In terms of contribution to the development of painting and sculpture, no other country in the world can compare with Italy. This is partly the result of the triumph of the Renaissance era., but Italy boasts many other outstanding artistic achievements from the period from the seventh century onwards.. BC. to modern times. The fragmentation of the country's political history has led to regional diversity in Italian art.: Rome, Pisa. Siena, Florence. Milan, Venice and Naples have distinctive and easily recognizable traditions, and each of them successively sat at the artistic helm of the nation. When signs of collapse appeared in one of the cities, there were almost always others to take over.
The Etruscans
The artistic history of Italy begins with the Etruscans. whose culture extends from the 7th to the 1st century. p.n.e.. and the value of the art they create is still disputed. Etruscan art undoubtedly differed from that practiced in Greece, a country that is both politically and artistically dominant, and was characterized by oriental influences and a tendency to linear forms. Contrary to the Greeks who loved marble, Etruscan people used brown and terracotta, although in its other aspects Etruscan art bears numerous traces of borrowings from contemporary trends in Greece.
Many of the most beautiful sculptures come from the 6th century. BC. Some of the best examples are the Apollo and Heracles of Veii, and the Sarcophagus of a married couple from Ceryeteri, currently at Villa Giulia in Rome.; reclining figures on the sarcophagus are typical motifs in Etruscan art - realistic and expressive faces, with bulging eyes and enigmatic smiles, besides, little attention is paid to human anatomy. There were also frequent depictions of animals, both real and fantastic, and the most famous of them is the Arezzo Chimera. currently located in the Museo Archeologico in Florence. and the coat of arms of Rome, Capitoline Wolf, at the Palace of Conservators - both works from the 5th century. BC.
The preserved Etruscan murals are surprisingly numerous, especially if you weigh it, that all their Greek counterparts (not counting a few sections in Paestum) gone. The greatest collection of them can be found in Tarquinia. where there are works from the period from the 6th to the 1st century. p.n.e.; another beautiful collection is in Chiusi. The paintings t» were initially religious or magical in nature., their task was to create a suitable environment for the dead. Later, visionary shots of the afterlife were created.. With a strong drawing, bright colors and vivid details of the works are characterized by irresistible charm.
ROMANS
Like the Etruscans. The Romans owed a lot to the Greeks in the field of form, willingly adapting their designs to their own purposes, although they did not like aesthetic values, which played such a key role in Greek art. Of course, heroic Greek statues were highly appreciated. Many of them were brought to Rome, others were imitated and copied, and some of the most famous Roman sculptures - Apollo Belvedere and Venus of Cnidos in the Vatican. The Medici Venus in the Uffizi are Roman copies of lost Greek originals, however, in themselves they remain valuable works of art and are on par with the best Greek works.
However, worship of Greece was largely based on pure idiosyncrasy, and the empire's own contribution to art was to take completely different forms. For example, Roman portrait sculpture tended to discard both the accentuation of characteristics, as well as idealization in favor of an objective representation of physical characteristics, and usually revealed the bony structure of the face, naked forehead, pouted lips and big eyes. This image was only occasionally softened, for example, under the emperors Augustus and Hadrian. The marble busts have been preserved in enormous numbers, but bronze horse statues – a particularly effective way of showing the power and charism of the emperor - were later melted down. Only the statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome has survived.
The Romans also used the bas-relief in a full and varied way, especially in the ornamentation of sarcophagi, the main form of funeral art, and on triumphal arches and columns erected to celebrate the successes of the war. Some of these, as from the second century. n.e. Trajan's Column in Rome, they show technical virtuosity and attention to detail in presenting great deeds and battles.
In the home environment, wall paintings were the basic element, but relatively few have survived. In Rome itself there are Esquiline landscapes and the Aldobrandini wedding and frescoes in Villa Livia, while the best examples can be seen in Pompeii and Herculaneum, preserved under the layers of lava. which covered both cities as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 r. n.e. Some are in situ. especially spectacular paintings at Villa dei Misteri, the rest were transferred to the Museo Nazionale in Naples. Overall, actually, a wide range of topics was addressed - landscapes, portraits, still lifes, mythological and genre scenes; nature was presented both realistically, and stylized.