A realistic portrait of an Etruscan woman who lived maybe 2500 years ago. We can see her face, her eyes, her body: she looks like a robust woman, maybe a little overweight. She must have been in her forties when this image was sculpted, or maybe the sculptor chose to show her in that way. Because of that sarcophagus, we know her name: Larthia Seianti.
She is looking into a mirror while adjusting her hair. A natural gesture that makes her look like we might have met her, alive, just walking around. She lived and loved, she had her likes and dislikes, her habits, her preferences, her things that she carried around. Look at the details: the mirror, the embroidered belt, her armilla bracelets on her forearms, her elaborate earrings.
Larthia must have been a rich woman to afford that sarcophagus. It is hard to think that she could have imagined that her image would have been seen, reproduced, and discussed, more than two millennia after her last breath. Of her body, nothing is left but scattered all over. Yet, her legacy remains with us. She does look a lot like a friend of mine, living in Tuscany today. She and we are part of the same line of humans who lived and loved in Tuscany, the land of my ancestors.
