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Etruscan Places |
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written
by nmdaybaz / 10.24.2005 |
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Part 1: |
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It is the moment when something is in jeopardy- either lost or about to be lost- that it gains the most value. As D.H. Lawrence visited the Etruscan tombs, tuberculosis was consuming the last few years of his life. With this knowledge, life suddenly became the focal point of his observations. Lawrence’s growing acceptance of death only seemed to lead more to his increased admiration and longing for the life which he is about to lose.
The author seemed to fixate on the Etruscans for their apparent embodiment of life itself. Lawrence often refers to them as “surging with full life,” even a rabbit is described as crouching “bunched with life.” Lawrence analyzes what he sees for the qualities of life, and marvels in its abundance. Everything about the gestures, the colors and the scenes shows him “a vivid, life-accepting people, who must have lived with real fullness.” All that he observes is either alive or living or full of life. Rarely does he use emotional states to describe the figures, but he portrays them through how they project life. Even in describing the decay of the painting in a tomb he exclaims: “Yet even in the last breath of color and form, how much life there is!”
In addition to Lawrence’s obvious enthrallment with the “natural flowering of life,” his relationship with death is revealed through his descriptions as well. Despite being underground in a small chamber, where human remains once resided, Lawrence does not describe the tombs as being gloomy or depressing. He describes the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing as “so small and bare and familiar,” and the Tomb of the Leopards as “a charming, cozy little room,” as though they are places in which he would feel comfortable. Lawrence’s increasing relationship with his imminent death seems to have grown in intimacy. Being that death is in his very near future, he seems to be trying to accept it and come to be positive about the inevitable. The most negative description of death he shows is his statement of the figure of “the dead man, sadly obliterated.” But even then it is written in such a manner that shows it is not a devastation to be deceased, but merely a shame. This is an attitude much different than one that would be taken by a person who has much of their life left to live.
I think that part of why Lawrence has such a fascination with the Etruscans is because they have maintained their “aliveness” throughout millennia and thus have seemed to achieve immortality. He states: “It is wonderful, the strength and mystery of old life that comes out of these faded figures. The Etruscans are still there, upon the wall.” To understand his future, what happens to him after he takes his last breath, he finds comfort in trying to understand those who have passed on thousands of years before him and yet still remain in some way. Because as he says, man is “striving for one thing, life, vitality, more vitality...That is the treasure.” He sees in the Etruscans what he wants to see in himself, a life force that continues on past his death. Lawrence seems to have a frustration with the people of his time, claiming “we have lost the art of living,” and states that “there is more life in these Etruscan legs, fragment as they are, than in the whole bodies of men to-day.” So for his strength he turns to the Etruscans, with their eternal essence of life. Through this understanding Lawrence has lived on past his material body, not through paintings on the walls as the Etruscans did, but through his writing.
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Part 2: |
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Lawrence’s writing about Tarquinia and the tombs impressed upon me a very vivid mental image of vibrant, lively images of Etruscans painted on the walls of the tombs. The way he talked about them made it seem as if the figures might come alive as you observed them. The image created from his writing was so strong, that when I went to the actual tombs themselves, I was at first disappointed by the lack of clarity and vibrancy. Not that the paintings weren’t impressive, but the combination of Lawrence’s descriptions and my imagination had set my expectations too high. I had to reality check myself and realize how amazing the paintings really were, and see them through my own eyes before thinking of the descriptions I had read.
The image I will bring back from the tombs above all others is the environment of viewing the tombs. When I first stepped into the tomb and looked down the pitch black unlit stairwell, I think my heart skipped a beat. Upon finding the light switch, however, my sudden start was calmed. Walking down the narrow stairway to the bottom didn’t bother me, but the cramped and crowed small area at the bottom, with everyone taking turns to look through the window and take pictures of the tombs- that bothered me. In combination with the stale, humid air, I wanted to look at the paintings, take my picture, and get out of there as soon as possible. I’m only slightly claustrophobic, but situations like that just do not bode very well with me. I will always remember the paintings of course in the tombs themselves, but this image will remain attached. The environment of how I experience things is something very important to me, and something that I recall along with the mental snapshot of the event.
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