The Mars of Todi is a near life-sized bronze warrior, dating from the late 5th or early 4th century BC, believed to have been produced in Etruria for the Umbrian tribe. It was found near Todi (ancient Tuder), on the slope of Montesanto, in the property of the Franciscan Convent of Montesanto.Fred S. Kleiner, introduction to A History of Roman Art (Wadsworth, 2007, 2010 "enhanced edition"), p. xl.
Description and Interpretation The bronze warrior was an expensive votive offering likely placed at a religious sanctuary,Guy Bradley, Ancient Umbria: State, Culture, and Identity in Central Italy from the Iron Age to the Augustan Era (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 92. possibly to Laran, the Etruscan god of war.Jean-René Jannot, Religion in Ancient Etruria, translated by Jane K. Whitehead (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005), p. 165. It had been buried in antiquity under travertine stones, perhaps ritually,Jannot, Religion in Ancient Etruria, p. 136. and left undisturbed until its discovery in 1835.Bradley, Ancient Umbria, p. 72. It is an example of the highest-quality "prestige" works from Etruria found in Umbria during this period,Bradley, Ancient Umbria, pp. 68, 71–72, 200. and probably came from a workshop in Orvieto (Etruscan Velzna, Roman Volsinii).Jannot, Religion in Ancient Etruria, p. 165; Kleiner, A History of Roman Art, p. xl. Velzna was known for its bronze sculptures, more than 2,000 of which were looted by the Romans in 265 BC.Kleiner, A History of Roman Art, p. xl.
The work is a "typical military figure" with "conspicuously Etruscan" facial features.Donald Strong and J.M.C. Toynbee, Roman Art (Yale University Press, 1976, 1988), pp. 32–33. It is an Etruscan realization of Greek formal Classicism, and makes use of the contrapposto posture.Kleiner, A History of Roman Art, p. xl; Otto Brendel, Etruscan Art (Yale University Press, 1995, originally published 1978), pp. 316–317 The figure probably held a patera (libation bowl) in his extended right hand, and a spear in the left.Erika Simon, "Gods in Harmony: The Etruscan Pantheon," in The Religion of the Etruscans (University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 55; Kleiner, A History of Roman Art, p. xl. His helmet is missing,Kleiner, A History of Roman Art, p. xl. but his intricate body armor, depicted with "pedantic accuracy,"Brendel, Etruscan Art, p. 317. is one of the best examples showing what lamellar plate armor from the period looked like.Graham Webster, The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries A.D. (University of Oklahoma Press, 1979, 1998 3rd ed.), p. 2. While after its discovery in the 19th century, the statue of a warrior was said to represent a god equivalent to the Roman Mars, others see the represented act of libation would not befit a god, thus that the statue depicts a human soldier and devotee.A History of Roman Art, by Fred S. Kleiner (2016), page 19.
The dedication is inscribed on the skirt of the breastplate.Amanda Claridge, Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 393. It is written in Umbrian in Etruscan charactersJannot, Religion in Ancient Etruria, p. 136. and marks the beginning of the epigraphic tradition in this part of Umbria.Bradley, Ancient Umbria, p. 73, note 127; Claridge, Rome, p. 393. The man dedicating it, however, has a name that appears to have a Celtic origin,Lexicum Leponticum: Trutitis, http://www.univie.ac.at/lexlep/wiki/trutitis an indication of Tuder's "cosmopolitian" character in the Archaic period.Bradley, Ancient Umbria, pp. 71–72. The inscription reads Ahal Trutitis dunum dede, "Ahal Trutitis gave [this as a] gift".Claridge, Rome, p. 393; Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante, The Etruscan Language: An Introduction (Manchester University Press, 1983, 2002 rev.ed.), p. 26.
The sculpture is currently held by the Museo Etrusco Gregoriano section of the Vatican Museums.
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