Trojan (alias Ilion) Historical facts vs. “Acces”, Pseudohistorians-“Scholars” etc..

H E R E: 

**** THIS CIVIlL WAR BETWEEN THE GREEKS IS ROMANTICIZED DUE TO THE ABDUCTION OF HELENA OF SPARTA

THIS CIVIlL WAR BETWEEN THE GREEKS IS ROMANTICIZED DUE TO THE ABDUCTION OF HELENA OF SPARTA

The ACHAEANS and DANAEANS, who lived, in WEST GREECE at that time, united and with their ships and army went to CONQUER TROY.
Thus began the Trojan War which lasted ten years. It was the greatest war of antiquity and led to the death of countless TROJANS and ACHAEANS(OR DANAEANS).
The occasion was a woman, the beautiful HELEN, the queen of SPARTA.
Many great LADS FOUGHT in this war. ACHILLES, the son of THETIS, HECTOR the leader of the TROJANS, the FEARLESS DIOMEDES,
the strong AEDAS, MENELAUS, the husband of HELEN, his brother AGAMEMNON, who was the LEADER of the ACHAEANS, the versatile Odysseus and many others. . We will meet
all of them in the following lessons. ALSO, we will meet ANDROMACHE, HEKTOR’S BEAUTIFUL WIFE, HIS RESPECTED PARENTS, HECABE and PRIAMOS, and MANY others!
What should ONE remember FIRST of all that happened. The myths that mention them are so charming, that it is worth reading them and remembering them forever.

. Paris prepared a fast boat and left for Sparta. He arrived at Menelaus’ palace bearing rich gifts. There everyone welcomed him and hosted him, as befits the king of Troy. However, Paris, with the help of Aphrodite, outwitted Helen and convinced her to follow him. And one day when Menelaus was away, they left for Troy.The abduction of Helen by Paris. Among them is the winged god Eros.
From an ancient Greek vas

1. The apple of ERIS
Many years ago , in ancient times, when the twelve gods lived in Olympus, Zeus decided to marry the king of Phthia, Peleus, to a sea fairy, Thetis, the daughter of Nereus. The wedding took place in Pelion and all the gods and goddesses were invited. Only Eris , the goddess of strife, was not invited, because wherever she went she sowed hatred and quarrels. She got very angry and went to the wedding unseen and left an all-gold apple on the table, on which she had written: “to the most beautiful”. Immediately Hera, Athena and Aphrodite began to argue about who was the most beautiful who would get the apple. They also asked Zeus, but he did not want to upset any of the three goddesses. That is why he told them to go to the mountain Ida, next to Troy, where Paris, the son of King Priam, was grazing his flock on a slope, so that he could choose the most beautiful goddess. So the three goddesses, together with Hermes, flew to Ida and stood in front of the startled king. Hermes told him the will of Zeus and gave him the golden apple of Eris. Then Hera ordered him to make him the greatest king, Athena the bravest and wisest warrior and Aphrodite to find him the most beautiful woman to marry. Paris, after thinking about it, gave the golden apple to Aphrodite. Hera and Athena left angry, while Aphrodite revealed to Paris that the beautiful Helen, the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, was the most beautiful in the world and advised him to go and get her.

The Paris crisis. On the right is Paris, in the center the god Hermes, followed by the three goddesses:
Aphrodite, Athena, Hera. From an ancient Greek vase

A compass on a white background, c. 465–460 BC. with a height including the cover of 17.2 cm. Compasses were a kind of “toilet” and “jewellery box, clay and later ivory or metal vessels, usually round with a separate lid. They were used more by women to store cosmetics or jewelry. They got their name from the wooden Corinthian boxes that were made from the hard and durable wood of the boxwood, a durable evergreen shrub (box), which can reach up to 6 m. From this Greek word came the Latin buxus: box-box and the English box.

This compass is said to have been excavated circa 1906 at Kymi (Cumae, the first ancient Greek colony of Magna Graecia on mainland Italy founded by settlers from the Euboean city of the same name in the 8th century BC). It passed through several buyers until it was acquired by the MET, The Metropolitan Museum of Art NY, 07.286.36a .

In her performances, she has scenes from the crisis of Paris, on a white background.

By the middle of the 5th century BC, the white ground technique was commonly used for the beautiful white lekyths, (bottles for scented oil, perfumes, wine for funerary rites and then placed as offerings in tombs) and for fine vessels of other shapes . As classical painters sought to achieve increasingly complex dramatic depictions with the limited capabilities of the red-figure technique, the white background gave new emphasis to glaze lines and polychrome, making the representations resemble frescoes. Their white color is due to a thin layer of white clay (kaolin) which after firing gave this effect and on top of which they were decorated with additional colors.

The decoration of this compass, which has three elegant short legs as a base, reflects the ease with which an accomplished artist like the “Painter of Penthesilea” to whom it is attributed, depicted a traditional subject: the judgment of Paris. I know you all know the legend, but if you want to “refresh” it, it’s in the 1st comment.

The moment of crisis is represented in successive scenes: One scene shows Pari, a young virgin, sitting on a rock wearing a petasos, a hiker’s and shepherd’s hat. He converses with Hermes, easily recognizable by his caduceus and winged sandals. Behind him a grown man is perhaps Zeus or Priam. Turning the compass clockwise, Athena is depicted, holding a spear in one hand and her helmet in the other, talking to Hera. The latter holds a royal scepter, as the mother and breath of the gods. Then Aphrodite converses with her son, the winged love with the beautiful ethereal rendering of wings. Below EROS the inscription: “O PAIS KALOS” (The young man is handsome).

[The well-known charming myth of the crisis of Paris, which gave rise to your famous Trojan War, is well known. But you can “refresh” its occasions, as well as the faces that appear on the compass]: Zeus, the king of the gods, gave a banquet for the marriage of the sea nymph Thetis with the mortal Peleus (by whom she gave birth to Achilles). Eris, goddess of discord, was uninvited. Angered by this “blockage”, she caused trouble at the feast when she threw a golden apple (the Apple of Strife), on which was the inscription “the beauty” (for the most beautiful). Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. They asked Zeus to judge which of them was more beautiful. Zeus, unwilling to favor any claim himself, decided that the mortal Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, would judge. Led by Hermes, the three candidate goddesses appeared before Paris (by teleportation) on Mount Ida of the Troas. Each of them tried with their powers to bribe the handsome but carefree king, who had been removed from the city to graze flocks, because they had bad omens. Hera proposed to him to make him king of Europe and Asia, Athena would offer him wisdom and skill in war and Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris accepted Aphrodite’s gift and awarded her the apple, taking with Helen the enmity of the Achaeans. The mission of the Achaeans to Troy, to recapture Helen from Paris, is the mythological basis of the Trojan War. Later in the war, Paris will fatally wound Achilles in the heel with an arrow, as Achilles’ mother Thetis, who tried unsuccessfully to prevent him from going to war, had fearfully predicted…

The beautiful helen

. Paris prepared a fast boat and left for Sparta. He arrived at Menelaus’ palace bearing rich gifts. There everyone welcomed him and hosted him, as befits the king of Troy. However, Paris, with the help of Aphrodite, outwitted Helen and convinced her to follow him. And one day when Menelaus was away, they left for Troy.The abduction of Helen by Paris. Among them is the winged god Eros.
From an ancient Greek vase.

When Menelaus heard the news, that Paris took Helen from him, and he wanted to take revenge on him and bring her back, he left Crete and went straight to Mycenae to his brother Agamemnon. Then, together with the wise Nestor the king of Pylos, they decided to send an invitation to all the kings and heroes in every part of Greece, to take part in this campaign which was a matter of honor. The rapist had to be punished, or no one could henceforth be sure of his wife, when the sacred institutions of hospitality were thus violated. It was therefore necessary for everyone to consider the insult that Paris did to Menelaus as personal. However, the fates and the oracles of the oracles played their role here as well: those who knew their destiny, hardly decided to follow the campaign. Odysseus, the resourceful and brave son of Laertes and king of Ithaca, knew from then on that it would be twenty years before he would see his people again, so he pretended to be mad when Agamemnon and Palamedes went to call him. He was newly married and had just had a son, Telemachus. So, dressed funny and acting crazy they found him plowing his field. The cunning Palamedes revealed his pretense by placing the young Telemachus before the plough, Naturally, Odysseus did not step over the child’s body, but stopped ploughing. There went the old Nestor, the king of Pylos, Idomeneus from Crete, Aeandas from Salamis, the other Aeandas from Locris, Diomedes from Argos, Philoctetes, the friend of Herakles, from Magnesia, the Odysseus from Ithaca and Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis from Phthia with his friend Patroclus and the brave Myrmidons. They chose Agamemnon as their leader.

*******’*************T H E T R O J A N S = OI Τ Ρ Ω Ε Σ

The fortress of Troy was located on the Ida mountain, beyond the Hellespont.

IT WAS BUILT BY THE COURITES, FROM CREATAE 5000BC..
BUT THE LEGACY IS SAYING, THAT Poseidon and Apollo had built it for Laomedon. At the time when the events that will be mentioned next took place, Laomedon’s son Priam, who had Hekabe as his wife, reigned in Troy. Priam was originally called Podarkis (good-footed) and was the brother of Isione who had followed Telamon to Salamis, married him and gave birth to Teucros and Aedes who both took part in the Trojan War. Achaeans and Trojans seem to have been members NOT only of the SAME branch of Greeks race (same language, religion and customs) BUT ALSO THE SAME FAMILY In the fortress of Troy Priam raised a royal family with so many children that no other like it is mentioned. He gave birth to fifty sons, besides daughters. The first-born was Hector, followed by Paris, Diiphobus, Helen, Polydoros, Troilus, etc. Of the daughters, the most famous are Kreusa, Laodiki, Polyxeni and Cassandra who had fortune-telling abilities.

Troy, the hero who gave his name to the Trojan people, is the son of Erichthonius, the grandson of Dardanus, and his mother was Astyochus. He married Callirroi, daughter of Scamandros and had a daughter Cleopatra (the name Cleopatra is Greek) and three sons: Ilos who founded the citadel of Ilium, Assarakos and Ganymede whom Zeus loved.

.Priam had originally married Arisbe from whom he had fathered Aesacus. He then abandoned her and proceeded to marry Hekavi. Hekabi was extremely fertile. Although ancient writers do not agree on the number of children she bore, the family she raised with Priam was very large.Hector, King Priam and Queen Hecuba – Trojan War – Red Figure AmphoraPriam had originally married Arisbe from whom he had fathered Aesacus. He then abandoned her and proceeded to marry Hekavi. Hekabi was extremely fertile. Although ancient writers do not agree on the number of children she bore, the family she raised with Priam was very large.

Opposite page: Peleus assigns the Centaur Chiron to educate the young Achilles. (Black-figure lekythos around 500 BC, Athens, Archaeological Museum).

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Sitting on their throne, Priam and Hecabe accept with lively gestures the sad news of the murder of their son Troilus. (Clazomenian hydria shell, around 540 BC, Athens, Archaeological Museum)
Paris and Helen of Menelaus

Agamemnon, The king of Mycenae, had married Clytemnestra and Menelaus had married Helen. Menelaus reigned in Sparta and there he received Paris and his entourage when he visited, bringing with him rich gifts. When Paris saw Helen, he was dazzled by her beauty. Menelaus honored the foreign king according to the customs of hospitality, but on the tenth day he was forced to leave for Crete. Then Paris found the opportunity and approached Helen who could not resist the power of Aphrodite. So she accepted the treasures that Paris gave her and followed him at night. The couple left secretly and arrived in Troy where their wedding was celebrated. Then Iris, the messenger of the gods, brought the news to Menelaus who was in Crete.

Helen and Paris in a design by the French Nadar.

The Achaean campaign in Troy Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world at that time was desired by all the princes of Greece. Tyndareus, her father, had a hard time deciding. Then, according to Odysseus’ idea, Tyndareus decided to bind all prospective grooms with an oath, that they would accept the election of Helen herself and that they would rush to help if the honor of the husband happened to be threatened. This oath was invoked by the Atreides in requesting the participation of so many heroes in the campaign. On the subject of Helen the Fair, Euripides wrote in 412 BC. the tragedy “Helen”. The Italian neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova created the “Helen of Troy” statue.

But also the brave Achilles, the greatest figure of this war, was sent by his mother to hide in the palace of the king of Skyros, Lycomedes, dressed as a woman, among his cousins. This was revealed by the trick of Odysseus, who went with women’s dresses and ornaments to the palace, gifts for the king’s daughters among whom were hidden a spear and a shield. As Odysseus showed the lyuses to the maidens, he caused the war trumpet to sound the sound of battle. Then Achilles, unrestrained, grabbed the weapons he had been wandering around before and prepared for an attack. This is how the expeditionary force was revealed and followed to Avlida. It took ten years for the flower of valor and martial art to be concentrated in the port of Avlida at that time. Among the heroes were the king of Pylos the wise Nestor, Diomedes the hero of Aetolia, Aedas the son of Telamon, Aedas the Locros, Idas, the king of Crete Idomeneas and others.

Achilles prepares for the great Trojan campaign: he wears his shins and Thetis holds his spear and shield. (Black-figure plaque, 560 BC, Athens, Archaeological Museum).

Hephaestus, who made Achilles’ weapons, gives them to Thetis.

