Brizio, Edoardo

Archaeologist and art historian of Etruscan and prehistory. Brizio studied and excavated at the sites of Pompeii and the Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) in Rome. His association with Enrico Brunn at the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) taught him formal analysis of Greek art, the basis for his later art history. He traveled to Greece in 1874. In 1876 he was named chair at the University of Bologna for archaeology and numismatics. His lectures exposed his students to the German stylistic analysis. At this time, be began a life's passion: the question about populations in prehistoric Italy. His theory about Etruscans put him at odds with many in the archaeological community. Count Giovanni Gozzadini (1810-1887) had postulated that the Etruscans had come from the Villanova, but Brizio insisted that Etruscans had come from the east after the Villanovan period. He also chided Gozzadini for his failure to recognize Marzabotto as a city, rather than the necropolis which Gozzadini claimed. His bitterest feuds came against Antonio Zannoni (1833-1910) regarding the objects of Certosa and against Wolfgang Helbig, who insisted that Etruscans had come from the north instead of eastern regions. As an archaeologist and ex officio director of the Museo Civico in Bologna, he oversaw the timely excavation reports on the sites of Verucchio, Montefortino, Marzabotto and Bologna.