Winged Lion from Vulci

The earliest Etruscan large-scale sculpture was found at Vulci. Two fragments belonging to winged lions at Berlin are part of it – a head and a torso from the Cuccumella, a huge funerary tumulus on the enclosure of which they initially had been put up. As to the burial type itself, both shape and function of this figurative decoration are inspired by models from Asia Minor, where lions and mythological creatures likewise guarded the eternal peace of the dead. In the field of art and technology, Etruria absorbed diverse influences from other Mediterranean cultures during the seventh and sixth century BC. However, towards the end of the sixth century BC, Ionic Greece and the Greek colonies in Lower Italy proved to be seminal for Etruscan art, as most imports also came from those regions. This is evidenced by the urns and funerary monuments from Chiusi and the surrounding region in the Etruscan inland. They are made of a local highly bituminous limestone ("stinking limestone", "swine stone", pietra fetida) and originated between the end of the sixth to the middle of the fifth century BC.