Architectural Relief Depicting the Gigantomachy (Battle Between Gods and Giants)
Date:
3rd-2nd century BCE
Artist:
Etruscan
About this artwork
As the name suggests, the Gigantomachy was the struggle between and the Giants and the Olympian gods, who were led by Zeus. In flowing robes, a god and goddess capture a Giant, depicted with wings and serpent-like features, to deliver the final blow in this epic battle. These three animated figures were probably once part of a series of ornamental covers called antefixes, which were placed along the lowest row of roof tiles on a small building, probably a temple. Etruscans often decorated their buildings with brightly colored sculptural compositions based on Greek mythology.
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Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 1983-84 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1984), p. 47, p. 17 (ill.).
Maria José Strazzula, “Motivi Pergameni in Etruria a Proposito di una Terracotta Architettonica con Gigantomachia a Chicago,” Archeologia Classica 43 (1991), pp. 1163-1178.
Gaetano Messineo, “Terrecotte architettoniche da Pagliaroli,” in La valle dell’alto Vomano ed i Monti della Laga, edited by F. Aceto et al. (2 vols), 1991, p. 184.
Richard De Puma, “Etruscan Art” in Museum Studies: Ancient Art at The Art Institute of Chicago 20, no. 1 (1994), pp. 58-59 (ill).
Karen Alexander, “The New Galleries of Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Minerva vol. 5, no. 3 (May/June, 1994), p. 33, fig. 9.
Maria José Strazzula, “L’uso delle immagini nell’ edilizia pubblica dell’ ellenismo a Roma e el mondo Etrusco-Italico,” in Images et Modernite Hellenistiques, edited by Françoise-Hélène Massa-Pairault and Gilles Sauron, Series: Collection de l’École française de Rome, 390 (Roma : École française de Rome, 2007), p. 156, fig. 17.
Art Institute of Chicago, Myth and Legend in Classical Art, February 28, 1987-August 26, 1987.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Human Figure in Greek and Roman Art: From the Permanent Collection, Part 2, January 13, 1989-February 21, 1990.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 156, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, November 11, 2012-November 1, 2018.
Private collection, Switzerland [according to Bruce McAlpine in committee meeting minutes; copy in curatorial object file]; acquired by Bruce (b. 1947) and Ingrid McAlpine (1939-2018), London, England, by 1984; sold to the Art Institute, 1984.
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