Rome’s Quirinal Palace features a remarkable collection of sculptures recently discovered in the baths of San Casciano dei Bagni, in the ancient Etruscan city of Chiusi, halfway between Florence and Rome. The exhibit includes objects that are the first of their kind to be discovered, including accurate bronze renditions of internal organs.
“Return of the Gods: The Bronzes of San Casciano” features more than 20 statues and statuettes as well as thousands of bronze pieces and anatomical ex-votos, mostly from the second century BCE to the first century CE. The mud in which the artifacts were buried has them in exceptional condition, with long Etruscan and Latin inscriptions intact.
The objects were discovered last fall during an ongoing archaeological dig to uncover the thermal baths near the Tuscan town of San Casciano dei Bagni, which began in 2019. When few traces of the ruins were found after several weeks , a retired garbage collector and amateur historian Stefano Petrini had a “flash” of intuition that helped redirect excavation efforts.
One of the discoveries in situ. Photo: Courtesy of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Petrini recalled that he spotted parts of Roman columns on a wall near a friend’s vegetable garden and pointed them out to archaeologists. “It all started there, from the columns”, Petrini told Reuters.
“It’s an extraordinary discovery,” Luigi La Rocca, an official with the Ministry of Culture, told reporters on Thursday. New York Times. La Rocca particularly noted the variety of bronzes, their high quality and exceptional condition.
“It was like a time capsule waiting to be opened,” said Emanuele Mariotti, the excavation director. new York Time. Some of the inscriptions on the bronzes come from the city of Perugia, more than 40 miles away, indicating the extent of cultural interaction at the site, said Jacopo Tabolli, scientific director of the excavations and co-curator of the Quirinale exhibition.
The same statue, after restoration. Photo: Courtesy of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
The artifacts were concealed due to the Etruscan tradition known as the “fulgur conditum”, in which objects struck by lightning were believed to be imbued with divinity and would then be buried. Communities including Pagans, Etruscans, Romans and Christians believed that the waters of San Casciano had healing powers.
A new museum in the city center will serve as a permanent home for the artifacts, according to the Timewhich reports that officials hope that at least part of the museum will be open as early as next year.
The show is presented in Rome until July 25, then again from September 2 to October 29.
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