Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol
The Etruscan Scene: Female Ritual Dance
1985
Acrylic colour, screen printing ink on canvas

It appears that one or more works of “Etruscan” inspiration were commissioned from Andy Warhol between 1983 and 1985 by his friend and patron Carlo Bilotti, an Italian-American entrepreneur. Bilotti had in fact commissioned Warhol to design his own funerary chapel — not as a place defined by traditional religious or devotional imagery, but rather by the colourful and life-affirming representations of the Etruscans.

Warhol responded to this request with two drawings on paper from which he would develop two large works: one, with a pink background and black figures (now in the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh), and the other characterised by a vivid contrast of red and blue. Both are based on the same outlines and figures, derived from a detail reproduced from the Tomb of the Lionesses in Tarquinia.

The original fresco depicts a completely nude man, his body painted red and holding an oinochoe — a wine jug — in his left hand, and a woman, delicately outlined, with dark hair gathered at the nape of her neck. Warhol followed the model quite faithfully, emphasising the chromatic distinction between the two dancers, their symmetry, and the elegance of their contours — particularly evident in the preparatory drawings. The finished work, with a blue background, features a granular surface texture that evokes the abrasions and encrustations of an ancient wall.

It is not known whether Warhol ever visited Tarquinia during one of his trips to Italy, or whether he encountered the motif of the dancers — which captured his interest — through a reproduction or a book, perhaps on Bilotti’s suggestion. In any case, these works represent an exceptional example of Warhol’s cultural openness and his ability to reinterpret the ancient world, restoring vitality to the most joyful and life-affirming of Etruscan rituals.