User:Vallue/Winged-horses of Tarquinia
| Winged-horses of Tarquinia |
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The high-relief of the "Tarquinia winged horses" is a fragment of the colonnade that supported the pediment of the most important temple of the ancient Etruscan city of Tarquínia, at the Ara de la Regina, better known as the Major Temple of Tarquínia. Nowadays situated at the Province of Viterbo (region of Lazio, Italy)
Its realization dates back to the middle of the 4th century BC, although some researchers argued that it could be more recent, because only after the 3rd century BC Etruscan builders gave the temples a particular change in the decoration of the friezes and pediments.
Features and Style
- Hellenistic influence
- The scene represented on the pediment of which winged horses were part was the staging of a god in a car, probably representing a solar deity.
- It was made by polychrome terracota, like almost all the reliefs of the pediments to the Etruscan constructions.
- Ara Regina temple was the largest and most important of all those built in Etruria.
Symbology
In spite of the stylistic influence of the classic Greek art, this set can not be identified with the only winged horse of Greek mythology, Pegasus, or with the horses that threw the car of Apollo. Therefore, it is a work of a purely decorative character, adapted to the Etruscan world. The image of winged horses has become the symbol and emblem of Tarquinia.
Etruscan civilization
Etruscans lived in Etruria, which included the Italian regions of Umbria, Tuscany, Lazio and Rome. The Etruscan civilization lasted from the 9th century BC. until the 1st AD, when adapted to the culture of the Roman empire.
Conservation
The relief is permanently exposed to the Tarquinia National Museum.