A sign of the goddess’s favor, was sacrificed amid the cheers of the troops. Immediately the winds blew the sails of the ships and the Greek fleet set sail from Avlida bound for Troy to wash away Helen’s shame.

Menelaus against Paris. Paris, Louvre

Trojan War – Iliad

The Achaeans, faithful to their religion and traditions, made a sacrifice before the start of the Trojan war so that the gods would reveal signs about the future and its outcome. During the sacrifice, a snake was presented whose spine was red as blood. This snake came out of the altar and climbed the plane tree that was nearby. On the highest branch was a sparrow with her young. The snake swallowed the eight sparrows in turn and then their mother. Once he had swallowed all nine birds, he was turned into stone, by Zeus. The seer Calchus interpreted this unnatural event as follows: the siege of Troy would last nine years and in the tenth it would fall.

Troy or Ilion was the site of these deadly battles, protected by Apollo with the silver bow. The first dead of the war was Protesilaus, on the side of the Achaeans, to whom they erected a monument and honored him. The goddesses Athena and Hera helped the Achaean troops. In Homer’s epic, the Iliad, many of the events that took place in the Trojan War are mentioned. The most important of these have as their protagonist the brave Achilles whose fame of exploits has spread far and wide.

Protesilaos, the first casualty of the Trojan War, was a Thessalian and indeed one of Helen’s potential suitors. He took part in the war with a fleet of forty ships. While jumping off the ship, he was struck by Hector.

ACHILEUS and AJAX.-NEPHEW OF PRIAM) Two heroes with a lot in common, in morals, bravery and mental cultivation. The great Heracles once passed through the kingdom of Telamon and begged Zeus to make invulnerable the new-born AJAX he had wrapped with his lioness. AJAX indeed became invulnerable except for the shoulder, the ribs and the armpit, that is, the points corresponding to those covered by the quiver on the body of Hercules.

Zeus was warned of a prophecy that Thetis would have a son who would grow up to be greater than his father. Worried by this, Zeus arranged for Thetis to marry a mortal man so that her child couldn’t challenge his power. In another version of the story, Thetis rejects Zeus’s advances and a furious Zeus decrees that she will never marry a god. Either way, Thetis ends up married to the mortal Peleus and Achilles is born.
Standing figure of woman with man and lion either side pressing against her
Terracotta relief showing Peleus and Thetis, c. 490–470 BC. Thetis tries to resist marriage to Peleus by transforming her body into powerful elements such as fire and wild beasts, here a lion

Thetis attempts to make the baby Achilles immortal, by dipping him in the River Styx (the river that runs through the underworld), while holding him by his heel. The one part of his body left untouched by the waters becomes his only point of weakness, hence the phrase ‘Achilles heel.

The learned centaur Chiron instructs the boy Achilles in the playing of the lyre. He rests upon his equine haunch and wears an animal-skin cloak and wreath of laurel.

Achilles and Ajax Playing a Board Game
540-530 BCE.
Terracotta amphora. Height 2 feet
(Musei Vaticani, Rome). ARCHAIC BLACK-FIGURE POTTERY
Exekias
Achilles and Ajax Playing a Board Game
540-530 BCE.
Terracotta amphora. Height 2 feet
(Musei Vaticani, Rome)
An example of black-figure painting is Achilles and Ajax Playing a Board Game on an amphora signed by Exekias as both potter and painter (at left is written: Exekias epoiesen = ΕΞΕΚΊΑΣ ΕΠΟΊΗΣΕΝ =
“Exekias made [me or it].” At right is also written, less relevantly, O Netorides kalos = Ο ΝΕΤΟΡIΔHΣ ΚΑΛΟΣ =
“Onetorides is beautiful”).
The central image is a narrative scene, with geometric patterns subsumed into border devices. In the panel framed by a lustrous black “glaze,” Ajax (Aiantos = “of Ajax [Aias]”) and Achilles (Akhileos = “of Akhilleus”) are depicted playing a board game during a lull in the Trojan War. In a symmetrical and deceptively tranquil scene, the Homeric heroes bend over a table and call out the scores of the game (which are written before their lips – tesara = 4, for Achilles, tria = 3, for Ajax) 

Achilles prepares for the great Trojan campaign: he wears his shins and Thetis holds his spear and shield. (Black-figure plaque, 560 BC, Athens, Archaeological Museum).

Hephaestus, who made Achilles’ weapons, gives them to Thetis. a doe, a sign of the goddess’s favor, was sacrificed amid the cheers of the troops. Immediately the winds blew the sails of the ships and the Greek fleet set sail from Avlida bound for Troy to wash away Helen’s shame.

The father Peleus advises his son, Achilles,
as he leaves for war.

“Aien exceletuein…”, that is,
“always be first and surpass all in battle”.

Peleus, because Achilles was still very young, sent with him and his teacher, the Phoenix, to advise him:

“Be able in words and worthy in deeds” /Homer, Iliad

Achilles.From an ancient Greekvase.

And the gods looked on from Olympus. Poseidon, Hera, Athena were with the Achaeans. Ares,

Aphrodite, Apollo with the Trojans. And Zeus sometimes with the Achaeans and sometimes with the Trojans.
In the last year of the war, when food was scarce and the army was starving, Agamemnon sent a ship to bring the Oenotropics to Troy. They, however, leaving Delos, begged the god Dionysus to help them. And Dionysus turned them into doves and they flew away and returned to DELOS

 The father of the Oinotropes, Anios.
From an ancient Greek vase.

 The Achaeans reach Troy
Traveling to Troy, the Achaeans passed through Delos. There, in the temple of Apollo, Anios was a priest who had three daughters, the Oinotropes. The soil that Spermo touched became wheat. The soil touched by Oino became wine and the soil touched by Elaida became oil. Anius, who was also a soothsayer, told the Achaeans that in ten years they would take Troy and invited them to stay nine years in Delos and in the tenth year to go to Troy. However, they did not accept.
So the Achaeans left Delos and in a few days they reached Troy. There reigned Priam and Hecabe who had fifty sons and many daughters. One of their daughters was Cassandra who was a fortune teller. However, Apollo had punished her and no one believed her words.
The Trojans, seeing the countless ships of the Achaeans, took their weapons and ran to the shore to fight them. Their leader was Priam’s eldest son, Hector, the brother of Paris. None of the Achaeans dared to set foot on land. Thetis had told them that the first one to set foot on Troy’s soil would fall dead. Then Odysseus threw his shield on the land and with one leap stood on it. Fooled by his trick, Protesilaos jumped second and stepped on the ground. And immediately he fell dead from Hector’s pole. Then began a terrible battle. The Trojans were defeated and shut up in the city walls. The Achaeans pulled their ships ashore and made a camp which they closed with a wooden wall, because they understood that it would take a long time before they could conquer Troy. The anger of Achilles
For nine years the Achaeans fought in Troy, but Priam’s castle was unoccupied and the Trojans, led by Hector, defended it bravely. In the tenth year , however, Achilles and Agamemnon quarreled over two beautiful slaves, Chrysis and Briseis. This brought many calamities to the Achaeans. Chrysis was Agamemnon’s slave . Chrysis`s father, who was a priest of Apollo, came supplicating to the Achaean camp, bearing rich gifts, the golden rod and the god’s sacred wreaths. He fell at Agamemnon’s feet and begged him to give Chrysis back to him. Agamemnon did not respect the old man and angrily kicked him out. Chrysis then begged Apollo to punish the Achaeans severely. Apollo heard him from Olympus and immediately took his bow and went to the camp of the Achaeans . He sat aside and, unseen, he shot animals and people with his arrows. Then a terrible disease fell among them and the Achaeans died, one after the other.

. Apollo shoots his arrows. From an ancient Greek vase.

The evil lasted nine days . On the tenth day the kings asked the soothsayer Calchas to tell them why such calamity befell them. He said that Apollo was angry because Agamemnon did not respect Chrysis. To stop the evil, Agamemnon sent Chryseis back to her father. However,Chrysis, her father, who was a priest of Apollo, came supplicating to the Achaean camp, bearing rich gifts, the golden rod and the god’s sacred wreaths. He fell at Agamemnon’s feet and begged him to give Chryseis back to him. Agamemnon did not respect the old man and angrily kicked him out. Chrysis then begged Apollo to punish the Achaeans severely. Apollo heard him from Olympus and immediately took his bow and went to the camp of the Achaeans . He sat aside and, unseen, he shot animals and people with his arrows. Then a terrible disease fell among them and the Achaeans died, one after the other he ordered Achilles’ slave, Briseis, to be brought to his tent. Achilles became very angry, hatred and rage filled his soul. He wanted to kill Agamemnon for insulting him, but the goddess Athena ran and restrained him. However, embittered, he closed himself in his tent and swore never to fight again.

Chrysis leaves Achilles’ tent to surrender to Agamemnon.
The seated figure on the right is Achilles. From an ancient Greek vase.

The death of Patroclus Achilles was no longer fighting and the Trojans took courage. Fierce battles took place outside Troy’s walls and countless Achaeans fell dead. Desperate then, Agamemnon sent to Achilles the old Phoenicus, Achilles’ teacher, Aiades, the strongest warrior of the Achaeans, and the versatile Odysseus, to beg him to return to the battle and would give him back Brisida and countless gifts. But Achilles did not accept and said that he would fight only if the Trojans reached his ships. The fighting continued more fiercely. The Trojans chased the Achaeans to their camp. Hector smashed the wooden gate of the camp with a huge stone and the Trojans rushed in and set fire to a ship. The Achaeans were saved by Aedas, who wounded Hector and the battle stopped for a while. Seeing the suffering of the Achaeans, Patroclus went to his friend Achilles. “Achilles,” he said to him, “the Trojans are burning our ships. Since you do not fight, they fear no one. Give me your armour, your chariot with your immortal horses and your brave Myrmidons, that I may fight in your place.’ Achilles agreed and advised him to drive the Trojans out of the camp and turn back.

Patroclus rushed with the brave Myrmidons into battle. The Trojans, whethey saw him, thought it was Achilles and ran away towards Troy.  Achilles tends tthe wounded Patroclus.
From an ancient Greek vase.

Patroclus forgot Achilles’ advice and chased the Trojans to the walls of Troy. But Hector met him there, he went close and they started to fight.
Then Apollo struck Patroclus on the back. He fell down and Hector killed him and took Achilles’ divine weapons from him.
There was a fight around the dead body. The immortal horses of Achilles, Xanthus and Valios, which Poseidon had given him, as if they saw Patroklos dead, bowed their heads and wet the earth with their tears. The Achaeans took the dead Patroclus and brought him to the ships. Achilles, seeing his friend dead, burst into lamentation. His mother Thetis heard him and came out of the sea to comfort him. And she herself went to Olympus and brought him new armor, which Hephaestus had made for him.

The Lament of Achilles
The news of Patroclus’ death was brought to Achilles by Nestor’s son, Antilochus.”Patroklos has fallen, and his turn for the dead is beaten,naked, because Hector has taken his chariots!”.
On hearing this, Achilles’ pain bursts forth wildly: without hesitation the hero pours black ash on his head with both hands, and then, with his beautiful face strained, his divine robe soiled, he falls and lies on the ground, pulling and tearing out his hair. For fear, lest in his despair he draw his sword and be killed, Antilochus is forced to hold his hands. Achilles does not speak, only moans loudly. Homer, Iliad S 20-35

The shield of Achilles
Hephaestus puts all his art into making Achilles’ new armor. But mostly he worked on the round shield. In the picture we see him handing it over to Thetis. He puts first the earth, the sea and the sky with the sun, the moon and all the stars. And then he starts drawing two states side by side. In the first, people have peace. They marry their children with songs and joys and settle their differences with judges. In the other state they have a war. Inside the city the women, children and old men have stayed, while outside the walls two armies have fallen into battle. The wounded and the dead lie all around. So Hephaestus tells the story of the joys of peace and the miseries of war. Then he puts the farmers plowing their fields, the laborers harvesting with sickles, he puts vines laden with grapes and people who harvested them while singing, he puts shepherds tending their flocks , features dancing boys and girls with flowers in their hair. And all around he makes the vast Ocean sparkle. And when he is done, he stands to look at her. He knows that if people notice the beauty of the shield, they will no longer want to fight. They will want to dance and sing, plow their fields, harvest their vines and tend their flocks. They will want to live in peace. And this shield of Achilles is the first, the only weapon ever made that invites not war but peace.

Rage and despair together filled the heart of Achilles after the death of Patroclus and he wanted to take revenge on Hector, who killed his fraternal friend. The next day he put on his new armor, harnessed his immortal horses to his chariot, and with his Myrmidons went to war.
I

 Hector bids farewell to Andromache and Astyanaktas.
From an ancient Greek vase.

Inside the castle of Troy, Hector said goodbye to Andromache, his wife, took in his arms for the last time his little son, Astyanactus, and he too went out to fight. The Trojans were outside their walls ready for battle. However, seeing Achilles arriving, they were frightened. Half ran inside the walls to save themselves and the other half ran to the plain. Achilles chased them and a fierce battle ensued. The Trojans fell dead one after the other. Priam, who was watching the battle from the walls, ordered and the gates were opened for the army to enter to save itself. Only the brave Hector did not shut himself up in the walls, but remained to face the enemy. Priam and Hecabe, his mother, and the beautiful Andromachi high above the walls. At some point Achilles saw him and rushed at him like a beast. Hector lost it and started running. Three times he ran around the city and Achilles chased him. At last Hector stopped running and stood to face him. Achilles rushed at him and the fight began.
They fought hard, for both were brave lads. Finally, Achilles struck Hector in the neck with his pole and threw him to the ground. Troy’s bravest warrior was now dead. High from the walls the Trojans looked and mourned. But Priam and Hecabe, his mother, and the beautiful Andromache mourned more.

