Porsenna tra storia e leggenda

Exhibition as part of the “Etruscans 85-25 project”, promoted by the Region of Tuscany, organized by Fondazione Musei Senesi and the Associazione dei Musei e dei Parchi Archeologici della Toscana. The exhibition is realized in collaboration with the Municipality of Montepulciano, the Museo Civico Pinacoteca Crociani, and the Pro Loco of Montepulciano.

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As part of the The Etruscans 85–25 project, promoted by the Region of Tuscany, the Museo Civico Pinacoteca Crociani in Montepulciano hosts an exhibition exploring the extraordinary ancient and modern legacy of the Etruscan lucumone, a figure at the crossroads of historical sources, artistic interpretations, and identity rewritings.

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From 10 July 2025 to 6 January 2026, the Museo Civico Pinacoteca Crociani in Montepulciano presents the exhibition “Porsenna tra storia e leggenda”, a narrative journey through the extraordinary fortune—both ancient and modern—of the Etruscan lucumone, celebrated in historical accounts, artistic reinterpretations, and identity constructions.

The lost sculpture and the rediscovered “head”

At the heart of the exhibition is the celebrated work created by Andrea Sansovino in the early 16th century specifically for Montepulciano: a colossal terracotta statue representing King Porsenna, probably commissioned between 1518 and 1528 and cited by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives as “una cosa singulare.” Of that imposing figure – which must have stood around three metres tall – only the head survives today. It was first reproduced in 1641 on the frontispiece of Storia di Montepulciano by Spinello Benci, and is now preserved in the Municipal Library.

Sansovino, a refined sculptor trained in the Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent and active between Rome and Loreto, chose terracotta as a tribute to the classical idiom and to the Etruscans’ favored material. He gave the lucumone’s face a proud and regal expression. The radiate crown evokes imperial iconography from the Hadrianic and Antonine periods, while the naturalistic rendering of the facial features recalls the figures he sculpted for the Holy House of Loreto.

The myth between archaeology and humanist rewritings

The exhibition includes an extensive documentary section tracing the historical and legendary construction of the figure of Porsenna, ruler of Chiusi remembered in Roman sources for his power and for the siege of Rome in support of Tarquin the Proud. Ancient authors – Livy, Pliny, Tacitus – recount heroic deeds, peace treaties, brief but significant hegemonies, and above all, the existence of a grand mausoleum-labyrinth commissioned by the king in his city.

But it is between the 15th and 16th centuries that the figure of Porsenna experienced a new season of popularity: the myth was consolidated through texts such as De gestis Porsenne regis Etruscorum by Leonardo di Piero Dati, a humanist close to Pope Pius II, and was used to attribute to Porsenna the legendary founding of Montepulciano. This connection between myth and identity is at the center of Storia della Città di Montepulciano by Spinello Benci (1641), which presents the king’s head alongside the city’s coat of arms, celebrating him as the fundator of the Poliziana community.

The exhibition is part of the "The Etruscans 85–25 project", an initiative of the Region of Tuscany organized by Fondazione Musei Senesi and the Associazione dei Musei e dei Parchi Archeologici della Toscana. It is realized in collaboration with the Municipality of Montepulciano, the Museo Civico Pinacoteca Crociani, and the Pro Loco of Montepulciano.