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ETRUSCAN ANTIQUITIES The large See also:recent discoveries of Etruscan See also:objects have not materially altered the conclusions arrived at a See also:generation ago. It is not so much our appreciation of the broad lines of the See also:manners and arts of the Etruscans that has altered as our understanding of the geographic and social causes which made them what they were. One See also:great difficulty in the study of the remains is that a very large portion of them have been found by unofficial excavators who have been naturally unwilling to tell whence they came, and that certain other excavations, such as those carried out by See also:Comm. Barnabei for the See also:Villa Giulia museum, have been carried out under conditions which help but little towards increasing our knowledge? The increase has, however, been steady, even if not all one could wish. See also:Ethnology.—The origin of the Etruscans will most likely never be absolutely fixed,' but their own tradition (See also:Tacitus, See also:Ann. iv. 55) that they came out of See also:Lydia seems not impossible. See also:Herodotus (i. 94) and See also:Strabo (v. 220) tell of Lydians landing at the mouth of the Po and See also:crossing the See also:Apennines into See also:Etruria. Thus it seems certain that though the earliest immigrants, known to the later Etruscans as the Rasena, may have come down from the See also:north, still they were joined by a See also:migration from the See also:east before they had See also:developed a See also:civilization of their own, and it is this See also:double See also:race that became the Etruscans as we know them in tradition and by their See also:works. To give a date to the migration of the Rasena from the north, for which the only See also:evidence is the fact that the Etruscan See also:language is found in various parts of north See also:Italy,' is impossible, but we can perhaps give an approximate one to the coming of the Lydians or Tyrrhenians (Thuc. iv. 109; See also:Herod. i. 57). We know that there was a great See also:wave of migration from See also:Greece to Italy about woo B.C., and as the earliest imported See also:Greek objects found in the tombs cannot be dated many generations later than this, this See also:year may be considered as giving us roughly the See also:time when the real Etruscan civilization began. It has been, and still is, a See also:common See also:mistake to speak of the Etruscans as though they were closely confined to that See also:part of Italy called Etruria on the maps, but it is quite certain that in the See also:early stages of their development they were differentiated from the Umbrians on the north-east and the Latins on the See also:south in ways due rather to the locality than to race or essential See also:character.4 To See also:primitive peoples open seas or deserts are a greater hindrance to intercourse than mountains or See also:rivers, and even these did not cut off Etruria from the neighbouring regions of Italy. The Apennines that separated her from See also:Umbria were not difficult to See also:cross, and the See also:Tiber which formed the boundary 1 For Barnabei's excavations see Fausto See also:Benedetti, Gli Scavi di Narce ed it Museo di Villa Giulia (1900), 2 For a further discussion see ad fin., See also:section Language. 3 See See also:Pauli, Altitalische Forschungen, vol. i.; also See also:sect. Language (below). 4 Cf. the contents of the See also:graves found by See also:Boni in the See also:Roman See also:Forum (Notizie degli Scavi, 1902, 1903, 1905) with the objects represented in the plates of Montelius, La Civilisation primitive en Italie, pt. i. For the cemeteries at Novilara cf. Brizio, Monumenti antichi, vol. v. See also:HISTORY] between her and See also:Latium has been a far greater See also:element of separation in the minds of See also:modern authors than it ever was in reality. Narrow, not particularly See also:swift, often shallow, such a stream can never have caused more than a moment's delay to the See also:hardy Etruscans. When See also:Rome was founded, the See also:river of course could be used like a See also:moat See also:round a See also:castle as a means of See also:defence, but that is very different from its being a permanent See also:bar to the spread of a given culture. The fact that the alphabets used in other parts of Italy besides Etruria are derived from the Etruscan or from similar Grecian See also:sources, that Rome was ruled by Etruscan See also:kings, that the See also:temple of See also:Jupiter on the Capitoline was decorated by Etruscan artists (See also:Livy x. 23; See also:Pliny, H.N. See also:xxxv. 1S7), that the decorations of the temple found by Signor Mazzoleni near See also:Conca (Notizie degli scavi, 1896) are of the same See also:kind as others found in Etruria, show that the influences which See also:grew to their clearest development in the region See also:west of the Tiber had a marked effect over a broader region than is usually admitted. This too was the belief of the Greek historians, many of whom considered Rome as a Tyrrhenian See also:city.l
Cities and Organization.—The See also:chief cities of Etruria proper were See also:Veii, See also:Tarquinii, See also:Falerii, See also:Caere, See also:Volci, See also:Volsinii, See also:Clusium, See also:Arretium, See also:Cortona, Perusia, Volaterrae (See also:Volterra), See also:Rusellae, See also:Populonium and See also:Faesulae. That the See also:country was thickly settled is made See also:plain by the ruins that have been found. It was governed by kings who were elected for See also:life, but whose See also:power depended largely on the leaders (lucumones) of the See also:separate states or regions and on the See also:aristocracy (Censorinus, De See also:die natali, iv. 13). Later the See also:office of See also: 202), and then the slaves. There can be little doubt that the early organization of the people at Rome was typical of Etruria (See also:Niebuhr, Rom. Gesch. 