CIRCA LATE 2ND-EARLY 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Nenfro, a compacted volcanic ash found throughout Central Italy, was the Etruscan’s preferred material for carving large-scale sculpture. Its comparatively soft gradient made it easy to manipulate, but when exposed to air, it gradually hardened (see p. 64 in R.D. De Puma, Etruscan Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art). This over-lifesized portrait depicts a man of advanced age, with prominent cheekbones, a creased brow and sunken eyes. His straight locks radiate from the crown and fall along his forehead, and he wears a thick, rounded diadem that preserves the remains of yellow pigment; red pigment is preserved on the lips.

In a 1969 letter of expertise, the archaeologist Hans Jucker (1918-1984) relays that similar heads can be found on reclining figures that adorn the lids of late Etruscan sarcophagi, including those now in Viterbo, Bomarzo and Vetralla (see R. Herbig, Die Jüngeretruskischen Steinsarkophage, nos. 66, 243 and 245). Jucker further notes that the realism observed on these heads likely corresponds to Roman influence on late Etruscan artistic production. For another similar head also from a sarcophagus lid, see no. 36 in Art of Ancient Italy, André Emmerich Gallery.