The Etruscan Kiss and Embrace

A Mirror at the British Museum and a Lifetime in a Gesture

Bibliographic Data

ID22187253
AuthorsGiulietta Guerini (0000-0001-8557-4967, Scuola Normale Superiore, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume27
Issue1-2
Pages143-168
Publication date2024-11-26
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEtruscan and Italic Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2566-9095 • E-ISSN: 2566-9109
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/etst-2024-0004
OpenAlexW4400570805
LanguageEN
References cited16

The British Museum currently houses an Etruscan mirror portraying a depiction of two women engaged in an embrace and sharing a kiss. Despite previous endeavors to elucidate the symbolic gesture, the profound implications behind the embrace remain shrouded in ambiguity. This article argues that the mirror, while adorned with a veneer of mythology, conceals a narrative that holds pivotal significance in a woman’s life, specifically, the moment of a bride bidding farewell to her mother. Under this interpretive framework, the gesture takes on the role of a salutation, a conjecture fortified by parallels drawn from analogous scenes in different artistic mediums

Aesthetics · Ambiguity · Art · Depiction · French horn · Gesture · Linguistics · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Parallels · Sociology · Visual arts · Computer Science · Engineering · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Philosophy · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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