Re-assemblage and Dispersal: Exploring the Agency of Etruscan Votive Bronze Figurines in Museum Collections

Autori

  • Marianna Negro University of Cambridge
  • Jody Joy University of Cambridge

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2037-4488/27614

Parole chiave:

Collezioni museali, ‘riassemblaggio’, bronzetti votivi, Etruscologia, patrimonio culturale

Abstract

The document investigates the evolving role of museum collections, particularly through the lens of ‘re-assemblage’, which involves studying the histories and contexts of artefacts. Focusing on Etruscan votive bronze figurines from the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the research reveals how these objects, despite losing their original archaeological settings, continue to possess agency and accrue new meanings as they are collected and dispersed. Ultimately, the paper underlines that museum collections remain fluid and are subject to constant reinterpretation and renewal of value over time.

 

Il contributo analizza il ruolo in evoluzione delle collezioni museali, in particolare attraverso la lente del ‘riassemblaggio’, che implica lo studio della storia e del contesto dei manufatti. La ricerca si concentra sulle statuette votive etrusche in bronzo provenienti dal British Museum e dal Metropolitan Museum of Art e rivela come questi oggetti, pur avendo perso il loro contesto archeologico originale, continuino a possedere un'agency e acquisire nuovi significati man mano che vengono raccolti e dispersi. In definitiva, il documento sottolinea che le collezioni museali rimangono fluide e sono soggette a una costante reinterpretazione e al rinnovamento del valore nel corso del tempo.

Riferimenti bibliografici

ARBEID – IOZZO 2015 = B. ARBEID, M. IOZZO, Introduzione in B. ARBEID, M. IOZZO (eds), Piccoli grandi bronzi. Capolavori greci, etruschi e romani delle collezioni mediceo-lorenesi nel Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, Exhibition catalogue Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 2015, Florence 2015, pp. 9-12.

BAILEY 2005 = D. BAILEY, Prehistoric Figurine: Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic, London 2005.

BAILEY 2013 = D. BAILEY, Figurines, corporeality, and the origins of the gendered body in D. BOLGER (ed.), A Companion to Gender Prehistory, Chichester 2013, pp. 244-64.

BAILEY 2018 = D. BAILEY, Incomplete: The Uneasy Powers of Holes, Cut Surfaces, and Neolithic Pit-Houses in S.R. MARTIN, S.M. LANGIN-HOOPER (eds), The Tiny and the Fragmented: Miniature, Broken, or Otherwise Incomplete Objects in the Ancient World, New York 2018, pp. 170-187.

BOUNIA 2004 = A. BOUNIA, Collecting in the Classical World: Collectors and Collections 100 BC to AD 100, Aldershot 2011.

BRADLEY 1990 = R. BRADLEY, The passage of arms: an archaeological analysis of prehistoric hoards and votive deposits, Cambridge 1990.

BRENDEL – BRENDEL – RIDGWAY 1995 = O. BRENDEL, J. BRENDEL, F.R.S. RIDGWAY, Etruscan art, New Haven (CT) 1995.

BRITTENHAM 2020 = C. BRITTENHAM, Shifting Scales at La Venta in J. ELSNER (ed.), Figurines: Figuration and the Sense of Scale, Oxford 2020, pp. 51-87.

BRUSCHETTI 1988 = P. BRUSCHETTI, Magione (Perugia), in “StEtr”, 54, 1988, pp. 383-386.

BRUSCHETTI et Alii 2014 = P. BRUSCHETTI, B. GIALLUCA, P. GIULIERINI, S. REYNOLDS, J. SWADDLING, Seduzione Etrusca. Dai segreti di Holkham Hall alle meraviglie del British Museum, Milano 2014.

BYRNE et Alii 2011 = S. BYRNE, A. CLARKE, R. HARRISON, R. TORRENCE, Introduction in S. BYRNE, A. CLARKE, R. HARRISON, R. TORRENCE (eds), Unpacking the collection, New York 2011.

