Etruscan Terracotta Cinerary urn with Eteocles and Polyneices. Coll. Buchelli 1754, published. TL test.

Cinerary urn molded with the fratricide of Eteocles and Polyneices. Etruscan, probably from Chiusi. Circa 2nd Century BC Bronze Size: 27x37x21 cm. Conditon: Intact, unrestored and with all it's original painting preserved. Provenance: - Most probably found in Chiusi, Italy, prior to 1754. - Collection of Pietro Bucelli (1684-1754) , Palazzo Bucelli, Montepulciano, Tuscay. - Sold with parts of the Bucelli collection 17th September 1781 as lot 3, with the description: “Urna dipinta rappresentante ‘l’eroe con l’aratro’, bellissima: lautnic : hectaś : eiatiuce”, as published in "antichità latine ed etrusche che esistevano nel Museo Bucelli di Montepulciano. " The dealer who sold the piece was Tagliasacchi Doriano in 1781. - Collection of Mr. Jean-Pierre Jouve (1926-2019) , France. Mr. Jouve was an architect and director of the historical monuments department in France. Publications: ALBERGHINA, Silvia. Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Scienze dell’ Antichità: Archeologia. Prova finale di Laurea: “La collezione Bucelli. I materiali del Museo di Firenze”. Matricola 815781, 2011/2012. University of Venecia Ca' Foscari. Page 234. "Urna dipinta rappresentante ‘l’eroe con l’aratro’, bellissima: lautnic : hectaś : eiatiuce. " Documents: Positive Termoluminiscence test, export license issued by the Ministry of Culture. AN ETRUSCAN TERRACOTTA CINERARY URN The front of the rectangular urn molded with the fratricide of Eteocles and Polyneices, both heroes armed, one lunging to the right, the other down on his bent right knee, his shield held high and his helmet fallen to the ground, a draped winged goddess, presumably Vanth, standing on either side, the scene framed by fluted pilasters on the corners and a border of ovolo above, the lid with the deceased reclining to her left, her head resting on two pillows; preserving most of the original colours. Two etruscan texts are preserved on the urn, one painted on the front under the figures and one on the side incised. Collection Bucelli: Pietro was born in Montepulciano, in the noble Bucelli family (his father was a count) , in 1684. They do not possess any of his life that isolated information, especially regarding the period prior to the beginning of the collection of antiquities. He studied in Siena where he met Umberto Benvoglienti, passionate about medieval art and contact with this character initiated him into interest in local history. Interest developed in the young Pietro in particular for the language of the Etruscans and it is very likely that this was the reason why the whole his collection of antiquities was so unbalanced in the epigraphic sense. Once he finished his studies (for which he had in the meantime passed to Rome) in 1711, he returned to Montepulciano where "also moved by affection . . . for all the leftovers of antiquity that per day in this District they were unearthed "and encouraged by a" fort desire to buy them . . . to show posterity that these were not desolate countryside, but rather inhabited by more cultured, ancient, and aggressive Peoples, he devoted the following years of his life to accumulating antiquities of all kinds for increasing the size of his collection more and more. Hundreds of pieces entered and a unquantifiable number of non-registered finds ended up being part of the Collection Bucelli. It became so large that it attracted the attention of the experts of the time and in particular by Gori, who dedicated to it many tables of the second volume of his best known work: the Museum Etruscum. In a short time the collection became like this imposing to occupy the entire family palace of Signor Pietro, extending up to the neighboring houses. In one letter, the scholar mentions the fact that: "Mine small house is all cluttered with a number of urns . . . , cinerary pots, memorial stones, ancient vases, tiles, tombstones with inscriptions, some of which I am obliged to keep exposed to all the ravages of time in the public street ". After a few decades of intense acquisitions, both on the field and on the antiques market, and after tightening correspondence with the most eminent scholars of the time, Pietro Bucelli began to wondering about the fate of his collection after his death. Thus began the drafting of the Museum Bucellium, which he would pass on to the post your work. It was also his intention to donate the entire collection to the city of Montepulciano, to form a civic museum, probably on the example of Guarnacci in Volterra. The terror of the possible dismemberment of his collection, once he died, it was the torment of his last years (“And then, after my death, that will these stones of mine end up? . . . ") . Many, including Gori himself, proposed to finance this publication because the purchase of antiques had squandered in incurable way The assets of the Bucelli family. On the death of Pietro, in 1754, his parents fears came true and his collection remained unpublished. Much of the collection was sold to Pietro Leopoldo I and is visible at the National Archaeological Museum of Florence. Some other pieces, as the one sold here, were sold by Tagliasacchi Doriano in 1781. A small part is located in the Civic Museum of Montepulciano, while many urns and epigraphs were walled up in the base of the family palace in Montepulciano. Eteocles and Polynices: Eteocles and Polynices were the sons of the classic Greek tragic hero and Theban king Oedipus, who fought each other for the control of Thebes after their father abdicated. The Oedipus story is part of the Theban cycle and told most famously by the Greek poet Sophocles After decades of ruling Thebes, Oedipus discovered he had been at the mercy of a prophecy cast before his birth. Fulfilling the curse, Oedipus had unwittingly killed his own father Laius, and married and fathered four children by his mother Jocasta. In rage and horror, Oedipus blinded himself and abandoned his throne. As he left, Oedipus cursed his own two grown sons/brothers, Eteocles and Polynices had been left to rule Thebes, but Oedipus doomed them to kill each other. The Greek poet Aeschylus told the Eteocles and Polynices story in his award-winning trilogy on the topic, Seven Against Thebes, In the final play, the brothers fight each other for possession of the throne of Thebes. At first, they had agreed to rule Thebes jointly by alternating years in power, but after his first year, Eteocles refused to step down. To gain the rule of Thebes, Polynices needed warriors, but Theban men within the city would only fight for his brother. Instead, Polynices gathered a group of men from Argos. There were seven gates to Thebes, and Polynices selected seven captains to lead the charges against each gate. To fight them and protect the gates, Eteocles selected the best-qualified man in Thebes to challenge the specific Argive adversary, so there are seven Theban counterparts to the Argive attackers. The battles end when the two brothers kill each other with swords. In the sequel to the battle between Eteocles and Polynices, the successors of the fallen Argives, known as the Epigoni, win control of Thebes. Eteocles was buried honorably, but the traitor Polynices was not, leading to their sister Antigone's own tragedy. Notes: - The piece includes authenticity certificate. - The piece includes Spanish Export License (Passport for European Union) . - According to Spanish legislation, items sent outside the European Union are subject to export taxes and will be added to the invoice, at the buyer's expense. These export fees are fixed on the final auction price and the tax rate is not applied directly on the total value of the item to be exported, but rather the different percentages by sections are applied to it: - Up to 6,000 euros: 5%. - From 6. 001 to 60. 000 euros: 10%. - From 60. 001 to 600. 000 euros: 20%. This export permit application process can take between 1-2 months maximum. - The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki.