Chimera of Arezzo

The Chimera of Arezzo is one of the best known examples of Etruscan art. There is a bronze statue, which is the construction of the Medicean fortresses around the city of Arezzo, the Etruscan- Roman origins on November 15, 1553 in Tuscany, was found. The sculpture was once the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de ' Medici incorporated his collection, which was publicly exhibited in the Palazzo Vecchio, in the hall of Leo X.. Later she was transferred to his studio in the Palazzo Pitti, in which, as Benvenuto Cellini states in his autobiography, " the duke pleasure found in it, she personally cleaned with tools of the goldsmiths. " In 1718 it passed into the Uffizi Gallery, later eventually along with other ancient bronzes to the Palazzo della Crocetta, today's National Archaeological Museum of Florence, where it still is today.

In Greek mythology, the chimera whose name Χίμαιρα, Chimaira, in Greek literally means goat means a fire-breathing monster, which was represented with a lion's head and body, the tail of a snake and an additional goat head on the back and the legend to Lycia struck. The Greek hero Bellerophon is said to have killed with the help of the winged horse Pegasus, the chimera.

The figure is about 80 cm high, the period of its formation is estimated to be the last quarter of the 5th or the beginning of the 4th century BC. The illustration shows the chimera in agony with their conquerors; it is already wounded; the goat head tends to dying to the side. Presumably, the chimera was part of a group with Bellerophon and Pegasos. The chimera was a hoard of bronze figures that were buried carefully in ancient times for security reasons. A replica of bronze is now close to the reference.

The bronze figure was initially held by their discoverers for a lion, as their tail, which had the form of a snake was missing. Only later Giorgio Vasari identified the statue as a representation of the chimera: Vasari in his answers Ragionamenti sopra le INVENZIONI since lui dipinte in Firenze nel palazzo di loro Altezze Serenissime an interlocutor who asks him if it really was the chimera of Bellerophon:

" Yes, sir, because there is the comparison with the medals from Rome, which has my lord the duke, with the patch on the neck of this lion goat head, which, as can be seen His Excellency also has a snake's body, and we have the broken tail again found, who found themselves in these bronze fragments, along with numerous metal figurines, which has seen all of His Excellency, and the wounds it has on the body to prove it, and the pain that is in motion can be seen in the head of this animal. "

In fact, it was discovered a part of the tail, according to Giorgio Vasari among the smaller bronze pieces and fragments. In 1785 Francesco Carradori reconstructed the tail, its snake head bites the tail end of a horn of the goat's head, instead of how to judge on ancient coins, against the aggressor in occupied representations.

The inscription in the right front of the figure can be read differently, but lately it is generally believed that the inscription TINSCVIL is ( a gift to Tinia ). This shows that the figure is a votive offering, (also known as Tin ) is dedicated to the Etruscan god of the sky light and Tinia. Tinia was the highest Etruscan God.