Architectural Relief Depicting the Gigantomachy (Battle Between Gods and Giants)
Date:
3rd-2nd century BCE
Artist:
Etruscan
About this artwork
As the name suggests, the Gigantomachy was the struggle between and the Giants and the Olympian gods, who were led by Zeus. In flowing robes, a god and goddess capture a Giant, depicted with wings and serpent-like features, to deliver the final blow in this epic battle. These three animated figures were probably once part of a series of ornamental covers called antefixes, which were placed along the lowest row of roof tiles on a small building, probably a temple. Etruscans often decorated their buildings with brightly colored sculptural compositions based on Greek mythology.
Architectural Relief Depicting the Gigantomachy (Battle Between Gods and Giants)
Place
Etruria (Object made in)
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
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Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 1983-84 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1984), p. 47, p. 17 (ill.).
Maria José Strazzula, “Motivi Pergameni in Etruria a Proposito di una Terracotta Architettonica con Gigantomachia a Chicago,” Archeologia Classica 43 (1991), pp. 1163-1178.
Gaetano Messineo, “Terrecotte architettoniche da Pagliaroli,” in La valle dell’alto Vomano ed i Monti della Laga, edited by F. Aceto et al. (2 vols), 1991, p. 184.
Richard De Puma, “Etruscan Art” in Museum Studies: Ancient Art at The Art Institute of Chicago 20, no. 1 (1994), pp. 58-59 (ill).
Karen Alexander, “The New Galleries of Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Minerva vol. 5, no. 3 (May/June, 1994), p. 33, fig. 9.
Maria José Strazzula, “L’uso delle immagini nell’ edilizia pubblica dell’ ellenismo a Roma e el mondo Etrusco-Italico,” in Images et Modernite Hellenistiques, edited by Françoise-Hélène Massa-Pairault and Gilles Sauron, Series: Collection de l’École française de Rome, 390 (Roma : École française de Rome, 2007), p. 156, fig. 17.
Art Institute of Chicago, Myth and Legend in Classical Art, February 28, 1987-August 26, 1987.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Human Figure in Greek and Roman Art: From the Permanent Collection, Part 2, January 13, 1989-February 21, 1990.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 156, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, November 11, 2012-November 1, 2018.
Private collection, Switzerland [according to Bruce McAlpine in committee meeting minutes; copy in curatorial object file]; acquired by Bruce (b. 1947) and Ingrid McAlpine (1939-2018), London, England, by 1984; sold to the Art Institute, 1984.
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