National Etruscan Museum
​of Villa Giulia

Map
The National Etruscan Museum is housed inVilla Giulia, which was originally built for Pope Julius III (r. 1550-55) by the architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507-73).
Sarcophagus of the Spouses, Villa Giulia, Rome
Sarcophagus of the Spouses
Perhaps, the most famous exhibit in the museum is the Sarcofago degli Sposi (Sarcophagus of the Spouses), a masterpiece of Etruscan terracotta work. It was discovered in 1881 by Felice Bernabei, the founder of the Museo Nazionale Etrusco, at the Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri. The sarcophagus was broken into more than four hundred pieces, but was painstakingly reassembled. As the Etruscans practised cremation, this is not in fact a sarcophagus, but a receptacle for the ashes of the dead.

Dating back to between 530 and 520 BCE, it depicts a married couple half-reclined on a banqueting-couch. The portrayal of two spouses sharing such a couch is a uniquely Etruscan trope. The man is naked apart from a cloak, while his partner is very elegantly attired. She wears a type of hat known as a tutulus and sports a pair of pointed sandals (calcei repandi). 

The man rests his arm tenderly on his wife’s shoulder, an affectionate gesture which makes this one of the most moving sculptures from the ancient world.
To be continued...