Achilles-Hector duel. From an ancient Greek vase

Immediately Achilles took the dead man’s weapons, tied his legs with leather straps from the chariot and let his head drag on the ground. Then he struck his horses and they galloped towards the ships, dragging the dead Hector with them.
The next day the Achaeans burned the dead Patroclus. Achilles cut his long hair and put it in Patroclus’ hands, to be burned with him. He washed his bones with wine and placed them in a golden vessel, which his mother Thetis had given him.
The dead Hector remained unburied for eleven days, until Priam went to Achilles, fell at his feet and begged him to give him the body of his child to bury. Achilles was moved. He ordered the dead body to be washed and adorned, and gave it to the old king, to be taken to Troy. And he ordered the war to cease for eleven days, so that the Trojans could mourn and burn the dead, as was their custom.

Priam comes bearing gifts to Achilles’ tent and begs him. From an ancient Achaean vase.

Parents’ dreams for their children
Hector, before clashing with Achilles, enters the castle of Troy and bids farewell to his family. There he meets his wife Andromache and his young son Astyanaktas.As soon as he opened his arms to his son, the little one was frightened by the weapons and helmet and pulled away. Then Hector and Andromache laughed. He took off the brilliant helmet and laid it on the ground.
He then took the son, kissed him, danced with him in his arms,
and so he prayed to Zeus and to the other gods:
“Father Zeus and you other gods, give this one,
my son, as I shine among the Trojans to become
a strong man, and to rule Troy with great power.
and one should say: “much better than this one’s parent,”
as if he were returning from the war with bloody spoils of
an enemy he had killed, and his mother would be deeply rejoicing.”/ Homer, Iliad G 474-481,

Games to honor Patroklos
Achilles, after the burial of Patroklos, organizes games to honor his dead friend. The competitions are many: chariot racing, boxing, wrestling, road, armed combat, discus, archery, javelin. All the Achaean lads took part in the games and won great prizes from the hands of Achilles. Spectators participate by shouting and placing bets. In the last race, Achilles gives Agamemnon the first prize without letting him compete, since everyone knew that he was the first among the Greeks both in strength and in chariots. Thus the two rivals reconcile, after the destruction caused by their conflict. Patroclus was honored like no other hero. Everyone will remember his power and want to be like him. This was also the purpose of the epitaph matches.// Homer, Iliad Ps 258-897 (adaptation).

Winners and losers cry together
And as both of them remembered their pain, Priam wept the manly Hector, huddled before Achilles’ feet, and Achilles wept with his father and Patroclus, and the lamentations echoed all around.

Homer, Iliad Ω 509-512 (free translation by G. Economides).

The end of Achilles
After Hector’s burial , the war outside Troy’s walls resumed. Achilles killed the Trojan warriors one after another. One day, however, when he was outside the Shadow Gates, the largest gate of the castle of Troy, Apollo saw him and advised Paris to shoot him with his arrows in his right heel. His
mother , Thetis, when he was young, had made him immortal by immersing him in the enchanted waters of Lake Styx. However, his right heel was not wet, because it was holding him back from there. So Paris marked Achilles and stuck a medicated arrow in his right heel. Groaning, the hero knelt on the ground. With pained cries he tried to pull the arrow from his heel. After a while he collapsed dead. A fierce battle took place around his dead body . The Trojans were fighting to take him. However, Odysseus and Aedas grabbed him and brought him to the ships. All the Achaeans mourned the loss of the hero. Suddenly there was a terrible roar from the sea and out of the waves came Thetis and the Nereids, her sisters. They all stood around the dead body. For seventeen days they cried and cursed him. Then they burned his body, put his bones in the same pot as those of Patroclus, and, to honor him, held games. After a few days Paris was also killed. He was killed by Philoctetes with one of the poisoned arrows that Herakles had given him.

 The death of Achilles.
Modern sculpture.

ACHILLES AT THE COURT OF KING LYCOMEDES (rear end panel of sarcophagus).
MARBLE. Ca 240 CE.
Inv. No. Ma 2120.
PARIS, LOUVRE MUSEUM .
PRIVATE COLLECTION, BORGHESE.
ORIGIN: BY ATHENIAN ATHENODOROS.
*** ROME./ FROM ATHENS WORKSHOP.
THE SARCOPHAGI HAD BEEN SAW ED UP TO FOUR PLATS WHICH WERE INSTALLED INTO THE FACADE OF VILLA BORGHESE. THE PLATES HAD BEEN MOVED TO THE LOUVRE, WHERE THE SARCOPHAGOS WAS RECONSTITUTED IN INTEGRITY .

Data: museum annotation

Burial customs
They wash the dead body, anoint it with oil, wrap it in a white sheet and decorate it. He is laid on the funeral bed and mourned by relatives and friends. Close friends and relatives cut their hair to show their mourning. They raise a wooden structure from logs and dry branches. They place the deceased on top with many of his personal items (kterismas). After the fire is lit and burns people, slaughtered animals and objects, they put it out and carefully collect the bones of the deceased. They wash them, place them in a vase and finally raise a mound of earth and stones covering all the remains. In the end they all eat together. Homer, Iliad (adaptation

Achaeans despaired. They did not believe that they would succeed in conquering Troy. Then Odysseus, the resourceful, thought that Troy would not fall by arms but by cunning. So he advised the Achaeans to make a large wooden horse, hollow inside, the Trojan horse. So the Achaeans
made it and wrote on it: “Gift of the Achaeans to Athena”. And one dark night Odysseus, Menelaus, Diomedes, Neoptolemus, who was the son of Achilles, and some other brave Achaeans got into the horse. Agamemnon with the rest of the army, after burning the camp, got into the ships and went and hid behind Tenedos.
In the morning the Trojans, looking from the walls, could not believe their eyes. The Achaeans had left and left behind only a large wooden horse by the shore! So they came out of the walls, approached it and saw that it was a dedication to Athena. Many said that they had to raise it on the citadel of Troy, so that the goddess would protect them. Cassandra was unfair , shouting that Achaeans were hidden inside his belly. No one believed her. And a Trojan, Laocoondas, who was a priest of Apollo, said: ” “Fear the Achaeans even if they bring you gifts.“

Immediately two huge snakes sent by Poseidon came out of the sea and drowned Laocoon with his children.
Seeing this miracle, the Trojans were frightened and dragged the horse into the city. In order to enter, they also demolished a part of its walls. Then they ate, drank and feasted happily all day. At night they fell asleep tired from dancing and drinking.
At midnight the Achaeans emerged from the horse’s belly. They ran and lit fires high on the walls and opened the gates. Soon the army returned from Tenedo. All the Achaeans entered Troy, killed the warriors and took the children and women as slaves. Menelaus ran to Priam’s palace and took Helen back. Then they set fire and burned the city, not even respecting the temples of the gods.
In the morning they loaded their ships with booty and set off to return home.

 Laocoon and his two sons.
Ancient Greek sculpture.

NEOPTOLEMOS IS KILLING PRIAMOS

Neoptolemus was the son of the hero Achilles and the princess Deidamia .Achilles’ mother, the goddess Thetis, had foreseen that her son would die in a great war; afraid for him, she took him to the court of King Lycomedes at the island of Scyros, and disguised him as a woman. While there, Achilles had an affair with the princess Deidamia; from this union, Neoptolemus was born.

Helenus, a Trojan seer, was captured by the Achaeans and was forced to tell them that Troy would fall if the Achaeans acquired the arrows of Heracles and the Palladium, and if they also convinced Neoptolemus to join the war. After acquiring the two artifacts, the Achaeans sent Odysseus to get the young Neoptolemus, who eventually joined the war. During the Trojan War, Neoptolemus turned out to be a brutal person, who killed Priam, Eurypylus, Polites and Astyanax, among others; he also made Andromache his concubine. After the end of the war, Neoptolemus took Andromache and Helenus and went to Epirus, where he became the king. With Andromache, Neoptolemus had a son, Molossus.

When he attempted to take Hermione from Orestes; the latter killed him.

Scene from the tragedy Andromache by Euripides: Orestes kills Neoptolemus at the altar of Apollo in Delphi. Despairing Hermione, wife of Neoptolemus but previously promised to Orestes, kneels at the foot of the altar.Greek fresco in Pompeii

Upon returning to main land of West Greece, Orestes reclaimed the throne of his father, becoming the ruler of Mycenae. He died after being bitten by a snake in Arcadia.

AJAX(=ΑΙΑΣ) CARRYING THE BODY OF ACHILLES. Amphora Vase Ancient Greek Pottery by EXEKIAS

From an ancient Greek vase.

How did the news of the destruction of Troy reach MycenaeWhen Troy fell to the Achaeans, Agamemnon notified Clytemnestra overnight. His men lit a great fire on the top of Ida, in Troy, and many fires, one after the other, carried the message from mountain to mountain to Mycenae:Ida -> Lemnos -> Athos -> Evia -> Kithairon -> Mycenae.

Aeschylus, Agamemnon, verses 280 – 316 (arrangement)So we see that the people of that time had discovered a very fast means of communication, sending their messages with fire. In the hills and mountains near the cities, there were specific people who were responsible for lighting the fires, in order to communicate.

5. The sufferings of warThe Trojan War, which had lasted ten whole years, was over. However, he left behind dead people, destroyed houses, widows and orphans. Like any war. The ancient poet Euripides in his work “Troades” talks about the suffering and pain that war brings to people:Queen Hekave and the captive Trojan women mourn what they have lost and worry about the suffering they have to endure hereafter. Cassandra becomes Agamemnon’s slave. Andromache falls into the hands of Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. Her son, Astyanaktas, was thrown from the walls of Troy, so that he would not seek revenge later.The poet does not miss the opportunity to emphasize the miseries that await the victors on the return journey. Because whoever destroys states and does not respect the temples of the gods, it will not be long before disaster strikes.

Euripides, Troas (arrangement)

THE GOLDEN MASK OF AGAMEMNON, THE KING OF MYCENAE: THE MASK OF AGAMEMNON IS AN ARTIFACT DISCOVERED IN MYCENAE IN 1876 BY THE GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN.
THIS MASK IS MADE OF GOLD AND IS A FUNERAL MASK FOUND OVER THE FACE OF A DEAD BODY IN A BURIAL PLACE AT MYCENAE. SCHLIEMANN THOUGHT, THAT THE BODY AND THE MASK ARE OF THE LEGENDARY KING AGAMEMNON.
THIS MASK IS CRAFTED OUT OF PURE GOLD AND SUCH MASKS WERE PUT ON THE FACE OF DECEASED KINGS AND ROYAL PEOPLE. AGAMEMNON WAS THE SON OF KING ATREUS OF MYCENAE AND QUEEN AEROPE. HE WAS THE LEADER OF THE ACHAEANS-DANAOI OF WEST GREEKS DURING THE CIVIL WAR WITH TROES (TROJANS), AS MYCENAE WAS THE MOST POWERFUL WEST GREEK TOWN AT THAT TIME. HE WAS ALSO THE BROTHER OF MEN ELAUS AND THE HUSBAND OF CLYTEMNESTRA. AGAMEMNON HAD THREE DAUGHTERS AND ONE SON . – (ONE OF HIS DAUGHTERS, IPHIGENIA, WAS THE PROTAGONIST IN EURIPIDES PLAY-DRAMA). WHEN AGAMEMNON RETURNED TO HIS KINGDOM, AFTER THE END OF THE TROJAN WAR, HE WAS MURDERED BY HIS WIFE CLYTEMNESTRA AND HER LOVER AEGISTHUS.

THE AUTHENTICITY OVER THIS MASK REMAIN TILL TODAY. THIS GOLDEN EXHIBIT IS CURRENTLY ON DISPLAY AT THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN ATHENS. IN SPITE OF ALL THE DOUBTS, THIS DISTINGUISHED MASK OF GOLD, WHICH IS ABOUT 12 INCHES IN HEIGHT IS STILL KNOWN, AS THE MASK OF AGAMEMNON AND IS ONE OF THE MOST PRIZED DISCOVERIES FROM THE ANCIENT MYCENAEAN AGES

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Electra, daughter of King Agamemnon, wants to avenge her father’s death. After his return from the Trojan War, he was murdered by his wife Klytaimnestra and her lover Aigisthos. Elektra is waiting for one day to get her revenge and for her brother Orestes, sent away to be raised elsewhere, to come home and help her.

IN THE ROYAL PALACE IN MYCENE
Clytaimnestra’s handmaidens talk about Elektra. They think she behaves frighteningly and dangerously. The youngest of them defends Elektra and the others beat her. Elektra becomes lonely. She remembers her father, relives the murder and imagines the rites of dance and blood sacrifice when the father is once avenged.

Her younger sister Chrysothemis warns her about the mother who wants to have Elektra thrown in prison. Chrysothemis can’t stand the confined life in the palace anymore. She wants to be human and woman. Alarms from inside the house announce the arrival of Klytaimnestra. Elektra wants to talk to her.

Clytaimnestra is tormented by dreams. She asks Elektra for advice. Klytaimnestra’s confidants warn her about her daughter. Elektra, first introduces herself and speaks kindly to the mother. Finally, she loses control and declares that the only cure for the anxiety dreams is the death of Klytaimnestra. Then someone whispers a message to Klytaimnestra. Her death throes turn into triumph.

Chrysothemis returns and tells her that two strangers have come with the message that Orestes is dead. Elektra can’t believe it at first. A servant sets off to break the news to Aigisthos. Elektra realizes that she must complete the revenge herself and tries to convince her sister to kill Klytaimnestra and Aigisthos with her that same night. But she fails to break Chrysothemi’s resistance. Elektra has hidden away the ax with which her father was murdered. Now she picks it up.

Shortly thereafter, a stranger arrives. He tells of the death of Orestes – but it is Orestes himself. The siblings recognize each other; he has come to Mycenae to avenge his father’s death. Orestes’ companions remind that Klytaimnestra is waiting for them in the palace. Orestes enters. Elektra breathlessly follows the events from outside. Klytaimnestra’s death scream is heard.

Orestes was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra , who was hunted by the Erinyes after he killed his mother.

The story of Orestes is the main topic of various ancient Greek plays. After the Trojan War, Orestes’ father, Agamemnon, returned to Mycenae (or Argos), along with his prize, the Trojan princess Cassandra. Cassandra had the gift of foretelling the future, but was also cursed not to be believed by anyone. Despite Cassandra’s warnings about what was about to happen, Agamemnon entered his palace, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, who was Agamemnon’s cousin. Orestes, a young boy at the time, was not present at the palace, but had run away with his sister Electra and found refuge at the court of Athens.

When Orestes became an adult, he was urged by his sister and the god Apollo to avenge their father’s death; Orestes, assisted by his friend Pylades, returned to the city, and murdered his mother and her lover. However, committing matricide was a horrible act that brought the fury of the Erinyes upon him. He was driven mad and was pursued by them.

Orestes sought refuge at the temple of Apollo, but even the god was powerless to stop the Erinyes. In the end, Athena accepted his pleas and organised a formal trial to be held before twelve judges. The Erinyes asked that the perpetrator be punished, while Orestes said that he followed Apollo’s orders. When the judges voted, the result was a tie; however, Athena’s vote, who was the chief justice, broke ties, leading to Orestes’ acquittal. Grateful, Orestes dedicated an altar to Athena, while the Erinyes were appeased by getting a new ritual, during which they were worshipped as the Venerable Ones.

According to a different source, while Orestes was still pursued by the Erinyes, Apollo told him to go to the land of Tauris and bring back a statue of Artemis, which had fallen from the sky. Orestes agreed and went to Tauris, accompanied by his friend Pylades. There, they were captured by the cult of Artemis, who was told to sacrifice all Greeks to the goddess. When the priestess of Artemis heard that two Greeks had been captured, she offered to help one of them escape if they would agree to carry a letter to her brother; Orestes demanded that Pylades should go, while Orestes would stay behind to be slain. Pylades reluctantly agreed, but when he received the letter, he realised who the priestess really was. All three of them eventually escaped, carrying with them the statue of Artemis. Aegisthus being murdered by Orestes and Pylades – The Louvre

Aigisthos arrives and meets Elektra outside the palace gate. Elektra’s terrifying supervision and unexpected kindness scares him. On his way in, he is murdered by Orestes.

Chrysothemis joyfully recounts the battle between Aigisthos’s friends and those who sided with Orestes. The brother has won. Elektra has achieved her goal in life. Vengeance has been exacted. She begins her ritual dance and sinks dead to the ground.

Alexander the Great laid the foundations for scientific mapping. A pioneer explorer, who laid the foundations of scientific mapping, was Alexander the Great. With his campaign in the East, he inspired his contemporaries and later cartographers to record in detail the areas through which he passed. The cartographic and exploratory work of the army of Alexander the Great and his descendants was studied by 15th century explorers, who sought to discover new worlds. Savvas Demertzis, a map collector and historian, spoke about its importance at an event at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. “Alexander the Great’s campaign not only had a military dimension, but also included an important task of searching for and recording new information. “The Macedonian king arrived in unknown countries at that time and played a very decisive role in their mapping,” Savvas Demertzis told “Demokratia” during the event. Teachings The contribution of Alexander the Great to cartography comes from Aristotle, who taught him to love knowledge. In his campaign he was accompanied by Eumenes, also a student of Aristotle, who was the first person to make real geographical measurements with the help of the body of “walkers”, which he recommended. “These were educated young people, who with a special technical regulation of breathing walked a lot of kilometers and so Eumenes calculated the distances” explains Mr. Demertzis. Eumenes mapped the areas where Alexander the Great arrived, while his work was continued by descendants of the Macedonian mercenary. The Seleucid and Egyptian contributions were important in the mapping, as they bordered areas that were unexplored. An additional important role in the development of cartography was played by the creation of large libraries in Alexandria, Antioch, Pergamon and Pella. “15th century explorers studied maps of the descendants of Alexander the Great, who had mapped areas beyond India and Africa. They helped them in their exploratory work and so they reached America “, adds Mr. Demertzis. No maps have survived from the time of Alexander the Great. They were destroyed when the library of Alexandria burned down. However, there are copies that give important information about the exploratory work of the great recruiter.

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The François Tomb of Vulci: from the graphic documentation of the Fondo des Vergers at the Gambalunga Library to the pictorial decorations at the library of the Villa des Vergers. The des Vergers Collection is rich in drawings, tracings, engravings of wall paintings, as well as vases, bronzes and jewellery, brought to light by the excavations carried out by the company founded by Adolphe Noël des Vergers and Alessandro François in 1850. In 1852 they were joined by des Vergers’ father-in-law, the editor Ambroise Firmin Didot. In April 1857, François discovered a tomb in Vulci, later named after him, the walls of which were decorated with an outstanding pictorial cycle. In the wake of this discovery des Vergers commissioned the drawings of the tomb’s frescoes and then published them in the Atlas of his monumental work L’Étrurie et les Étrusques ou dix ans de fouilles dans les Maremmes toscanes . In 1864 he purchased, on his father-in-law’s behalf, the full-scale tracings of François Tomb’s pictorial cycle, which were made in 1862 by Carlo Ruspi for the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco facsimile. Ruspi’s tracings turned out to be particularly important, both because they provided useful information that helped des Vergers with the description of the tables XXI-XXIX of the Atlas , but also because they were most likely used by the painter Augusto Aviano towards the end of the nineteenth century as a model for the ceiling decorations of the library of Villa des Vergers in San Lorenzo in Correggiano (Rimini).

Index terms

Keywords:

Adolphe Noël des Vergers , 

Alessandro François , 

Ambroise Firmin Didot , 

François-des Vergers-Firmin Didot excavation company , 

Vulci , 

François tomb , 

des Vergers Collection , 

Villa des Vergers , 

Rimini Gambalunga Library , 

Rimini Civic Museum

Keyword:

Adolphe Noël des Vergers , 

Alessandro François , 

Ambroise Firmin Didot , 

François-des Vergers-Firmin Didot excavation company , 

Vulci , 

François Tomb , 

Des Vergers Fund , 

Villa des Vergers , 

Gambalunga Library of Rimini , 

Municipal Museum of Rimini

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• 1 On des Vergers see Firmin Didot – Beulé [1867]; Scott de Martinville 1867; Albini 1930; Copies 1 (…)
• 2 On the versatile figure of Ambroise Firmin Didot see Werdet 1864, p. 32-45; Mollier 1988, p. 81-10 (…)
• 3 On the Villa des Vergers at the time of Adolphe see Mussoni 2011, p. 13-28.
• 4 On the Fondo des Vergers see Delbianco 1996; Delbianco 2014b, p. 22-45; Delbianco 2014c.
• 5 BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 11, s. fascicle 8, n. 3-4: Delbianco 2014c, p. 201 sq.
• 6 On François see Conestabile 1858; Pelagatti 1960; Bruni 2011, p. 50-51, notes 5-6.
• 7 Bruni 2011, p. 19-65; 97  sq. , notes 1-17.

1Adolphe Noël des Vergers (Paris 1804 – Nice 1867), an eclectic scholar with interests in orientalist studies, geography and archaeology 1 , son-in-law of the Parisian publisher Ambroise Firmin Didot (Paris 1790-1876), himself an antiquarian, bibliophile and collector 2 , in 1843 purchased the villa of San Lorenzo in Correggiano (Rimini, Papal State) 3 from the Belmontis , making it the Italian base for studies and government missions systematically documented by the materials of the Fondo des Vergers 4 , acquired by the Gambalunga Library of Rimini in 1934 upon the death of des Vergers’ daughter, the Marquise Hélène de Toulongeon (1843-1934). Des Vergers’ interests in Etruscan history date back to a very early period: in 1838, during a trip to Italy, he visited the excavations on Monte Falterona (1838-1839), which brought to light one of the richest votive offerings in the Etruscan world in the site later called the “Lago degli Idoli”. 5 In 1850 he set up an excavation company in the Tuscan Maremma with the already famous excavator Alessandro François (Florence 1796 – Livorno 1857), Royal Commissioner of War and Navy of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany at Livorno 6 , who, with the aim of opening a National Etruscan Museum in Florence with his own collection 7 , carried out excavation work during the leaves periodically granted by the Ministry. The company expanded in December 1852 with the entry of Didot and continued until 1857, the year of François’ death.

• 8 The correspondence exchanged between François and des Vergers, which will be cited with the acronym BGR AdV without the (…)
• 9 On Migliarini see Nieri 1929, 1930; On the Heyde 2003.
• 10 BGR AdV, Report , [1852 post Sept. 14]: Delbianco 2014c, p. 180, n. 40.
• 11 On the Giulietti family, and in particular on Vincenzo, see Barni – Paolucci 1985, p. 28.
• 12 Paolucci 2007, p. 29-38: Francesco Bonci Casuccini (1781-1857); p. 39-47: Ottavio (1819-1886), fig (…)
• 13 On François’ excavations in the grounds of the Mensa Vescovile in Chiusi see Paolucci 2014a, p. 27-35.
• 14 Barni – Paolucci 1985, p. 17; Tailors 2001, p. 29.
• 15 Franceschi, on whom see Marzi Costagli (1984), is also mentioned in BGR AdV, Note of the spe (…)
• 16 Augusto Volpini 1912; Comanducci [1945], II, p. 898.

2The extensive correspondence that François exchanged with his partner des Vergers 8 allows us to follow this second activity step by step before, during and after the excavations, when he took care of having the finds restored and drawn, of regularly sending the drawings and transparencies to his partner in Paris, of having the appraisal and inventories of the materials carried out by Arcangelo Michele Migliarini (1779-1865), curator of the Antiquities of the Uffizi Galleries since 1841 9 . In his letters he tends to gloss over the names of the estates (and their owners) in which he worked in the various Etruscan centres, with the exception of the Statement of expenses incurred by the François-des Vergers excavation company from 5 February 1850 to 24 September 1852 10 , where he mentions both the owners of the estates (Vincenzo Giulietti 11 , Francesco and above all Ottavio Casuccini 12 , Agostino Pacchiarotti, the bishop Giovanni Battista Ciofi 13 , Vittoria Pallottaj widow Rosati), as well as the restorers (Vincenzo Monni, 14 Gian Gualberto Franceschi 15 ) and the painters/designers (Leopoldo Gori, Augusto Volpini 16 ) employed from time to time.

• 17 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 10.10.1852. On the first season of excavations in Vulci see François 1857a.
• 18 For the excavation activity in Vulci by Luciano and Alexandrine Bonaparte see Buranelli 1995.

3From 1850 to 1854 François conducted excavation campaigns in Belora di Riparbella (Pisa), S. Vincenzino di Cecina and Fitto di Cecina (Livorno), Chiusi, Chianciano, Volterra, Orbetello, Vulci. He excavated in Vulci in 1853, a year after Princess Alexandrine de Bleschamp, widow of Lucien Bonaparte, had granted him permission to excavate “perfectly halfway” in the lands of the principality of Canino. “A somewhat onerous condition” – he would admit with des Vergers – but which he had accepted willingly because he hoped to have the fortune of opening the “immense sepulchre” of Cuccumella, 17 succeeding in the enterprise that Bonaparte had failed to do 18 .

• 19 On Torlonia see Felisini 2004 and 2014; Monsagrati 2006.
• 20 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 20.02.1856.
• 21 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 03.24.1856, 04.10.1856, 06.27.1856. See Paolucci 2014a, p. 58-62.
• 22 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 10 and 23.10.1856; 18.11.1856.
• 23 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 18.11.1856; 12.02.1857.
• 24 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 17.02.1857.
• 25 François was retired from service by decree dated 04.03.1857: see BGR AdV, letter Livor (…)
• 26 BGR AdV, Canino letter 16 and 24.03.1857.
• 27 BGR AdV, Canino letter 19.03.1857.
• 28 BGR AdV, Canino letter 03.31.1857.
• 29 BGR AdV, Canino letter 5.04.1857, where the opening is scheduled for the following day. In reality it had the (…)

4Upon the death of Princess Alexandrine (1855), the former fief of Canino and Musignano was purchased by Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) 19 . Having entered into negotiations with François, the new owner in February 1856 authorised him to carry out the excavations of Cuccumella 20 , which took place with little success from 10 April to 11 May and were suspended at the end of the month’s leave granted to him by the Tuscan Government 21 . In October of the same year, the excavator signed a contract with Torlonia which allowed him to excavate in the prince’s properties in Canino and Cerveteri for the three-year period 1857-1859. 22 After having obtained assurances from his capitalist partners regarding the financing of the new archaeological research 23 , the research permit from the papal authorities 24 and his withdrawal from service by his Government 25 , on 16 March 1857 François began excavations in the necropolis of Ponte Rotto near the Fiora river with a team of fourteen workers and a corporal. In the meantime he began to think about organising the excavations in the necropolis of Cerveteri, which, at Torlonia’s request, would begin in November, at the end of the research at Cuccumella. 26 Already in the first few days he identified some hypogea, which rose to twenty after a week 27 , to forty at the end of the month 28 and to about sixty not even a week later. Their opening did not begin until 7 April, and was thus delayed because by contract a representative of Torlonia was to be present. François forewarns him in his letter to des Vergers two days earlier, where he renews his invitation to go to Vulci. 29 On 12 April he observes:

• 30 BGR AdV, Canino letter 12.04.1857.

I am absolutely certain that the hypogea I found were never visited by Prince Luciano or by other modern excavators, and those that I found to be such in my investigations I left behind; moreover there are two very new burial grounds discovered by me. 30

• 31 BGR AdV, letter Canino 19.04.1857, with transcription of the inscription of the cippus, published in Buranelli (…)
• 32 On the necropolis of Ponte Rotto see Moretti Sgubini 1987, 2004b. On the Tomb of the Saties see, from u (…)
• 33 BGR AdV, Canino letter 04.28.1857.

5On April 19 he informs des Vergers that the previous week he had found many objects but of little importance in the tombs of plebeian people and that on the other hand he had discovered an inscribed sepulchral cippus, placed at the beginning of the 150-palm dromos of “a large family hypogeum”, which “after the Cuccumella is the most grandiose ever found in these excavations, and must have several sarcophagi”. 31 François had discovered the Tomb of the Saties , which later took his name. 32 On April 28 he had already entered “the atrium in front of the vestibule, where the tombs are, and tomorrow – he assured – I will penetrate it”. 33 On May 1 he sent his partner a detailed and enthusiastic report:

I finally arrived at the first tomb of the necropolis that I announced to him I had discovered in the locality of Ponte Rotto near the Fiora, a river that laps the walls of ancient Vulci. It belonged to Warriors of that city: it is composed of five rooms, the first of which is painted with figures, and if the drawings were to be extracted there would be a lot to write about, but a lot since it is a very interesting subject, and many of the figures have Etruscan inscriptions. These tombs are empty, and in perfect conservation, and worthy of being seen, studied, and published. The necropolis itself is virgin, and I calculate that it has four other tombs at least.

6He continues with the list of the “superb objects” found and concludes by underlining that:

• 34 BGR AdV, letter Canino 1.05.1857, published in Buranelli 1987b, p. 35  sq. , card 2 (manual transcription (…)

Now the essential thing would be to have the drawings of the surviving paintings of the first room extracted, so as not to defraud science, assuring it that they are very interesting both for their beauty, as for their scientific importance, being in my opinion the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen in Etruscan tombs. The Archaeological Institute should send one of its members here with a designer, and then have them published in the Annals of the Institute. 34

• 35 On Rosa see Ferro 1892; Barnabei 1933; Tomei 1999; and, for the relations with des Vergers, von Hesberg (…)
• 36 The pencil drawing on tracing paper, complete with measurements, is preserved in BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. (…)
• 37 On Henzen see Kolbe 1984; Blanck 2003; and, for his relationship with des Vergers, Blanck 1996 and 2009
• 38 On Nicola Ortis (1830-1896) see Servolini 1955, p. 585. On the agreements between Henzen and des (…)
• 39 The drawings no. I, IV, VII are present in the FdV, located respectively in BGR GDS inv. 5075, 507 (…)
• 40 The Ortis practice is preserved in BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 3: Delbianco 2014c, p. 196. On the affair of (…)
• 41 François 1857b, p. 104; Buranelli 1987b, p. 32; 38, card 4.

7Des Vergers visited the excavations at the beginning of May in the company of his friend Pietro Rosa (1810-1891), architect and topographer 35 , who drew the plan of the tomb (fig. 1). 36 Then, following a recommendation from Wilhelm Henzen (1816-1887), first secretary of the Institute of Archaeological Correspondence 37 , he had a copy of the wall paintings made by the young painter Nicola Ortis 38 , a pupil of Tommaso Minardi, who left for Vulci on 12 May and returned to Rome on 1 June with nine pencil drawings on a 1:10 scale. He had accompanied the drawings, three of which have come down to us 39 (fig. 2), with a Description of the paintings in the tomb discovered in the ancient city of Vulci in Etruria , where the figures represented in each panel are listed in order, distinguishing the nude from the clothed and indicating the type of clothing and the relative colour of the latter. He had completed the work with a pen drawing of the plan of the tomb, where the position of the paintings on the walls of the large central room in the shape of an inverted T is marked. 40 On the plan he had also taken care to indicate in hatching the “dry wall” of ancient construction that closed the right side of the vestibule, separating three lateral rooms from the other rooms, or “that rough wall” that François decided to knock down with blows of a hoe 41 .

Fig. 1 – Plan of the François Tomb drawn by Pietro Rosa on tracing paper in 1857 (des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXX ds.).

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© Gambalunga Library, Rimini.

Fig. 2 – 1:10 scale drawings of the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb made by Nicola Ortis in 1857, plate. VII: Sisyphus and Amphiaraus (des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXVI).

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© Gambalunga Library, Rimini.

• 42 On the role played by the Institute in the first publications of the paintings from the François Tomb see (…)
• 43 On Bartolomeo Bartoccini (1816-1882) see Servolini 1955, p. 55; on Bartoccini’s copies of the drawings (…)
• 44 The delicate affair is documented by Henzen’s letters to des Vergers, Rome 5 and 27.06.1857, 4.07 (…)

8Henzen immediately asked des Vergers for permission to publish in the Monumenti inediti the engravings of the pictorial cycle from the drawings of Ortis 42 , but to his repeated requests his friend replied that he reserved the publication for Paris, after which he would gladly make the engraved plates available to the Institute. He expressed his appreciation for the far-sighted initiative of Henzen, who had had a copy of the drawings of Ortis made by Bartolomeo Bartoccini 43 to use it, if authorised to publish them, or to keep it (with his approval) in the Archives of the Institute as a backup copy. 44

• 45 Des Vergers 1857a. The letter is published in full in Blanck 2009, p. 155  sq.
• 46 François 1857b.
• 47 Des Vergers 1857b.

9Henzen immediately published in the May-June Bulletin a good part of the letter that des Vergers had sent him from Civitavecchia on 7 May via Rosa with the first news of the exceptional discovery 45 , in the July Bulletin François’ excavation report 46 , in the August-September Bulletin des Vergers’ report dedicated to the pictorial cycle 47 .

10The discovery of the tomb had a strong echo in the press, not only nationally, as François reported to his partner in his letter of July 2:

The excavated tomb has aroused universal fanaticism […] The Gazzetta di Genova has a beautiful article in praise of you and Mr. Didot, reporting the article of the Gazzetta di Augusta. From the article of the Diary of Rome inserted by the Municipality, I believe, of Canino, it reports the description of the hypogeum, and lashes out at the Tuscans for their apathy towards archaeological studies; it speaks of our collection, and I believe from what I was written from Turin that it is the work of the Director of those Museums who knows our collection well, and all my works.

• 48 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 2.07.1857.

11In the same letter he informed him that Prince Torlonia had undertaken to cover half of the cost of the restoration, which from now on would be carried out “before my eyes on a daily basis by the very skilled restorer [Tocchelli di Canino] that Prince Luciano had”. 48 In another letter dated 29 July, therefore following the publication of the excavation report, he gave news of further discoveries:

• 49 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 29.07.1857. On the lion-shaped askos , preserved in the British Museum, you (…)

In the last two chambers of the great tomb several very beautiful complete vases were found, very singular for their remote antiquity, being truly Etruscan, and what is most interesting is a magnificent rhyton made in the shape of a lion of surprising beauty, equally intact. 49

• 50 On Henri-Adrien Prévost de Longpérier (1816-1882) see Vapereau 1870, p. 1156; Gran Aymerich 2001, (…)
• 51 Des Vergers 1857c, 1857d.

12François died suddenly in Livorno on 9 October, while he was making preparations for the resumption of excavations in November. The excavation campaign having ended so abruptly, all the grave goods were taken to the castle of Musignano and reunited with the objects found in the Vulci excavations of the previous two years. Between May and August des Vergers had presented to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres three reports on the excavations and discoveries of Vulci, two read by his friend Adrien de Longpérier 50 and one communicated in person showing the drawings of Ortis 51 , and he was already thinking about writing a volume on the Vulci paintings which would be published by and at the expense of Didot.

• 52 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, Paris 9.07.1857: Blanck 2009, p. 172.
• 53 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, dated 24.04.1858: Blanck 2009, p. 184.
• 54 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, Rimini 23.07.1858: Blanck 2009, p. 188  sq.

13In reality, the plan of the work, as emerges from the correspondence with Henzen, became more precise over time. Des Vergers started from the idea of ​​making it a publication «very restricted and limited only to the number of examples necessary to give to my friends», which is why he offered to pass on the copper plates after its publication to the Institute for Unpublished monuments . 52 He later presented it as «the first shipment of the elite of our Etruscan monuments, the first shipment that will contain the paintings of Vulci», the description of which would have been preceded by «an introduction to Etruria considered under the archaeological and historical perspective ». 53 Finally he decided that he would constitute «the first edition of our work» divided into three parts: «1. The Maremmes – 2. The Etruscans – 3. Description of the monuments (12 plans of tomb paintings and 30 plans of vase paintings. The text is in-8°; the atlas in-f°». 54 – 1:10 scale drawings of the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb made by Nicola Ortis in 1857, plate. VII: Sisyphus and Amphiaraus (des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXVI).13In reality, the plan of the work, as emerges from the correspondence with Henzen, became more precise over time. Des Vergers started from the idea of ​​making it a publication «very restricted and limited only to the number of examples necessary to give to my friends», which is why he offered to pass on the copper plates after its publication to the Institute for Unpublished monuments . 52 He later presented it as «the first shipment of the elite of our Etruscan monuments, the first shipment that will contain the paintings of Vulci», the description of which would have been preceded by «an introduction to Etruria considered under the archaeological and historical perspective ». 53 Finally he decided that he would constitute «the first edition of our work» divided into three parts: «1. The Maremmes – 2. The Etruscans – 3. Description of the monuments (12 plans of tomb paintings and 30 plans of vase paintings. The text is in-8°; the atlas in-f°». 54

• 55 On Brunn see Flasch 1902; Amelung 1910; Lullies 1988; Gran-Aymerich 2001, p. 117  sq. ; White 2009 (…)
• 56 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, San Lorenzo 25.11.1858 [but 25.10.1858: cf. tp]: Blanck 2009, p (…)

14Then, since the publication times were taking longer than expected due to the decision to reduce the number of vase plates and to publish the Atlas in a single volume instead of three, des Vergers asked and obtained from Henzen that the plates of the Vulci paintings engraved by Bartoccini from his copies of Ortis’ drawings should appear in the Monumenti inediti not in 1858, as planned, but in 1859, and that the related essay on Etruscan painting by Heinrich Brunn (1822-1894), second secretary of the Instituto 55 since 1856 , should appear in the Annals of the same year. 56 The further delay was of little use, because des Vergers’ monumental work with the significant title L’Étrurie et les Étrusques ou dix ans de fouilles dans les Maremmes toscanes was published only in 1862-1864.

• 57 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, San Lorenzo 5.10.1858, 28.11.1858: Blanck 2009, p. 190, 194.
• 58 On the brothers Alessandro (1823-1883) and Augusto Castellani (1829-1914) see Moretti Sgubini 2000; Sa (…)
• 59 Letter from Brunn to des Vergers, dated 8.5.1860: Blanck 2009, p. 313  sq.
• 60 The corrected plates XXXI-XXXII are preserved in BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 7: Delbianco 2014c, p. 198 sq
• 61 Letter from des Vergers to Brunn, Paris 15.05.1860; from Brunn to des Vergers, Rome 26.05.1860: Blanck (…)
• 62 Letter from des Vergers to Brunn, Paris 1.01.1861; from Brunn to des Vergers, Rome 19.01.1861: Blanck (…)

15Brunn, having to deal in his essay also with the cycle of frescoes of the François Tomb, between October and November 1858, equipped with a letter of introduction from des Vergers, made his first trip to Vulci, which was completely fruitless because he was not allowed to see either the grave goods or the paintings of the tomb. 57 He returned in 1860, when at the request of the François heirs it was decided to proceed with the division of the Vulci objects. He made the trip in the company of Prince Torlonia, who had “invited him almost suddenly”, of the Castellani brothers, collectors of ancient art and jewelers 58 , of Fortunato Lanci, secretary of the prince, and of other people. Together they checked the materials stored in the Musignano castle and established that Torlonia should immediately take the gold and the lion-shaped vase with him to Rome, while the vases would be quickly transferred to Rome to the Instituto to be restored under the direct supervision of Brunn. The latter took the opportunity to visit the François Tomb, where he verified the accuracy of the Ortis/Bartoccini drawings, finding them substantially faithful but lacking “in terms of character and style”; furthermore, by removing a piece of the filler wall, he discovered the painting of the group of Marce Camitlnas and Cneve Tarchunies Rumach . 59 Back in Rome, at the request of des Vergers who had not yet printed the plates of the Vulci paintings and therefore could have corrected them, he sent to Paris the plates XXXI-XXXII of the unpublished Monuments of 1859 with some corrections in pencil in the inscriptions and in the details of the figures. 60 He also sent him, in the accompanying letter, a sketch of the newly discovered painting and the transcription of the relative inscriptions. 61 However, he was unable to satisfy the Frenchman who, wishing to have the plates of the Vulci paintings coloured in some copies of his publication, asked him for a more detailed description of the colours than the one Ortis had attached to the drawings. He had not had the time, but above all «it would have been necessary to indicate the various shades not with words, but with real colours». 62

• 63 The documentation relating to the practice of the division des Vergers-François-Torlonia, including (…)

16On 11 June 1861, the division of the objects found in the excavations of Vulci was finally carried out between Torlonia and des Vergers, who also acted as attorney general of the François heirs. Brunn, in charge of the division, had drawn up two lists based on the estimate of the antique dealer Luigi Depoletti: A went to des Vergers, B to Torlonia. The frescoes of the François Tomb were recognized as the property of Prince Torlonia as the owner of the land, but he wanted to reserve “a memory and benefit” of them for the François heirs and des Vergers, assigning them a fifth of the price of the paintings or a tempera copy of them if he managed to sell them within two years of the contract. 63

• 64 Letter from des Vergers to Brunn, [Paris] 2.04.1862: Blanck 2009, p. 332 sq .

17On 2 April 1862, just before the opening of the Musée Napoléon III in Paris, where a place of honour was reserved for the archaeological and artistic testimonies of Etruscan civilisation, des Vergers announced to Brunn the publication of the first part of L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , consisting of an Atlas of 29 folio plates and a volume with half the text. He anticipated that the second part would consist of a plate of jewels, plates of objects for which he had been commissioned to have the drawings made, a map of the Maremma and the final part of the text. 64

• 65 Brunn 1862. Cf. Blanck 1987, p. 174.

18At the end of 1862 Brunn published in the Bulletin an extract from an article by Otto Jahn that had just appeared in the Archäologische Zeitung (1862, col. 307-309), where the German scholar intervened on the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb, correcting the interpretation of the great battle scene contrasted with the sacrifice of the Trojan prisoners proposed by des Vergers and reiterated by Brunn, according to whom it would have been a human sacrifice in honour of the dead. On the basis of the inscriptions and with the support of a speech by the emperor Claudius to the Senate, he instead saw in it the episode of the liberation of Celio Vibenna by Mastarna, the future king of Rome Servius Tullius, in a sudden assault together with three other men who killed their opponents. 65

• 66 On Carlo Ruspi (1798-1863) see Colonna 1984; Weber-Lehmann 1986; Buranelli 1986; Colonna 1999; Lu (…)
• 67 Blanck 1987, p. 174 sq .; Buranelli 1987d. For the detachment of the frescoes carried out under the direction (…)
• 68 Letter from Henzen to des Vergers, Rome 30.01.1864: Blanck 2009, p. 249. Henzen gave notice of the a (…)
• 69 See below and fig. 7-8. The pencil drawing lacks the inscriptions, evidently omitted due to (…)
• 70 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, Paris 2.04.1864: Blanck 2009, p. 265; of Vergers 1862-1864, III (…)
• 71 The third volume of L’Étrurie et les Étrusques owned by des Vergers bears the mark in Gambalunga (…)

19At the end of February 1864, des Vergers purchased from the heirs on behalf of his father-in-law the life-size tracings of the wall paintings of the François Tomb that Carlo Ruspi, the «artist-archaeologist» pioneer of the drawing/copying from life of Etruscan painted tombs 66 , had executed for the facsimile of the Gregorian Etruscan Museum in 1862, before the frescoes were detached (1863) and transferred to the Torlonia Museum at Lungara (now in Villa Albani in Rome) 67 . The sale took place thanks to the mediation of Henzen, who, after having written about it without success to the Berlin Museum, wanted to secure the tracings by proposing them to the person most directly interested, convinced as he was that after the losses suffered by the frescoes during the detachment and the necessary forthcoming restorations, they would constitute «les restes les plus authenticques de votre belle découverte». 68 The transparencies, where Ruspi had noted the colours, coloured the outlines of the parts and even coloured some parts, proved very useful to des Vergers, because they allowed him to correct several details in the branches taken from Ortis’ drawings and probably to have the drawing of the group of Marce Camitlnas and Cneve Tarchunies Rumach (BGR GDS inv. 5074) done for plate XXX left, as the comparison with the Ruspi transparencies, fig. 4 69 seems to suggest ; furthermore, they provided him with precious information for the explanation of the plates XXI-XXIX that he was completing. 70 Plates XXX-XL and the explanation of all 40 plates were in fact included in the second part of L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , published in 1864. At the same time, the publishing house Firmin Didot put on the market the complete edition of the work in three volumes dated 1862-1864, where the Atlas is covered with a general frontispiece that presents it as the third volume, but retains the old frontispiece with the subtitle Atlas and the date 1862 placed between the preliminary epigraphic appendix and the following explanation of the plates. It is probable that on the initiative of des Vergers, three of the plates dedicated to the frescoes of the tomb of Vulci (XXI, XXII, XXIV) were water-coloured, based on the chromatic indications provided by Ruspi’s tracings, which were then added and bound in the volume owned by him and sent to Gambalunga (fig. 3). 71

Fig. 3 – Des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXI: François Tomb, sacrifice of the Trojan prisoners, from the drawing by Nicola Ortis. One of three water-coloured copper engravings added and bound in the volume owned by des Vergers.

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© Gambalunga Library, Rimini.

• 72 On Julius Zielke (1826-1907), whose drawings are not preserved in BGR FdV, see Thieme – Becker 1 (…)
• 73 On the Marquis Giovanni Pietro Campana and his collection see, most recently, Gaultier – Haumesser (…)

20It is now worth dwelling on the Atlas, whose composition substantially reflects the history of the excavation company, in its successes and its setbacks. In 1862 – as we have seen – the first 29 plates were published, which we will review in their far from casual succession. The chromolithographic plates I-III, taken from the drawings of Julius Zielke 72 , reproduce the Tomb of the Reliefs of Cerveteri (third quarter of the 4th century BC), discovered in the winter of 1846-1847 by the Marquis Giovanni Pietro Campana (1808-1880) 73 in the Banditaccia necropolis, showing a general view, the back wall and the entrance wall, a lateral portion and some pillars (fig. 4).

Fig. 4 – Des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Etrusques , III, plate. I: Tomb of the Reliefs of Cerveteri, general view. Chromolithograph from the lost drawing by Julius Zielke.

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© Gambalunga Library, Rimini.

• 74 BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 11, s. fasc. 9: Delbianco 2014c, p. 202, 389 under the year 1855.
• 75 Des Vergers 1857d, p. 231  sq.
• 76 Des Vergers 1862, p. 409  sq.
• 77 Des Vergers 1862-1864, I, p. 93-95.
• 78 Des Vergers 1862, p. 409-411; letter from des Vergers to Henzen, Paris 15.12.1863: Blanck 2009, p.  (…)

21In truth, the Tomb of the Reliefs had already aroused des Vergers’ interest years before: in August 1855 he was supposed to illustrate it at the Institut de France , accompanying the report with an exhibition of drawings specially commissioned by Zielke. But on that occasion, due to lack of time, he managed to read two of the three scheduled reports and this one was left behind. 74 He presented it in 1857 to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres with the support of Zielke’s drawings, after having spoken about the discoveries in the necropolis of Vulci. 75 He later published the adapted text in the article dedicated to the Musée Napoléon III 76 and in the first volume of L’Étrurie et les Étrusques. 77 In 1862, Zielke’s drawings were used to create the facsimile of the burial chamber of the Tomb of the Reliefs in one of the rooms of the Musée Napoléon III. 78

 Des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXI: François Tomb, sacrifice of the Trojan prisoners, from the drawing by Nicola Ortis. One of three water-coloured copper engravings added and bound in the volume owned by des Vergers.

• 79 For the place and circumstances of the excavation, the description and attribution of the vases published in the A (…)
• 80 Volpini’s suggestive watercolour drawings were transmitted by François to his partner together with oth (…)
• 81 Des Vergers 1862-1864, III, p. 14  sq.
• 82 Des Vergers 1857b, p. 130  sq.

22Plates IV-XIX reproduce vases found in the first four years of the company: in Chiusi in 1850 and 1853, in Chianciano in 1851, in Vulci in 1853. 79 The chromolithographic plate XX is dedicated to the Cuccumella, the monumental and impenetrable supposed tomb of the Lucumoni which François was preparing to continue the excavation of before he died. It was engraved from the copy, made in 1853 by the painter Volpini 80 , of a drawing preserved in the castle of Musignano and commissioned by Luciano Bonaparte after the first excavations of the tomb (1828-1829) (fig. 5). 81 The chalcographic plates XXI-XXIX, engraved from Ortis’ drawings, reproduce the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb, created by Etruscan workers between 340 and 310 BC (des Vergers had also dated it to the Hellenistic age before the Roman conquest of Vulci) 82 and characterised by superb figurative scenes arranged on the walls of the atrium and the tablinum and punctuated by the eight doors that overlook the vestibule and seven burial chambers. Des Vergers, respecting the peculiar contrast of the frescoes, first presents the episodes taken from Greek myth (Trojan cycle, Theban cycle), then those linked to local traditions and historical events, starting in both cases with the large scenes on the side walls of the tablinum. Plate XXI depicts the sacrifice of the young Trojan prisoners to honour Patroclus (left wall of the tablinum); XXII Ajax Oileus insulting Cassandra (entrance wall, left); XXIII Nestor and Phoenix (left wall of the atrium); XXIV the duel between Eteocles and Polynices (half-wall to the left of the entrance to the tablinum); XXV the liberation of the Vulcentian Caelius Vibenna by Mastarna (the future king of Rome Servius Tullius) and the triple massacre of Etruscan warriors at the hands of his companions on the expedition, one of whom was Aulus Vibenna, brother of Caelius (right wall of the tablinum); XXVI Amphiaraus and Sisyphus (entrance wall, right); XXVII Vel Saties , the founder of the tomb, with his little son Arnza (right wall of the atrium); XXVIII the back wall of the tablinum with the Trojan prisoner (part of the scene on plate XXI) and Caelius Vibenna (part of the scene on plate XXV); the XXIX is the semi-wall to the right of the access to the tablinum with a door surmounted by decorative and animalistic friezes.

Fig. 5 – Des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Etrusques , III, plate. XX: Tomb of the Cuccumella of Vulci. Chromolithograph from drawings by Augusto Volpini.

Fig. 4 – Des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Etrusques , III, plate. I: Tomb of the Reliefs of Cerveteri, general view. Chromolithograph from the lost drawing by Julius Zielke.

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© Gambalunga Library, Rimini.

• 83 On Augustin François Lemaître (1797-1870), who collaborated on several illustrated publications of the Fi (…)
• 84 It should be noted that some readings and identifications proposed by des Vergers for the pictorial cycle n (…)
• 85 For the goldsmith’s works, sold by des Vergers and Torlonia to the Musée Napoléon III and then passed to the Louvre (…)
• 86 Des Vergers 1862-1864, III, p. 33-58.

23Plates XXX-XL, published with the second part of the work in 1864, are still dedicated to the François Tomb, with the exception of the last one. Plate XXX, engraved by Augustin François Lemaître 83 , closes the representations of the pictorial cycle: they depict, side by side, the group of Marce Camitlnas and Cneve Tarchunies Rumach ( Gnaeus Tarquinius of Rome defeated by Marce Camitlnas ), absent in plate XXIX already engraved at the time of its discovery (1860), and the plan drawn by Rosa in 1857. 84 Plates XXXI-XXXIX refer to the tomb furnishings: plate XXXI, drawn and engraved by Lemaître, presents the very refined goldsmith work found in the tomb, which he associates with the precious earrings found in Belora in 1850 85 ; the others portray four Attic red-figure vases, among which the large amphora by the Syleus Painter stands out in five plates (XXXII-XXXVI). Finally, plate XL presents the synoptic table of the Etruscan, Phoenician and ancient Greek alphabets, complementary to the long essay De la langue et de l’alphabet étrusques . 86

Fig. 5 – Des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Etrusques , III, plate. XX: Tomb of the Cuccumella of Vulci. Chromolithograph from drawings by Augusto Volpini.