CACCIOLI 2009 = D. CACCIOLI, The Villanovan, Etruscan, and Hellenistic Collections in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Brill, Leiden and Boston 2009.

CHIPPINDALE – GILL 2000 = C. CHIPPINDALE, D.W. GILL, Material consequences of contemporary classical collecting in “AJA” 104 (3), 2000, pp. 463-511.

CADARIO 2015 = M. CADARIO, Le statuette in bronzo in contesto tra culti, ornamenta e pezzi da collezione in B. ARBEID, M. IOZZO (eds), Piccoli grandi bronzi. Capolavori greci, etruschi e romani delle collezioni mediceo-lorenesi nel Museo ArcheologicoNazionale di Firenze, Exhibition catalogue Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 2015, Florence 2015, pp. 53-62.

COLONNA 1970 = G. COLONNA, Bronzi votivi umbro-sabellici a figura umana I Periodo arcaico, Firenze 1970.

COLZANI 2023 = G. COLZANI, Small-Scale Sculpture in Greek and Roman Society: A Reassessment in G. COLZANI, C. MARCONI, F. SLAVAZZI (eds), Greek and Roman Small Size Sculpture, Berlin-Boston 2023, pp. 1-28.

COOLE 2013 = D. COOLE, Agentic capacities and capacious historical materialism: Thinking with new materialisms in the political sciences in “Millennium” 41 (3), 2013, pp. 451-469.

CORBUCCI 1990 = M. P. CORBUCCI, Antichità dall’Umbria a Leningrado, Leningrado, Museo Statale Ermitage 11 giugno-29 luglio 1990, Perugia 1990.

CRISTOFANI – FORMIGLI – MICHELI 1985 = M. CRISTOFANI, E. FORMIGLI, M.E. MICHELI, I bronzi degli Etruschi, Novara 1985.

DE CERTEAU 1984 = M. DE CERTEAU, The practice of everyday life, Berkeley 1984.

DE PUMA 2013= R.D. DE PUMA, Etruscan art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2013.

DE PUMA 2015 = R.D. DE PUMA, Americans collecting antiquities in Italy, ca. 1865–1920, in L. BONFANTE, H. NAGY (eds), The Collection of Antiquities of the American Academy in Rome, Chicago 2015.

DEL CHIARO 1976 = M.A. DEL CHIARO, Etruscan Art from West Coast Collections, Art Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara 1976.

EDWARDS 1870 = E. EDWARDS, Live of the Founders of the British Museum, Volume 1, London 1870.

ELSNER 2020 = J. ELSNER, Introduction in J. ELSNER (ed.), Figurines: Figuration and the Sense of Scale, Oxford 2020, pp. 1-10.

FINLAY 2016 = N. FINLAY, Collection, in “WorldA” 48 (2), 2016, pp. 179-180.

FULMINANTE – UNAVANE 2020 = F. FULMINANTE, M. UNAVANE, “Community practices” and “communities of practice” in smelting technology by XRF analysis of Archaic bronze votive figurines in central Italy (6th–5th centuries BC), in “Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports” 31, 2020, pp. 102-266.

Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana 2004 = Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, Decreto Legislativo 22 gennaio 2004, n. 42, 2004, Accessed 20 July 2020. Available at: https://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/deleghe/testi/04042dl.htm.

GEFFCKEN 2015 = K.A. GEFFCKEN, The history of the collection, in L. BONFANTE, H. NAGY (eds), The Collection of Antiquities of the American Academy in Rome, Chicago 2015.

GELL 1998 = A. GELL, Art and agency: an anthropological theory, Oxford 1998.

GOSDEN ¬– MARSHALL 1999 = C. GOSDEN, Y. MARSHALL, The cultural biography of objects, in “WorldA” 31 (2), 1999, pp 169-178.

HOOPER-GREENHILL 1992 = E. HOOPER-GREENHILL, Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge, London 1992.

HUGHES 2018 = J. HUGHES, Tiny and Fragmented Votive Offerings from Classical Antiquity in S.R. MARTIN, S.M. LANGIN-HOOPER (eds), The Tiny and the Fragmented: Miniature, Broken, or Otherwise Incomplete Objects in the Ancient World, New York 2018, pp. 48-71.

