Etruscan Tombs of Volterra

Sculpted during the twilight of Etruscan independence, the great beauty of the sarcophagi of Volterra stems from a nostalgia for the past. Believing the dead to be more important and more powerful than the living - the burial grounds were spread over a much greater area than the living were allowed to inhabit - the anonymous artists fashioned memorials, not only to the individual Etruscan dead, but also to a culture and an age that they knew was lost to them for ever. Their refined and gentle figures, so graphic, vibrant and full of life, owe little to the Greek style that prevailed elsewhere, but later were to inspire great Italian masters like Leonardo and Michelangelo.

`Accentuates the vitality and force of the art presented. The analysis of the bas-reliefs enhances the value ... of these works from the Hellenic-Roman Period of the Etruscans.'

UNESCO

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