscan Necropolis of Tarquinia is located in Italy, approximately 90 km northwest of Rome, about 7 km from the western coast. The necropolis contains burials of Etruscan elite, spanning from the end of the seventh century BC to the mid-first century BC. About 6,000 individuals were buried here. In 2004, the necropolis became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Tomb of the Triclinium contained the remains of one individual of relatively high status. All four walls of the chamber were painted in frescoes. The main wall straight towards the back depicted a large feast and banquet attended by three couples lounging on low lying couches. The side walls were brightly decorated with attendants, cupbearers, musicians, and dancers.
This detail is of the fresco that was located on the right wall. It portrays a couple dressed in their finest clothes dancing into the afterlife. The dancers are accompanied by a man playing a barbiton, a stringed instrument similar to a lyre. Etruscan funerals were wild celebrations that featured banquets, games, and dancing, themes commonly found on the frescoes in this necropolis. In Tarquinia, the aristocratic families decorated the walls of their tombs providing us with rich glimpses into their worldview.
The style of the frescoes within the Tomb of Triclinium is reminiscent of the figures often seen on Greek red-figure pottery. Researchers believe that the artist who made these was likely to have been of Greek descent or trained in the Greek arts. In the painting, the male dancer on the left has the typical darker skin tone than the woman on the right, a stylistic trend found in other Greek art from the time.
Watercolor copies of the frescoes were made at its initial discovery in 1830. This has helped researchers immeasurably, as the state of the frescoes have greatly deteriorated since their discovery. In 1949, to protect their longevity, the frescoes were removed from the walls of the necropolis and moved to the collections of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tarquinia.
“Dancers in the Tomb of Triclinium” is currently on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tarquinia in Tarquinia, Italy.
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