Terrakotta-Torso, etruskisch

Description

Votive gifts are not an invention of Christianity: even the Etruscans consecrated clay images of heads (from the sixth century onwards) or of individual parts of the body (from the late fourth century onwards) to their gods to lend weight to their prayers. Alternatively, such offerings were made to thank the gods for answering prayers. These votive gifts were usually cheap mass-produced objects made with moulds. Of great rarity are figures such as this life-size torso of an undressed man from the fourth/third century BC, with a "window" allowing access into the abdominal cavity. Only about 40 (usually highly fragmented) examples of such votive torsi with "visceral windows" are known worldwide.

The Ingolstadt torso is a particularly impressive representative of this group. The shape and position of the viscera represented are greatly simplified, but to a large extent reproduced correctly. To this day, the depiction of nine small punctures on each of the two slightly vaulted edges of the abdominal wall is completely unique. They are to be interpreted as the indication of a suture. Representations of the internal organs are usually understood as an indication of indeterminate internal ailment. With the indication of the stitches, the Ingolstadt torso gains a high degree of reality. Nonetheless, the representation is certainly not to be understood literally. Despite the medical knowledge available during antiquity, no patient would have survived an operation of this severity.