INSOLL 2017 = T. INSOLL, Miniature Possibilities? An Introduction to the Varied Dimensions of Figurine Research in T. INSOLL (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines, Oxford 2017, pp. 3-16.

IZZET 2007 = V. IZZET, The archaeology of Etruscan society, Cambridge 2007.

JOY 2009 = J. JOY, Reinvigorating object biography: reproducing the drama of object lives, in “WorldA” 41 (4), 2009, pp 540-556.

JOYCE 2015 = R.A. JOYCE, Things in motion: itineraries of Ulua marble vases, in R.A. JOYCE, S.D. GILLESPIE (eds), Things in Motion, Santa Fe (NM) 2015, pp. 21-38.

JOYCE 2018 = R.A. JOYCE, Breaking Bodies and Biographies: Figurines of the Playa de los Muertos Tradition in S.R. MARTIN, S.M. LANGIN-HOOPER (eds), The Tiny and the Fragmented: Miniature, Broken, or Otherwise Incomplete Objects in the Ancient World, New York 2018, pp. 24-47.

KOORTBOJIAN 2015 = M. KOORTBOJIAN, Opera Minora: Monumenta in miniatura? in B. ARBEID, M. IOZZO (eds), Piccoli grandi bronzi. Capolavori greci, etruschi e romani delle collezioni mediceo-lorenesi nel Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, Exhibition catalogue Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 2015, Florence 2015, pp. 43-52.

MACDONALD 2006 = S. MACDONALD, Collecting Practices, in S. MACDONALD (ed.), A Companion to Museum Studies, Oxford 2006.

MALINOWSKI 2002 = B. MALINOWSKI, Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea, London 2002.

MARTIN – LANGIN-HOOPER 2018 = S.R. MARTIN, S.M. LANGIN-HOOPER, In/Complete: An Introduction to the Theories of Miniaturization and Fragmentation, in S.R. MARTIN, S.M. LANGIN-HOOPER (eds), The Tiny and the Fragmented: Miniature, Broken, or Otherwise Incomplete Objects in the Ancient World, New York 2018, pp. 1-23.

MASON ¬¬¬– ROBINSON ¬– COFFIELD 2018 = R. MASON, A. ROBINSON, E. COFFIELD, Museum and Gallery Studies. The basics, London 2018.

MESKELL 2017 = L. MESKELL, The Archaeology of Figurines and the Human Body in Prehistory in T. INSOLL (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines, Oxford 2017, pp. 17-36.

Ministère de la Culture 2020 = Ministère de la Culture, POP: la plateforme ouverte du patrimoine, 2024. Accessed 24 May 2024. Available at: https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/advanced-search/list/joconde.

MOUTU 2007 = A. MOUTU, Thinking through things: theorizing artefacts ethnographically, in A. HENARE, M. HOLBRAAD, S. WASTELL (eds), Illicit antiquities: the theft of culture and the extinction of archaeology, London 2007.

MUENSTERBERGER 2014 = W. MUENSTERBERGER, Collecting: an unruly passion: psychological perspectives, Princeton 2014.

Musèe du Louvre 2024 = Musèe du Louvre, Atlas database of exhibits 2024. Accessed 23 May 2024. Available at: http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2024 = Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Search the Collection 2024. Accessed 25 May 2024. Available at: https://collections.mfa.org/collections.

Regents of the University of Michighan 2024 = Regents of the University of Michighan, Kelsey Museum Artifacts Database 2024. Accessed 22 May 2024. Available at: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image.

RENFREW 2017 = C. RENFREW, Cycladic Figurines in T. INSOLL (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines, Oxford 2017, pp. 637-658.

RICHARDSON 1983 = E. H. RICHARDSON, Etruscan votive bronzes: geometric, orientalizing, archaic, Mainz am Rhein 1983.

