Cortona relives its past
CORTONA-Have you felt the fascination of the Etruscans, the people who left ample traces of the life they led in central Italy before being conquered by the Romans?
D.H. Lawrence recorded his fascination in ‘Etruscan Places’ where he presented them as a poetic people crushed by the Romans. A splendid current exhibition at the Cortona museum has the fascination of an intriguing story well told- that of the impact of the Etruscans in England, which arose from publication of a book written a century before, and started an Etruscan fashion in the decoration of expensive homes, in Wedgewood ceramics and exhibitions in Pall Mall.
In the 17th century Thomas Dempster, a Scot who was a law professor in Pisa, wrote De Etruria Regali to prove that Cosimo II Medici, the ruler of Tuscany, was the heir of its Etruscan rulers. It was based on classical literary sources but Dempster, described by a contemporary as a ‘man made for contention and war,’ quarrelled once more and was kicked out of Tuscany before he completed it.
Early in the 18th century an Englishman bought the manuscript in Florence for £11. He had been the tutor for Thomas Coke of Holkham Hall, Norwich, during his Grand Tour and sent it to him.
Coke decided to finance its publication in Florence. Felice Buonarrotti, a relative of the artist Michelangelo, who was a government minister and an archaeologist, decided that field work would improve the text and encouraged archaeologists to find Etruscan remains and he also included 93 illustrations. That was a crucial innovation.
On publication in 1726 the book aroused intense interest and was a factor in the establishment of the Cortona Etruscan Academy the following year which attracted members such as Voltaire, Montesqueieu and Wincklemann as well as learned Englishmen and Irishmen. The British Museum, founded 27 years later, paid keen attention to Etruscan objects provided by freelance agents operating in Italy. (It has supplied over 40 Etruscan objects, a quarter of all objects in this exhibition.)
These two institutions and Holkham Hall have collaborated with many other museums to stage the exhibition which was aided by the recent discovery of the original designs and bronze plates for the book’s illustrations. The exhibition recreates Thomas Coke’s Grand Tour and Holkham Hall as an introduction to the story of the book and the display of Etruscan vases, tombs, statues, a famous candelabra, mirrors, perfume vases and jewellery which all witness to the Etruscans’ sophistication and sense of beauty.
Fragments of Australia’s past, as well as that of the Etruscans, are on display in Cortona.
John Damian Wimpole, a Melburnian who was formerly an Australian diplomat, owns a hotel in what was a 15th century cardinal’s hunting lodge, Villa di Piazzano, near the town. It has extensive grounds and a classic Italian garden. Cortona has conserved its past and Wimpole preserves some of Australia’s past: furniture from The George hotel in Fitzroy street, St Kilda. There is the Scottish grandfather clock which his grandfather brought with him when he arrived in Australia from England in 1862, some sideboards and other pieces from when the John’s parents sold the hotel in 1958.
Seduzione Etrusca,
Palazzo Casali,
Cortona
The exhibition closes on 31 July
seduzioneetrusca.cortonamaec.org
INFO
Cortona, a town of only 1500 inhabitants, stands on a hillside overlooking the Chiana valley with Lake Trasimeno in the far distance.
In its diocesan Museum is Fra Angelico’s deservedly famous painting, The Annunciation, and a series of works by the native Luca Signorelli.
Visitors have increased since Frances Mayes' "Under the Tuscan Sun," set largely in Cortona.
*A major Etruscan exhibition is being held at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, until July 20: Gli Etruschi e il Mediterraneo, la città di Cerveteri. It concentrates on the history of Cerveteri set in the context of the whole Mediterranean. The Louvre collaborated with Italian institutions in their ample, admirably clear exhibition. An exhibition at the Villa Giulia Etruscan museum until 29 June is based on the discovery in Vulci a year ago of new remains which throw light on the Etruscan aristocracy.
