Technè La science au service de l’histoire de l’art et de la préservation des biens culturels 48 | 2019 Les couleurs de l’Antique Considerations on the polychromy of a group of nenfro sculptures from Tuscania (Viterbo) kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence Considérations sur la polychromie d’un ensemble de sculptures en nenfro provenant de Tuscania (Viterbe) conservées au musée archéologique national de Florence Claudia Noferi, Susanna Bracci, Giovanni Bartolozzi, Roberta Iannaccone, Sara Lenzi and Donata Magrini Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/techne/2378 DOI: 10.4000/techne.2378 ISSN: 2534-5168 Publisher C2RMF Printed version Date of publication: 31 December 2019 Number of pages: 83-89 ISBN: 978-2-11-152831-4 ISSN: 1254-7867 Electronic reference Claudia Noferi, Susanna Bracci, Giovanni Bartolozzi, Roberta Iannaccone, Sara Lenzi and Donata Magrini, “Considerations on the polychromy of a group of nenfro sculptures from Tuscania (Viterbo) kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence”, Technè [Online], 48 | 2019, Online since 01 July 2021, connection on 21 September 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/techne/2378 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/techne.2378 La revue Technè. La science au service de l’histoire de l’art et de la préservation des biens culturels est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. Technè n° 48, 2019 Les couleurs de l’Antique Claudia Noferi Susanna Bracci Considerations on the polychromy of a Giovanni Bartolozzi group of nenfro sculptures from Tuscania Roberta Iannaccone Sara Lenzi (Viterbo) kept in the National Donata Magrini Archaeological Museum of Florence Considérations sur la polychromie d’un ensemble de sculptures en nenfro provenant de Tuscania (Viterbe) conservées au musée archéologique national de Florence Abstract. The paper deals with a group of Etruscan nenfro Résumé. Cette étude porte sur un ensemble de sculptures étrusques sculptures found in Tuscania (Viterbo) and kept in the en nenfro mises au jour à Tuscania (Viterbe) et conservées au 83 Archaeological Museum of Florence, where some of them were musée archéologique national de Florence, où quelques-unes already displayed at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. d’entre elles étaient déjà exposées à la fin du XIXe siècle et au début After the flood of Florence in 1966, the Museum was heavily du XXe. Après l’inondation de Florence en 1966, le musée a subi damaged, causing the dismemberment of many contexts, including de lourds dégâts, entraînant la dislocation de plusieurs unités those from Tuscania. The artefacts were then cleaned, restored and contextuelles, dont celles de Tuscania. Après nettoyage et most of them were moved into the depository of the Museum and restauration, une grande partie des œuvres a pu être transférée to the Villa Corsini, where they are currently kept. The sculptures au dépôt du musée et à la villa Corsini, où elles se trouvent were analysed by means of a totally non-invasive analytical actuellement. Les sculptures ont été étudiées selon un protocole protocol through imaging and single spot analysis. Traces mostly of totalement non-invasif d’imagerie scientifique et d’analyses yellow and red iron-based pigments for the skin tone as well as few ponctuelles. On a pu de la sorte mettre en évidence des traces de traces of Egyptian blue were evidenced. The comparison of the pigments, principalement jaune et rouge à base de fer, avec parfois obtained analytical results joined with the archaeological studies un peu de bleu égyptien. Les résultats de ces analyses, couplés aux has provided new information about the sculptures, their études archéologiques, jettent un nouvel éclairage sur les conservation state and artistic technique as well as deepened the sculptures, leur état de conservation et leur technique artistique, knowledge about their original contexts. mais aussi sur leur contexte d’origine. Keywords. Etruscan Hellenistic funerary sculpture, Mots-clés. Sculpture funéraire étrusque hellénistique, Tuscania, polychromy, nenfro stone, sarcophagi, non-invasive Tuscania, polychromie, nenfro, sarcophages, analyse non-invasive, analysis, XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy), FORS (Fiber optic XRF (analyse par fluorescence X), FORS (Spectrométrie par reflectance spectroscopy), imaging techniques. réflexion à l’aide de fibre optique), imagerie. Introduction At the end of the 19th and early 20th century, Luigi Adriano Milani, director of the Royal Archaeological Museum Polychromy on Etruscan Hellenistic funerary sculpture has of Florence, started an acquisition program aimed to increase not yet been studied in depth. Previous analytical campaigns the Topographical Museum of Etruria’s