• 87 See above and note 39.
• 88 BGR GDS, inv. 5070-5072.
• 89 An attempt to re-establish the connection between the drawings of antiquity and the François correspondence in (…)
• 90 For the current location of the unpublished objects and their collection history see Bu (…)

24In the Des Vergers Fund of the Gambalunga Library are preserved drawings I, IV, VII by Ortis 87 , the large group of transparencies and drawings (often watercolour) of vases and bronzes transmitted to Des Vergers by François and later by Brunn, the three drawings of the goldsmiths’ works of Vulci and Belora by Lemaître 88 , the proofs of the chalcographic, lithographic and chromolithographic engravings for the plates of the Atlas. With regard to the group of drawings and transparencies commissioned by François, it should be noted that the majority remained unpublished and that Des Vergers did not take care to maintain the relations between the graphic documentation and the letters of transmission, causing the loss, if not noted on the pieces, of the information on the circumstances of their discovery. 89 This explains why he himself incurred some uncertainty/inaccuracy in the localisation of the published pieces. 90

Fig. 6 – 1:1 scale transparencies of the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb made by Carlo Ruspi in 1862, fig. 3: Vel Saties and her little son Arnza (des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXVII, left half without the frieze). SAERBo AF, neg. no. 1750.

• 91 The stamp is accompanied, as in all photos of the same provenance, by a brief description (…)
• 92 The negatives are marked with no. 1749-1753: no. 1749 reproduces the Ruspi transparency fig. 4 (des (…)

25The collection also included 17 transparencies by Carlo Ruspi, recorded in the old inventory of Gambalunga drawings and prints at nos. 3179-3195, now untraceable. Traces of them are also preserved in two photographs from the Gambalunga photographic archive bearing the stamp «Soprintendenza alle Antichità dell’Emilia e della Romagna in Bologna. Gabinetto fotografico» 91 on the back , and also in five negatives preserved in the photographic archive of the former Archaeological Superintendence of Emilia Romagna in Bologna, two of which coincide with the Gambalunga photographs. The five negatives, dated 5 October 1934, provide documentation of seven transparencies: four are copies of details of the decoration, three of scenes from the figurative cycle 92 (fig. 6-9). Unfortunately, at the current stage of research, there is a lack of elements to clarify the mystery of their disappearance.

Fig. 7 – 1:1 scale transparencies of the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb executed by Carlo Ruspi in 1862, fig. 4: Cneve Tarchunies Rumach won by Marce Camitlnas (des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXX sn.). SAERBo AF, neg. no. 1749.

Fig. 6 – 1:1 scale transparencies of the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb made by Carlo Ruspi in 1862, fig. 3: Vel Saties and her little son Arnza (des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXVII, left half without the frieze). SAERBo AF, neg. no. 1750. Fig. 8 – Cneve Tarchunies Rumach won by Marce Camitlnas . Preparatory drawing, without inscriptions, of plate XXX left, probably taken from the Ruspi tracing, fig. 4, immediately after its purchase (February 1864).

Zoom Original (jpeg, 338k)

© MiBAC. Superintendence of archaeology, fine arts and landscape for the metropolitan city of Bologna and the provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara, formerly the Archaeological Superintendence of Emilia-Romagna.

Fig. 7 – 1:1 scale transparencies of the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb executed by Carlo Ruspi in 1862, fig. 4: Cneve Tarchunies Rumach won by Marce Camitlnas (des Vergers, L’Étrurie et les Étrusques , III, plate XXX sn.). SAERBo AF, neg. no. 1749.scale transparencies of the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb executed by Carlo Ruspi in 1862: decorative friezes with a female head inserted into a scaly bull and motifs of ovoli, small arches and a perspective meander. SAERBo AF, neg. no. 1752.

Zoom Original (jpeg, 305k)

© MiBAC. Superintendence of archaeology, fine arts and landscape for the metropolitan city of Bologna and the provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara, formerly the Archaeological Superintendence of Emilia-Romagna.

Fig. 8 – Cneve Tarchunies Rumach won by Marce Camitlnas . Preparatory drawing, without inscriptions, of plate XXX left, probably taken from the Ruspi tracing, fig. 4, immediately after its purchase (February 1864).

Zoom Original (jpeg, 275k)

© Gambalunga Library, Rimini.

Fig. 9 – 1:1 scale transparencies of the pictorial cycle of the François Tomb executed by Carlo Ruspi in 1862: decorative friezes with a female head inserted into a scaly bull and motifs of ovoli, small arches and a perspective meander. SAERBo AF, neg. no. 1752.

Zoom Original (jpeg, 417k)

© MiBAC. Superintendence of archaeology, fine arts and landscape for the metropolitan city of Bologna and the provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara, formerly the Archaeological Superintendence of Emilia-Romagna.

• 93 Longperier 1867.

26Des Vergers died suddenly (a fate shared with François) in Nice on 2 January 1867. At the end of April his extraordinary collection of antiquities, consisting of painted vases, bronzes and paintings, was sold at auction, the sales catalogue of which was compiled by Adrien de Longpérier. 93

• 94 For the restoration work on the villa carried out by the des Vergers see Mussoni 2011, p. 28-99.
• 95 On Augusto Aviano (Udine 1860 – Rimini 1913) see Artist from Udine 1913; Mussoni 2011, p. 60-66.
• 96 AFS FR, b. GX, fasc.  des Vergers Noël Gaston , letter from Gaston to Gino Rocchi, [San Lorenzo] 22.0 (…)

27In 1880 Emma Firmin Didot (1819-1902), widow of des Vergers, began the restoration of the villa of San Lorenzo in Correggiano based on a project by her friend Arthur-Stanislas Diet, one of the most important architects then active in Paris, who managed to complete the restoration of the exterior of the villa. Upon his death (1890) the architect Georges Paul Chédanne, a famous exponent of Art Nouveau, took over and seems to have taken care of the interiors (furnishings, ceilings, fireplaces, balustrades, doors and windows). 94 The works, which lasted until 1902, were directed by Gaston des Vergers (1840-1913), son of Emma, ​​who entrusted the Friulian painter Augusto Aviano 95 with the execution of the frescoes on the ceilings and walls, the pictorial cycle of the chapel and other artistic works. As documented by a photograph taken by Gaston and contained in the photo album of the restored villa that he donated in January 1907 to Tito Azzolini, director of the Emilia Regional Technical Office for the conservation of monuments 96 , Aviano sumptuously decorated the ceiling of the library, among other things reproducing in the upper band of the walls the animalistic frieze and some figurative scenes from the tomb of Vulci (fig. 10). It is more than probable that the artist took Ruspi’s tracings as a model and it is not excluded that the three coloured plates of the Vulci paintings bound in the des Vergers copy of the third volume of Gambalunga’s L’Étrurie et les Étrusques are rather to be understood as preparatory studies by Aviano for the decorations of the library, now unfortunately lost.

 The library of Villa des Vergers, with the upper band of the walls decorated by Augusto Aviano with reproductions of the animalistic frieze and some figurative scenes from the François Tomb. Photograph taken by Gaston des Vergers in 1906 ca. ABABo GDS (Studio Pym, Giuseppe Nicoletti).

Fig. 10 – The library of Villa des Vergers, with the upper band of the walls decorated by Augusto Aviano with reproductions of the animalistic frieze and some figurative scenes from the François Tomb. Photograph taken by Gaston des Vergers in 1906 ca. ABABo GDS (Studio Pym, Giuseppe Nicoletti).

Zoom Original (jpeg, 568k)

© Academy of Fine Arts, Bologna.

• 97 Delbianco 1996; Delbianco 2014b, p. 22-38.

28In 1934, upon the death of the Marquise Hélène de Toulongeon, her cousins ​​and heirs Marie Laure and Marie Yvonne Firmin Didot, daughters of Alfred, Emma’s brother, and the executor of her will, Count Jean de Montbron, respecting the wishes of their relative, donated to the Gambalunga Library the study papers and the Rimini library of des Vergers, two globes (celestial and terrestrial), the painting The Adoration of the Shepherds attributed to the Master of the Annunciation of the Shepherds, a certain number of Latin inscriptions, Roman sculpture fragments, Rimini ceramics from the Roman period, Roman coins, the fragments of four Attic vases shattered in the 1916 earthquake, a nineteenth-century copy of a hydria in heavy bucchero Chiusi and two terracotta cinerary urns. At the same time, they began the procedures for the export to France of furniture, paintings, vases and other ancient and modern art objects from the inheritance, an export that was certainly facilitated by careful management of the donation. 97

• 98 On this part see, most recently, Paolucci 2014c, p. 354-356.

29Of the objects pertaining to des Vergers’ Etruscan excavations that remained in the villa of San Lorenzo in Correggiano until 1934, some entered the Gambalunga Library and later passed to the Museum of Rimini, where they are still preserved 98 , the other took the route to France.

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Bibliography

Archives

ABABo GDS = Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Cabinet of Drawings and Prints

AFS FR = Academy of Filopatridi of Savignano, Francesco and Gino Rocchi Fund

BGR AdV = Gambalunga Library of Rimini, Des Vergers Archives

BGR FdV = Gambalunga Library of Rimini, Des Vergers Collection

SAERBo AF = Archaeological Superintendency of Emilia-Romagna in Bologna, Photographic Archive

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Thieme – Becker 1947 = U. Thieme, F. Becker, General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present , XXXVI, Leipzig, 1947.

Tomei 1999 = MA Tomei, French Excavations on the Palatine. The Investigations of Pietro Rosa for Napoleon III (1861-1870) , Rome, 1999.

Vapereau 1870 = G. Vapereau, Universal Dictionary of Contemporary People Containing All Notable Persons from France and Foreign Countries , Paris-London-Leipzig, 1870 (1st ^ed  . 1858).

des Vergers 1857a = A. Noël des Vergers, Excavations of Vulci. From a letter to G. Henzen , in BullInst , 1857, p. 71-73.

des Vergers 1857b = A. Noël des Vergers, Paintings of Vulci. Letter addressed to M. G. Henzen , in BullInst , 1857, p. 113-131.

des Vergers 1857c = A. Noël des Vergers, Letters [communicated by M. de Longpérier] relating to the fouilles de Vulci , in CRAI , 1, 1857, p. 110-112.

des Vergers 1857d = A. Noël des Vergers, Report of his discoveries in the ruins of Vulci , in CRAI , 1, 1857, p. 229-232.

des Vergers 1862 = A. Noël des Vergers, Napoleon III Museum. First part: jewels and leather goods , in Revue contemporaine , 11-27, 1862, p. 388-412.

des Vergers 1862-1864 = A. Noël des Vergers, L’Étrurie and the Etruscans, or Seven Years of Fouls in the Tuscan Maremma , Paris, 1862-1864.

Weber-Lehmann 1986 = C. Weber-Lehmann, The transparencies of Carlo Ruspi , in Etruscan Painting 1986, p. 13-20.

Werdet 1864 = E. Werdet, Bibliographical studies on the Didots family: printers, booksellers, engravers, type founders, paper manufacturers, etc. (1713-1864) , Paris, 1864, excerpt from The History of the Book in France .

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Notes

1 On des Vergers see Firmin Didot – Beulé [1867]; Scott de Martinville 1867; Albini 1930; Copioli 1993, 1996b; Bernardi 1998; Blanck 2009; Delbianco 2014b, p. 14-22.

2 On the versatile figure of Ambroise Firmin Didot see Werdet 1864, p. 32-45; Mollier 1988, p. 81-101, 485-488; Jammes 1996.

3 On the Villa des Vergers at the time of Adolphe see Mussoni 2011, p. 13-28.

4 On the Fondo des Vergers see Delbianco 1996; Delbianco 2014b, p. 22-45; Delbianco 2014c.

5 BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 11, s. fascicle 8, n. 3-4: Delbianco 2014c, p. 201 sq.

6 On François see Conestabile 1858; Pelagatti 1960; Bruni 2011, p. 50-51, notes 5-6.

7 Bruni 2011, p. 19-65; 97  sq. , notes 1-17.

8 The correspondence exchanged between François and des Vergers, which will be cited with the abbreviation BGR AdV without the position within the archive, is almost entirely preserved in BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 1. It constituted the main source for reconstructing the history of the excavation company in Buranelli 1996; Paolucci 2014a, 2014b.

9 On Migliarini see Nieri 1929, 1930; On the Heyde 2003.

10 BGR AdV, Report , [1852 post Sept. 14]: Delbianco 2014c, p. 180, n. 40.

11 On the Giulietti family, and in particular on Vincenzo, see Barni – Paolucci 1985, p. 28.

12 Paolucci 2007, p. 29-38: Francesco Bonci Casuccini (1781-1857); p. 39-47: Ottavio (1819-1886), son of Francesco; p. 48-57: relations of the Bonci Casuccini with François.

13 On François’ excavations in the grounds of the Mensa Vescovile in Chiusi see Paolucci 2014a, p. 27-35.

14 Barni – Paolucci 1985, p. 17; Tailors 2001, p. 29.

15 Franceschi, on whom see Marzi Costagli (1984), is also mentioned in BGR AdV, Note of the expenses incurred for the excavations of the year 1856 in partnership with Mr. Desvergers, and Ci, and of the sums collected , [Livorno 1857 Jan. 6]: Delbianco 2014c, p. 184  sq. , n. 109.

16 Augusto Volpini 1912; Comanducci [1945], II, p. 898.

17 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 10.10.1852. On the first season of excavations in Vulci see François 1857a.

