One of the bronze statues found in San Casciano dei Bagni | Courtesy Ministry of Culture
Roma – In November 2022, their discovery caused a great stir; someone even defined them as the most important archaeological find since the time of the Riace Bronzes. Wrapped in the hot mud of a thermo-mineral spring, the 24 bronzes of San Casciano dei Bagni have crossed the centuries to re-emerge intact after 2300 years. Today for the first time they are revealed to the public in the prestigious Palazzo del Quirinale, reopening an intriguing page of ancient history.
On display the entire votive deposit found in the Bagno Grande of San Casciano (Siena): the effigies of Igea, goddess of health, and Apollo, protector of the medical arts, but also unusual portraits accompanied by inscriptions dedicated to divinities whose identity we have lost memory, to which the devotees offered the statuettes in exchange for a grace. And then thousands of coins, as well as three-dimensional representations of organs and anatomical parts – from hands to lungs – for which miracles were invoked through the sacred water.
One of the bronze statues found in San Casciano dei Bagni | Courtesy Ministry of Culture
Most of the finds date from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD, a period of important transformations in ancient Tuscany, witnessing the decline of the Etruscan civilization and the emergence of the Romans. The inscriptions – still clearly visible – in Etruscan and Latin with the names of powerful families of internal Etruria, from the Velimna of Perugia to the Marcni known in the Sienese countryside, tell the story of the change. In this era of contrasts between Rome and the Etruscan cities, and of conflicts within the Urbe itself, the sanctuary of Bagno Grande represented an oasis of peace, characterized by a multicultural and plurilingual context. Here the noble Etruscan families chose to dedicate the statues to the sacred water, which today take the floor to tell the relationship between two great civilizations of the ancient world.
Presented as “the largest deposit of Etruscan and Roman bronze statues ever discovered in Italy”, the treasure of San Casciano is currently being researched by a large number of scholars. Al Quirinale becomes the go-between for a journey through the centuries among the thermal waters of the ancient city-state of Chiusi. “From the Bronze Age to the Imperial Age, the great tradition of bronze production in this area of Etruria unfolds like a spiral”, write the authors of the exhibition: “Like the hot water of the thermal springs becomes vortex and becomes travertine, thus the visitor discovers how the bronze offerings meet the water not only in San Casciano, but in a multitude of sacred places in the area”.
The gods return. The bronzes of San Casciano it will be open upon reservation from 23 June to 25 July and from 2 September to 29 October at the Palazzo del Quirinale.
One of the bronze statues found in San Casciano dei Bagni | Courtesy Ministry of Culture
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• Ancient rituals are rewritten in San Casciano dei Bagni. Extraordinary bronzes emerge from the mud