collection. During on some sarcophagi dealing with gens Statlane’s tombs were this period, the director met Giuseppe Cerasa, Honorary part of a collaboration between the National Archaeological Inspector of Monuments and Excavations for “Toscanella” Museum of Florence and the Institute for the Conservation (modern Tuscania), Arlena and Cellere. Cerasa allowed the and Promotion of Cultural Heritage – ICVBC-CNR, and the acquisition of several groups of artefacts coming from the results were presented at the 7th International Round Table Tuscania area (pottery, bronze and glass objects, stone and on Polychromy in Ancient Sculpture and Architecture, held terracotta sculptures and sarcophagi). At the beginning, the in Florence in 20151. objects were partly shown – in the Tuscanienses-Ferentani Museum room and in the Garden of the Museum – and partly Claudia Noferi, Official Archeologist, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze-Direzione Regionale Musei della Toscana (claudia. [email protected]). Susanna Bracci, Senior Researcher, Institute for the Conservation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage – ICVBC-CNR, Firenze ([email protected]). Giovanni Bartolozzi, Researcher, Institute for Applied Physics “Nello Carrara” – IFAC-CNR, Firenze ([email protected]). Roberta Iannaccone, Researcher, Institute for the Conservation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage – ICVBC-CNR ([email protected]). Sara Lenzi, Independent Researcher ([email protected]). Donata Magrini, Researcher, Institute for the Conservation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage – ICVBC-CNR, Firenze ([email protected]). III. La mise en couleur de la sculpture la de encouleur mise La III. Les couleurs de l’Antique Technè n° 48, 2019 (XRF)3 and Fibre optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS)4. All the spots were documented through a portable optical microscope (see Experimental Appendix for further detail). The sculptures came from four different Hellenistic hypogeal graves, all located out of the modern town of Tuscania, in the heart of the Fig. 1. Sarcophagus with female anthropomorphic lid, from Tuscania, Rosavecchia necropolis, Tomb I gens Statlane, first half of 3rd century B.C, nenfro stone (216 x 53 x 75 cm), Villa Corsini “Southern-inner Etruria”. The objects a Castello (inv. 84275). © ICVBC-CNR. reflect habits and funerary customs of the Etruscan Aristocracy, which during the Hellenistic period developed strength and cohesion, basing their power mostly 84 on land ownership. Two sculptures from gens Statlane’s tombs, published in 20125, were from the Rosavecchia necropolis (the current location being the “Polledrara Bassetta”), in the west side of the city, about 200 meters from the road that links Tuscania with Tarquinia. The structure was discovered in 1898 and excavated, as were many others, by G. Cerasa, who usually updated Milani by written correspondence. The hypogeum, carved in local tuff rock, is composed of two rooms. Inside, 41 sarcophagi were found: 32 (maybe 33) made of nenfro stone with anthropomorphic or architectural lid types, and 9 made of terracotta. Some of the sarcophagi reached Fig. 2. VIL image. Detail of the chest of the female anthropomorphic lid (inv. 84275). © ICVBC-CNR. Florence in 1908, with a few grave goods, five column cippi and a fragmentary lion carved in nenfro stone. All the finds from both tombs seem to cover a time span from between the stored. On November 4th 1966, a flood heavily damaged the end of the 4th and the 1st century B.C.6 museum and its contexts, causing the dismemberment of Concerning the polychromy analysis, five nenfro sarco- many collections, including those from Tuscania. The arte- phagi from gens Statlane’s tombs had been chosen for the first facts, after the disaster, were intensively cleaned, restored and campaign7, all with anthropomorphic lids, four of them with most of them were moved into the depository of the Museum decorated cases in relief. and to the Villa Corsini (Sesto Fiorentino), where they are This paper introduces two more objects coming from currently kept in the courtyard and warehouse. these tombs: a sarcophagus from tomb I, with a female The present study started from this point, searching for anthropomorphic lid and simple case, signed by Cerasa with information about the objects and their original context. After an F, and the fragmentary lion with part of its base, placed in gathering archival sources concerning the sculptures and grave the dromos of tomb I. goods kept in the Museum and tombs, it was possible to estab- lish an inventory of the archaeological finds purchased by the Museum and to rebuild the history of their various contexts. Female sarcophagus and fragmentary lion statue The female anthropomorphic lid (fig.