18 For the excavation activity in Vulci by Luciano and Alexandrine Bonaparte see Buranelli 1995.

19 On Torlonia see Felisini 2004 and 2014; Monsagrati 2006.

20 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 20.02.1856.

21 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 03.24.1856, 04.10.1856, 06.27.1856. See Paolucci 2014a, p. 58-62.

22 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 10 and 23.10.1856; 18.11.1856.

23 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 18.11.1856; 12.02.1857.

24 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 17.02.1857.

25 François was retired from service by decree dated 04.03.1857: see BGR AdV, letter from Livorno of the same date.

26 BGR AdV, Canino letter 16 and 24.03.1857.

27 BGR AdV, Canino letter 19.03.1857.

28 BGR AdV, Canino letter 03.31.1857.

29 BGR AdV, Canino letter 04.05.1857, where the opening is scheduled for the following day. In reality it began on the 7th: Canino letter 04.10.1857.

30 BGR AdV, Canino letter 12.04.1857.

31 BGR AdV, letter Canino 19.04.1857, with transcription of the inscription on the boundary stone, published in Buranelli 1987b, p. 34, sheet 1.

32 On the necropolis of Ponte Rotto see Moretti Sgubini 1987, 2004b. On the Tomb of the Saties see, most recently, Buranelli – Le Pera Buranelli 1987.

33 BGR AdV, Canino letter 04.28.1857.

34 BGR AdV, letter Canino 1.05.1857, published in Buranelli 1987b, p. 35  sq. , card 2 (missing transcription of the text on the last page).

35 On Rosa see Ferro 1892; Barnabei 1933; Tomei 1999; and, for the relations with des Vergers, von Hesberg 2014.

36 The pencil drawing on tracing paper, complete with measurements, is preserved in BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 15: Delbianco 2014c, p. 209. Des Vergers himself indicates the circumstances in which Rosa carried out the relief: des Vergers 1862-1864, III, p. 17  sq.

37 On Henzen see Kolbe 1984; Blanck 2003; and, for his relationship with des Vergers, Blanck 1996 and 2009.

38 On Nicola Ortis (1830-1896) see Servolini 1955, p. 585. On the agreements between Henzen and des Vergers regarding the choice of the designer, see the letters of des Vergers to Henzen, Civitavecchia 7.05.1857, and of Henzen to des Vergers, Rome 22.05.1857: Blanck 2009, p. 155-157, 159.

39 The drawings no. I, IV, VII are present in the FdV, placed respectively in BGR GDS inv. 5075, 5076, 5077, and published in des Vergers 1862-1864, III, plates XXI, XXII, XXVI.

40 The Ortis practice is preserved in BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 3: Delbianco 2014c, p. 196. On the story of the first drawings of the François Tomb see Blanck 1986, p. 26-27, 53; 1987, p. 171-172.

41 François 1857b, p. 104; Buranelli 1987b, p. 32; 38, card 4.

42 On the role played by the Instituto in the first publications of the paintings from the François Tomb see Blanck 1987; 2009, p. 53-63.

43 On Bartolomeo Bartoccini (1816-1882) see Servolini 1955, p. 55; on Bartoccini’s copies of Ortis’ drawings, Blanck 1987, p. 176  sq ., card 65.

44 The delicate affair is documented by the letters of Henzen to des Vergers, Rome 5 and 27.06.1857, 4.07.1857; of des Vergers to Henzen, Paris 22.06.1857, 9.07.1857, 6.02.1858: Blanck 2009, respectively p. 160, 165, 167, 162, 172, 182. See also Blanck 1987, p. 172 sq.

45 Des Vergers 1857a. The letter is published in full in Blanck 2009, p. 155  sq.

46 François 1857b.

47 Des Vergers 1857b.

48 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 2.07.1857.

49 BGR AdV, letter Livorno 29.07.1857. On the lion-shaped askos , preserved in the British Museum, see Buranelli 1987c, p. 140 sq. , card 45.

50 On Henri-Adrien Prévost de Longpérier (1816-1882) see Vapereau 1870, p. 1156; Gran-Aymerich 2001, p. 422 sq. Longpérier was among the founding members, together with Didot, des Vergers, Vivien de Saint-Martin, Félix de Saulcy and Édouard Delessert, of the magazine L’Athenaeum français , as can be seen from the papers relating to the foundation and management of the magazine, dated from 1852. to 1866, which are preserved in BGR AdV, b. X: Delbianco 2014b, p. 45; 2014c, p. 311-324.

51 Des Vergers 1857c, 1857d.

52 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, Paris 9.07.1857: Blanck 2009, p. 172.

53 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, dated 24.04.1858: Blanck 2009, p. 184.

54 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, Rimini 23.07.1858: Blanck 2009, p. 188  sq.

55 On Brunn see Flasch 1902; Amelung 1910; Lullies 1988; Gran-Aymerich 2001, p. 117  sq. ; Blanck 2009, p. 13-15; and, for his exhaustive bibliography, Brunn – Bulle 1906, p. 336-343.

56 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, San Lorenzo 25.11.1858 [but 25.10.1858: cf. tp]: Blanck 2009, p. 192. Cf. Brunn 1859, who deals with the paintings of the François Tomb on pp. 353-367, pl. XXXI-XXXII.

57 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, San Lorenzo 5.10.1858, 28.11.1858: Blanck 2009, p. 190, 194.

58 On the brothers Alessandro (1823-1883) and Augusto Castellani (1829-1914) see Moretti Sgubini 2000; Santagati 2004, p. 56-79, 135-156; The Castellani 2005; Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli 2005, p. 84-101, 153-167; Donati 2005, p. 102-107, 153-167.

59 Letter from Brunn to des Vergers, dated 8.5.1860: Blanck 2009, p. 313  sq.

60 The corrected plates XXXI-XXXII are preserved in BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 7: Delbianco 2014c, p. 198 sq.

61 Letter from des Vergers to Brunn, Paris 15.05.1860; from Brunn to des Vergers, Rome 05.26.1860: Blanck 2009, p. 315-320.

62 Letter from des Vergers to Brunn, Paris 1.01.1861; from Brunn to des Vergers, Rome 19.01.1861: Blanck 2009, p. 321-324.

63 The documentation relating to the practice of the des Vergers-François-Torlonia division, including a private document, the Depoletti estimate and the AB lists of the Vulci finds, is preserved in BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 1: Delbianco 2014c, p. 191, n. 150-152. It is published in Buranelli 1987b, p. 40-44, cards 7-9.

64 Letter from des Vergers to Brunn, [Paris] 2.04.1862: Blanck 2009, p. 332 sq .

65 Brunn 1862. Cf. Blanck 1987, p. 174.

66 On Carlo Ruspi (1798-1863) see Colonna 1984; Weber-Lehmann 1986; Buranelli 1986; Colonna 1999; Lubtchansky 2017.

67 Blanck 1987, p. 174 sq .; Buranelli 1987d. For the detachment of the frescoes carried out under the direction of Father Garrucci by Pellegrino Succi, «extractor of paintings of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces», see Buranelli 1987e.

68 Letter from Henzen to des Vergers, Rome 01.30.1864: Blanck 2009, p. 249. Henzen reported the purchase at the meeting of the Institute on March 4: see Meetings of the Institute 1864, p. 38  sq . Scott de Martinville (1867, p. 18 note C) also mentioned it in his obituary of des Vergers.

69 See below and fig. 7-8. The pencil drawing lacks the inscriptions, evidently omitted due to the inaccuracies of Ruspi’s transcription. Plate XXX left presents the inscriptions in Brunn’s transcription. It should be noted that the drawing bears the note in the lower left margin: «2 épreuves sur papier collé».

70 Letter from des Vergers to Henzen, Paris 2.04.1864: Blanck 2009, p. 265; des Vergers 1862-1864, III, p. 17 note 3. Among other things, des Vergers, ibid. , p. 24, highlights some differences in the reading of the inscriptions between Ruspi’s tracings and the copperplates from Ortis’ drawings. Ruspi’s reading errors are reported by Buranelli 1987d, p. 179.

71 The third volume of L’Étrurie et les Étrusques owned by des Vergers bears the shelfmark 14.B.II.1 in Gambalunga.

72 On Julius Zielke (1826-1907), whose drawings are not preserved in BGR FdV, see Thieme – Becker 1947, p. 492.

73 On the Marquis Giovanni Pietro Campana and his collection see, most recently, Gaultier – Haumesser – Trofimova 2018.

74 BGR AdV, b. VI, fasc. 11, s. fasc. 9: Delbianco 2014c, p. 202, 389 under the year 1855.

75 Des Vergers 1857d, p. 231  sq.

76 Des Vergers 1862, p. 409  sq.

77 Des Vergers 1862-1864, I, p. 93-95.

78 Des Vergers 1862, p. 409-411; letter from des Vergers to Henzen, Paris 15.12.1863: Blanck 2009, p. 247. See Nadalini 2006, p. 402 and fig. VI, 1.3.

79 For the place and circumstances of the excavation, the description and attribution of the vases published in the Atlas see Paolucci 2014c, p. 337-354.

80 Volpini’s evocative watercolour drawings were sent by François to his partner together with twelve other drawings: see BGR AdV, letter Livorno 20.08.1853. They are preserved in the FdV and placed in BGR GDS, inv. no. 6333, 6334.

81 Des Vergers 1862-1864, III, p. 14  sq.

82 Des Vergers 1857b, p. 130  sq.

83 On Augustin François Lemaître (1797-1870), who collaborated on several illustrated publications of Firmin Didot, see Bénézit 1961, p. 499; Lethève – Gardey – Adhémar 1965, p. 449-453.

84 It should be noted that some of the readings and identifications proposed by des Vergers for the pictorial cycle are not accepted today. For an updated reading and interpretation of the pictorial cycle see Coarelli 1983; Maggiani 1983; Pallottino 1987; Roncalli 1987; Andreae 2004a; Maggiani 2004; Musti 2005; Domenici 2008; Laurendi 2010. For its dating, see Cristofani 1967 (340-310 BC); Andreae 2004a, p. 12, 35 (last third of the 4th century BC; 330-310 BC); Andreae 2004b, p. 56  sq . (320-310 BC).

85 For the goldsmith’s works, sold by des Vergers and Torlonia to the Musée Napoléon III and then passed to the Louvre, see, most recently, Gaultier 2005, p. 79, 148-152.

86 Des Vergers 1862-1864, III, p. 33-58.

87 See above and note 39.

88 BGR GDS, inv. 5070-5072.

89 An attempt to re-establish the connection between the drawings of antiquity and the François correspondence in Paolucci 2014c, p. 356-359.

90 For the current location of the unpublished objects and their collection history see Buranelli 1987c; Paolucci 2010, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c.

91 The stamp is accompanied, as in all photographs of the same provenance, by a brief description (conserving institution, provenance, object depicted) and the negative numbers 1750 and 1751, in pencil. There are also old Gambalungian sequence numbers in pen, respectively 1423 and 1182.

92 The negatives are marked with nos. 1749-1753: no. 1749 reproduces the Ruspi transparency fig. 4 (des Vergers 1862-1864, III, plate XXX, left half); no. 1750 the Ruspi transparency fig. 3 ( ibid. , plate XXVII, left half excluding the frieze); no. 1751 the Ruspi transparency fig. 1 ( ibid. , plate XXII); nos. 1752-1753 each reproduce two transparencies depicting decorative friezes.

93 Longperier 1867.

94 For the restoration work on the villa carried out by the des Vergers see Mussoni 2011, p. 28-99.

95 On Augusto Aviano (Udine 1860 – Rimini 1913) see Artist from Udine 1913; Mussoni 2011, p. 60-66.

96 AFS FR, b. GX, fasc.  des Vergers Noël Gaston , letter from Gaston to Gino Rocchi, [San Lorenzo] 22.01.1907, from which we learn that two albums were prepared: the second was intended for Ottavio Germano, collaborator and successor of Azzolini. The album donated to the latter is preserved in the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, while all traces of the other have been lost. The double gift probably forms part of the start of the process to subject Villa des Vergers to a restriction for important interest, a restriction that was granted on 11.01.1913. On Gaston, a passionate and gifted amateur photographer, see Mussoni 2011, p. 48-50 and note 54. The photographs in the Azzolini album are published in Mussoni 2011, passim .

97 Delbianco 1996; Delbianco 2014b, p. 22-38.

98 On this part see, most recently, Paolucci 2014c, p. 354-356.Top of page

List of illustrations

		Title	Fig. 10 – The library of Villa des Vergers, with the upper band of the walls decorated by Augusto Aviano with reproductions of the animalistic frieze and some figurative scenes from the François Tomb. Photograph taken by Gaston des Vergers in 1906 ca. ABABo GDS (Studio Pym, Giuseppe Nicoletti).
		Credits	© Academy of Fine Arts, Bologna.
		URL	http://journals.openedition.org/mefra/docannexe/image/8586/img-10.jpg
		File	image/jpeg, 568k

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References

Electronic reference

Paola Delbianco , “The François Tomb of Vulci” ,  Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Antiquity [Online], 131-2 | 2019, Online since 22 April 2020 , connection on 14 July 2024 . URL : http://journals.openedition.org/mefra/8586; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/mefra.8586Top of page

About the author

Paola Delbianco

formerly Gambalunga Civic Library of Rimini – paoladelbianco@alice.itTop of page

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