The Tomb of the Leopards emerged from the earth in 1875 within the Necropolis of Monterozzi near Tarquinia, Italy. This burial chamber dates to around 470 BC and stands as one of the best-preserved murals found in Tarquinia.
Fred S. Kleiner notes this work in his History of Roman Art while Otto J. Brendel discusses it extensively in Etruscan Art. Luisa Banti also references the site in her study of Etruscan Cities and Their Culture.
Etruscan painters likely drew these forms from Greek interpretations of hunting leopards popularized in Egypt rather than direct observation of local wildlife. These exotic animals appear confronted above a banquet scene serving as a central motif for the tomb's name.
Recent scholars argue that the fair-skinned women are equal free women participating fully in the gathering rather than hetaira or courtesans. The arrangement of the three couples prefigures the triclinium of Roman dining traditions that would follow centuries later.
D. H. Lawrence described the painting in his travel essays Sketches of Etruscan Places during the 1920s decades after its discovery. He wrote that walls of this little tomb are dance of real delight suggesting the room seems inhabited still by Etruscans of sixth century before Christ.