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THE STATUE
The statue of Apollo from Veio, in polychrome
terracotta, is one of the masterpieces of
Etruscan art from the end of the 6th century
BC, famous the world over. Together with
other statues, it decorated the roof beams
of the Temple of Veio in Portonaccio, a
sanctuary dedicated to Minerva. Placed on
high plinths they were erected with an arcoterial
function twelve metres high and even though
they were created separately, they narrated
Greek mythical events at least in part tied
to the god Apollo. The statue, which is
currently undergoing restoration work, together
with the statue of Heracles, formed a group
representing one of the labours of the hero
before his apotheosis among the divinities
of Olympus. The myth narrates the contention
between the god and the hero for the possession
of the doe with the golden horns. There
was probably also a statue of Mercury united
to this group of which only the head and
a part of the body remain. Apollo, dressed
in a tunic and short cloak advances towards
his left with his right arm outstretched
and bent (his left arm is towards the ground
maybe with a bow in his hand); Heracles,
with the doe tied around his legs, is outstretched
towards the right, leaning forwards to attack
with his bludgeon and with his torso in
a violent curve.
The Group was conceived for a lateral vision
and the solid volume of the figures united
with the fine dissymmetry both in Apollo
(the torso and face) and Heracles torso
indicate that the artist was quite knowledgeable
regarding optical deformations. The style
of the statues is in the ambit of the “international”
ionic manner that characterizes not only
the Etruscan artistic culture of the late
archaic period of the last years of the
6th century BC but the result achieved reaches
very high expressive levels that can be
attributed to someone with great talent.
The creator of the arcoterial statues can
be identified as the “Artist from
Veio an expert in coroplastic art”.
THE TEMPLE
The Portonaccio Temple is the first Tuscan
–type temple erected in Etruria (about
510 BC) and codified in the Augustan age
by Vitruvio, the Tuscan-type temple, in
other words Etruscan, was constituted by
three cells sided by a double row of columns
on the facade. This is an original set up
with respect to the other types of constructions
found in Etruria and the Tyrrhenian side
of Italy, which have one cell with or without
columns, seen in Greece and the Orient.
The reconstruction proposed for the Portonaccio
Temple, elaborated in 1993 by Giovanni Colonna
together with Germano Foglia, presents a
square 60 feet construction on a low podium
(about 18 metres, considering the 29cm foundation)
and divided into a pronapse with two columns
making up the facade between entrances,
24 feet deep and a group in the back made
up of three 30 feet deep adjacent cells.
The 21 foot columns were made of stuccoed
tufa as were the walls, which inside the
pronapse were decorated with various paintings
on clay panels. The roof was in wood covered
with polychrome terracotta. The terracotta
was placed through a refined system of syllabic
abbreviations and they were integrated with
bronze inserts and a generous profusion
of plastic inserts, mostly modelled by hand,
among which a splendid series of grand antefixes
(joint coverings) with the heads of Gorgone,
Acheloo, Menade and Satyr.
THE PORTONACCIO SANCTUARY
This sanctuary, among the most ancient and
venerated on all of Etruria, was outside
of the city and a road leading from the
city of Veio to the Tyrrhenian coast and
the famous Veio saline mines ran through
it. Its most ancient nucleus tied to the
cult of the goddess Minerva and a small
temple, a square altar, a portico and stairs
from the road were built in about 530-530
BC in her honour. The three cell temple
with the polychrome terracotta decorations
was erected in about 510 BC in the western
part of the sanctuary. Adjacent to the temple
there was a great pool with a tunnel and
a fence that enclosed the sacred woods.
The temple was in honour of the god Apollo
in his prophetic oracle aspect inspired
after the Delphi model to which purification
ceremonies were tied. Heracles, the hero
made god dear to tyrants, and maybe also
Jupiter, whose image we have to imagine
on the central wall of the temple were tied
to Apollo. By the middle of the 5th century
BC, all interventions on the temple are
concluded and it begins a slow decline while
the structures sacred to Minerva are renovated
on the eastern sector of the sanctuary.
The starting up again of the cult worshipping
Minerva, which continued also after the
conquering of Veio by Rome (396 BC) is documented
by a splendid series of votive statues of
classic and late-classic style boys, such
as the famous head, “Malavolta”
as to indicate the important role of the
goddess in the rituals of the passage from
adolescence to adulthood that signalled
the fundamental phases of the life of the
members of the aristocratic families of
Veio. In the 2nd century BC, the tufa mine
that destroyed the central area of the sanctuary
was opened causing damage to the temple
and the sliding down of material downhill.
The recovery of the fragments of the sanctuary
determined the start up of excavations in
1914, which continued after the discovery
of the statue of Apollo in 1916.
THE CITY OF VEIO
The city was on a vast plateau close to
the Valchetta and the Fosso della Mola and
connected to the south to the Piazza d’Armi
highland, the seat of the acropolis. The
necropolis surrounded the plateau, which
developed with thousand of burial sites
beginning at the start of the Villanova
Age (9th century BC) and for all of the
7th and 6th centuries BC. The Tomb of the
Ducks, between 680 and 650 BC, is the most
ancient painted tomb in all of Etruria.
The city has been explored only in part
and besides some segments of the city wall
(5th century BC), the most important cult
sites are known: the Apollo sanctuary in
Portonaccio; the archaic age temple on the
acropolis and other sacred areas such as
the one of Giunone Regina and those in Campetti,
documented by immense volumes of votive
material. The city plan of the acropolis
with almost orthogonal road indications,
one of the most ancient of Etruria, goes
back to the end of the 7th century BC. Some
hydraulic constructions are also peculiar
such as the long gallery of the Sodo Bridge
along the Cremera. It was the first Etruscan
city to fall to the Romans in 396 BC after
the siege by Furio Camillo. There are numerous
testimonies of the Roman presence between
the 4th and 3rd centuries BC and in particular
in the territory that is populated by a
dense web of small farming properties.
Following the creation of the municipium
veiens by Augustus, the city lives its last
period of prosperity in the 1st century
AD and this is documented by prestigious
constructions such as the Palazzo Wedekind
at Piazza Colonna in Rome. Starting in 1996,
following the signing of a convention between
the La Sapienza University of Rome and the
Archaeological Patrimony of Southern Etruria
Superintendence, there has been a special
research project carried out regarding Veio,
financed by the university to face the archaeological
knowledge of this ancient city.
Francesca Boitani
Direttore del Museo Nazionale
Etrusco di Villa Giulia
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