Tarquinia (ancient Tarxna or Tarchna, one of the most powerful cities of the Etruscan Dodecapolis, the league of twelve Etruscan city-states that dominated central Italy from approximately the 7th to the 3rd century BC) has the finest Etruscan painted tombs in the world: the Monterozzi necropolis (the burial ground on the limestone plateau south of the medieval town, covering approximately 6km², with thousands of tombs dating from the 7th to the 1st century BC) contains approximately 6,000 tombs of which approximately 200 have painted decoration, the finest examples of Etruscan figurative painting in existence, representing the most complete visual record of Etruscan aristocratic life, religion, and funerary belief available anywhere. The Tarquinia painted tombs and the Cerveteri tumulus necropolis are jointly inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites (2004) for their outstanding universal value as documents of the Etruscan civilization.
The specific Tarquinia quality: the painted tombs aren't museum objects but active archaeological sites that visitors enter in person, standing in the same underground chamber where the Etruscan dead were placed 2,500 years ago, looking at frescoes painted on the plastered walls in the 6th and 5th centuries BC that retain (in the best-preserved examples) colors of extraordinary brightness and figurative quality. The Tomba dei Leopardi (approximately 470 BC) shows a banquet scene with three reclining couples being served wine and food, the figures are portrayed with the specific Etruscan combination of stylization and observed naturalism that makes their painting immediately recognizable as neither Greek nor Roman but distinctly itself.
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Tarquinia: The Tombs
Tomba dei Leopardi (Tomb of the Leopards)
The most famous and most visited of the Tarquinia painted tombs: two leopards face each other across the pediment of the main chamber wall, below which a banquet scene shows three reclining men and three women being served by attendants. The figures hold cups and wreaths. A flute player and a lyre player provide music. The servants carry amphoras and dishes. The specific Tarquinia banquet fresco quality: the vine scrolls that fill the upper register, the birds between the vine branches, and the specific orange-red of the figures against the pale cream plaster produce the most complete surviving example of the Etruscan sympotic (banquet) fresco tradition. The tomb interior is visible through a glass panel to protect the frescoes from the carbon dioxide and humidity that human breath produces, the viewing isn't from inside the tomb but from immediately outside the glass.
Other Key Tombs
The Tomba degli Auguri (Tomb of the Augurs, approximately 530 BC, two figures with ritual gestures flank a closed door, identified as augurs or priests performing the funeral ceremony). The Tomba della Caccia e Pesca (Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, approximately 510 BC, the most narrative of the Tarquinia tombs, showing a hunting scene above and a fishing scene below, with the specific Etruscan delight in depicting natural movement that anticipates Greco-Roman animal painting by two centuries). And the Tomba del Barone (Tomb of the Baron, approximately 510 BC, a simpler but very well-preserved example with the characteristic Tarquinia figure types). A selection of 14-16 tombs is open to visitors on a rotating basis to allow conservation rest. Which tombs are open varies monthly.
Q&A: Tarquinia
How do I book visits to the Tarquinia painted tombs?
The Monterozzi necropolis (Parco Archeologico di Tarquinia) is open Tuesday-Sunday, with guided visit groups organized from the ticket office at the necropolis entrance (Via delle Crocifissa. 3km from the medieval town, reachable by car or by a shuttle from the Museo Nazionale). Book online at coopculture.it or arrive at the ticket office in the morning. Visits are guided (mandatory, to protect the frescoes, visitor numbers are controlled and unsupervised entry isn't permitted). The guide leads the group through 14-16 open tombs in approximately 90 minutes. Combined ticket with the Museo Nazionale Tarquiniense (the museum in the Gothic Palazzo Vitelleschi in the medieval town, which contains the Etruscan sarcophagi and the famous Winged Horses terracotta, the finest surviving example of Etruscan architectural terracotta sculpture) is the recommended option.
