Cinerary Urn of Thania Velchiti with a Battle Scene
Unknown · c. 200-150 BC
The front of this terracotta urn is a battle. Five warriors, some naked under their cloaks, others in tunics and cuirasses with hanging straps, fight with swords and round shields; one has fallen to his knees, wounded, while a helmet and a shield lie on the ground. The relief was pressed from a mould and painted, and the figures are crowded into the small field with real energy. On the lid above, a separate piece, the deceased reclines with a bowl in hand. Lead was also used somewhere in the making of the urn.
What gives this urn its voice is the inscription painted along the front edge of the chest, in the Etruscan alphabet: Thania Velchiti, daughter of Salinei, wife of Unata. The ashes inside belonged to a woman, and the fighting scene was simply a stock decoration sold by the workshop to any family that wanted it. The urn was made at Chiusi in the first half of the second century before Christ and entered the Louvre in the purchase of eighteen sixty one. Say the name to yourself; she is one of the few Etruscan women you will ever meet by name.
Did You Know? The name painted on the rim tells you the ashes belonged to a woman, Thania Velchiti, even though the front shows five men fighting.
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