RICHARDSON 2015 = E.H. RICHARDSON, Umbrian geometric and other bronze figurines, in L. BONFANTE, H. NAGY (eds), The Collection of Antiquities of the American Academy in Rome, Chicago 2015.

RICHTER 1915 = G.M.A. RICHTER, Greek, Etruscan & Roman Bronzes, New York 1915.

RIDDER 1913 = A.H.P. RIDDER, Les bronzes antiques du Louvre: les figurines, Paris 1913.

RONCALLI 1989 = F. RONCALLI, Gens antiquissima Italiae: antichità dall’Umbria a Budapest e Cracovia, Perugia 1989.

Royal Ontario Museum 2024 = Royal Ontario Museum, ROM Online Collection 2024. Accessed 26 May 2024. Available at: https://collections.rom.on.ca.

SMITH 2013 = L.T. SMITH, Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples, London-New York 2013.

ŠOLA 2004 = T. ŠOLA, Redefining collecting, in S. KNELL (ed.), Museums and the future of collecting, Farnham 2004.

STEVENSON 2017 = A. STEVENSON, Predynastic Egyptian Figurines in T. INSOLL (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines, Oxford 2017, pp. 63-84.

STEWART 1984 = S. STEWART, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Baltimore 1984.

TANNER 1935 = D.B. TANNER, Etruscan Art in the Fogg Museum in “Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum”, 1935, pp. 33-37.

The Trustees of the British Museum 2024 = The Trustees of the British Museum, Explore the Collection, 2024, Accessed 5 May 2024. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection.

The Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1928a = The Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Auction sales of classical antiquities, in “The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin”, March, 1928 23, No. 3, 70.

The Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1928b = The Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Report of the treasurer, in “Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art” 59, 1928, pp 61-64.

Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 2024 = Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Search the collection, 2024, Accessed 7 May 2024. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search.

TURFA 2011 = J.M. TURFA, Catalogue of the Etruscan gallery of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2011.

TURFA – MUSKETT 2017 = J.M. TURFA, G. MUSKETT, Catalogue of Etruscan Objects in World Museum, Liverpool, Oxford 2017.

TURFA – PALLOTTINO 1982 = J.M. TURFA, M. PALLOTTINO, The Etruscan and Italic Collection in the Manchester Museum in “PBSR” 50, 1982, pp. 166-195.

TYNE WEAR ARCHIVES MUSEUMS 2024 = TYNE WEAR ARCHIVES MUSEUMS, Search our Collection, 2024. Accessed 25 May 2024. Available at: https://collectionssearchtwmuseums.org.uk/.

VERMEULE 1960 = C.C. VERMEULE, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes Acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in “ClJ” 55(5), 1960, pp. 193-204.

VERMEULE 1982 = C.C. VERMEULE, The Art of the Greek World: Prehistoric Though Perikles, Boston 1982.

WALTERS 1899 = H.B. WALTERS, Catalogue of the bronzes, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan: in the Department of Greek and Roman antiquities, British Museum, London 1899.

WERE 2012 = G. WERE, Extreme collecting: dealing with difficult objects, in G.W. J. KING (ed.), Extreme Collecting: Challenging Practices for 21st Century Museums, New York-Oxford 2012.

WINGFIELD 2011 = C. WINGFIELD, Donors, loaners, dealers and swappers: the relationship behind the English collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum, in S. BYRNE, A. CLARKE, R. HARRISON, R. TORRENCE (eds), Unpacking the Collection, Springer-New York 2011, pp. 119-140.

WINGFIELD 2017 = C. WINGFIELD, Collection as (Re) assemblage: refreshing museum archaeology, in “WorldA” 49 (5), 2017, pp 594-607.

Downloads

Pubblicato

2024-12-20

Come citare

Negro, M., & Joy, J. (2024). Re-assemblage and Dispersal: Exploring the Agency of Etruscan Votive Bronze Figurines in Museum Collections. Aristonothos. Rivista Di Studi Sul Mediterraneo Antico, 20, 155–188. https://doi.org/10.54103/2037-4488/27614

Fascicolo

Sezione

Contributi