Ombra della sera (Statue)
Created | Updated Jul 16, 2012
“L’Ombra della sera” (sometime trnslated as “Evening shadow”, but the author of this note would prefer “The Shadow at dusk”) is a votive statuette from the old Etruscan city of Velathri, the current Volterra, preserved in the museum Guarnacci.
The bronze casters of Volterra were known in antiquity for their technological and manufacturing ability that allow them to melt the copper minerals Montagne Metallifere (Metalliferous Hills) with tin, getting bronze, they were much appreciated by Romans. In the Volterra region a considerable number of votive figures similarly elongated were found. But in this particular Etruscan artist won through facial features so natural and the precision and finesse of the other details, an almost supernatural charm. Onlookers of the slender statuette, apparently of recent construction as the style recalls Giacometti a contemporary Swiss sculptor, often wonder, admiring the artwork, you know that its coinage took place about 2300 years ago. Because of the obvious influences of the ancient art of the portrait of the Greeks, archaeologists date the original artifact in the third century BC. "Evening Shadow" has become the emblem of the city Volterra for its elegance.
In 1737 the Florentine scholar Anton Francesco Gori discovered that the statue was kept in the home of the Buonarroti family at Florence. A few decades later the noble prelate Mario Guarnacci (Volterra 1701 to 1785) came into possession of the statuette, although it is not clear how he did it.
Guarnacci, was an erudite historian - even the Roman Thermae (hot baths) outside the Porta San Felice, Volterra, the Terme Guarnacciane are so called because Guarnacci discovered them in 1760. Graduated from the University of Pisa, a Greek scholar Florence, in his ecclesiastical career, Pope Lambertini charged him to continue the work of the on the lives of popes and cardinals by Ciacconio. He was the author - among others - of an history of the ancient inhabitants of Italy (“Le Origini Italiche”, Lucca 1767).
In 1761 Guarnacci donated his considerable archaeological heritage - and also a library of over 50,000 volumes, a harvest the fruit of years of research and purchase – to the “public [government] of the city of Volterra). The donation marked the birth of one of the most important Etruscan museums.
It seems that Gabriele D 'Annunzio gave the name of "Evening Shadow" to the statue: In looking at it the poet, thought of the long shadows of sunset.
The bronze casters of Volterra were known in antiquity for their technological and manufacturing ability that allow them to melt the copper minerals Montagne Metallifere (Metalliferous Hills) with tin, getting bronze, they were much appreciated by Romans. In the Volterra region a considerable number of votive figures similarly elongated were found. But in this particular Etruscan artist won through facial features so natural and the precision and finesse of the other details, an almost supernatural charm. Onlookers of the slender statuette, apparently of recent construction as the style recalls Giacometti a contemporary Swiss sculptor, often wonder, admiring the artwork, you know that its coinage took place about 2300 years ago. Because of the obvious influences of the ancient art of the portrait of the Greeks, archaeologists date the original artifact in the third century BC. "Evening Shadow" has become the emblem of the city Volterra for its elegance.
In 1737 the Florentine scholar Anton Francesco Gori discovered that the statue was kept in the home of the Buonarroti family at Florence. A few decades later the noble prelate Mario Guarnacci (Volterra 1701 to 1785) came into possession of the statuette, although it is not clear how he did it.
Guarnacci, was an erudite historian - even the Roman Thermae (hot baths) outside the Porta San Felice, Volterra, the Terme Guarnacciane are so called because Guarnacci discovered them in 1760. Graduated from the University of Pisa, a Greek scholar Florence, in his ecclesiastical career, Pope Lambertini charged him to continue the work of the on the lives of popes and cardinals by Ciacconio. He was the author - among others - of an history of the ancient inhabitants of Italy (“Le Origini Italiche”, Lucca 1767).
In 1761 Guarnacci donated his considerable archaeological heritage - and also a library of over 50,000 volumes, a harvest the fruit of years of research and purchase – to the “public [government] of the city of Volterra). The donation marked the birth of one of the most important Etruscan museums.
It seems that Gabriele D 'Annunzio gave the name of "Evening Shadow" to the statue: In looking at it the poet, thought of the long shadows of sunset.