2nd ed. i. 389). A See also:league of twelve cities is mentioned by the ancients (Livy iv. 23), whose delegates met at the temple of Voltumna, but we are not told which cities formed the league, and there can be little doubt that the See also:list changed from time to time. A glance at the See also:map makes clear some of the See also:general relations of these cities to one another and to the See also:outer See also:world. They are well spread all over the country, and by no means only along the See also:coast. None of the important ones is among the mountains. This means that the earliest inhabitants of the country were not roving traders like the Mycenaean Greeks, and that the cities See also:drew their See also:wealth and strength from agricultural pursuits, for which the country was well suited, as the three rivers, Arnus, Umbro and Tiber, with their feeders (not to mention several lesser streams), channel it in all directions. We get a hint as to the See also:government of the cities from the fact that many of the Roman forms and apanages of office were derived from the Etruscans (See also:Dion. See also:Hal. iii. 61); for instance, the diadem worn by those honoured with a See also:triumph, the See also:ivory See also:sceptre and the embroidered toga (Tertull. De See also:Cor. 13) , and so too the See also:golden bulla and the praetexta (See also:Festus, s.v. " Sardi "). Such things give us an See also:idea as to the aristocratic basis of the government. Of the actual See also:laws we know something also. See also:Cicero (Div. ii. 23) tells the See also:story of the miraculous uncovering by a ploughboy of a See also:child who had the See also:wisdom of a See also:sage, and how the child's words were written down by the amazed folk, and became their archives and the source of their See also:law. Coming down to historic times we find that their See also:code, known as the libri disciplinae Etruscae, consisted of various parts (Festus, s.v. " Ritualis "). There were the libri haruspicini (Cic. Div. i. 33, 72), which dealt with the See also:interpretation of the will of the gods by means of See also:sacrifice; the libri fulgurales, which explained the messages of the gods in the See also:thunder and See also:lightning; and finally the libri rituales, which held the rules for the conduct of daily life —how to found cities, where to See also:place the See also:gates, how to take the See also:census, and the general ordering of the people both in See also:peace and See also:war. Natural Resources and See also:Commerce.—Such was the country 1 rnv re 'Nam, abri)v ovyypackEwv Tvppgvi*a abXty eiva4 balaat3ov, Dion Hal. i. 29; but see sect. Language for meaning of Tvpp,via.855 and such the laws. The people were a See also:warrior stock with little commercial skill. Much of their wealth was due to See also:trade, but they were not the restless, conquering See also:blood that goes in See also:search of new markets. They waited for the buyers to come to them. That their wealth and consequent power were gathered contemporaneously with that of Greece is shown by various facts. One of these is that See also:Dionysius of See also:Phocaea settled in See also:Sicily after the Ionian revolt (in which his native city took part) had been quelled by See also:Darius, and thence harried the Etruscans (Herod. vi. 17). Their power is also shown by the fact that they made an See also:alliance with the Carthaginians, with the result that they obtained See also:control of See also:Corsica (Herod. i. 166), and this See also:union continued for many generations .2 That this treaty was no exceptional one is shown by See also:Aristotle (Pol. iii. 96, Op. ii. 261), who says that there were numerous See also:treatises, concerning their alliances and mutual rights, between the two peoples. That the Greeks held the Etruscans iii considerable dread is suggested by the fact that See also:Hesiod (Theog. 1011 foll.) names one of their leaders Agrios, " the See also:Wild See also:Man," and by the fear they had of the straits of See also:Messina, where they imagined Scylla and Charybdis, which, unless the whirlpools were of very different character then than now, were as likely to be the pirate bands of Carthaginians and Etruscans who guarded the channel. And this explanation is strengthened by See also:Euripides (Med. 1342, 1359), whose See also:Medea compares herself to " Scylla, who dwells on the Tyrrhenian See also:shore." The wealth that was the source of this power of the Etruscans must in the See also:main have been See also:drawn from See also:agriculture and forestry. " The See also:rich See also:land with its many streams could scarcely be surpassed for the raising of crops and See also:cattle, and the hills were heavily timbered. That it was such material as this, which leaves no trace with the passing of time, that they sold cannot be doubted, for there is plenty of evidence that their country was visited by See also:foreign traders of many lands, and that -they bought largely of them, especially of metals. Metals also suggest that another source of their wealth was that of the middleman. Their towns were the centres of See also:exchange, where the north and west met the south and east. They had no mines of See also:gold or See also:tin, but the See also:carriers of tin, See also:iron or amber3 from the north met in the markets of Etruria the Phoenician and Greek merchants bringing gold and ivory and the other luxuries of the East. The quantities of gold, See also:silver and See also:bronze found in Etruscan tombs prove this clearly. Of these metals the only one found in unworked See also:form, in what are practically pigs, is bronze. This in the form of aes See also:rude has frequently been found in considerable quantities, and the larger and better formed bits of metals known as aes signatum are not rare. Both forms are usually spoken of as the earliest forms of See also:money, but as the aes rude generally bears no marks of valuation or of any See also:mint, and as the aes signatum is far too large and heavy for See also:ordinary circulation, it is probable that these shapes of See also:metal are not to be considered strictly or alone as coins, but as forms given to the alloy of tin and See also:copper made and sold by the Etruscans to the foreigners for purposes of manufacture. This of course does not exclude their use as money. Where the copper for this bronze came from is not certain, but probably a great part was from the mines at Volaterrae. Still another See also:proof that what the Etruscans sold was the product of their See also:fields or crude metals imported from the north, is the fact that though in the museum at See also:Carthage and elsewhere there are a few vases and other objects which probably come from Etruria, still such objects are extremely uncommon. On the other See also:hand, articles obviously imported from the East are by no means uncommon in Etruria. Such are the See also:ostrich shells from Volci,4 the Phoenician cups from 2 For the See also:wars of the Greeks against the Carthaginians and the Etruscans see BusoIt, Griechische Geschichte, ii. 218 ff. 3 Pliny (H.N. See also:xxxvii. 11). He says that See also:amber was brought by the Germans down the valley of the Po. Thence the trade-route crossed the Apennines to See also:Pisa (Scylax in Geographi minores, ed. See also:Didot, i. p. 25). In the See also:consideration of problems suggested by amber it 's too often forgotten that a very beautiful dark amber is found in Sicily. 4 Montelius, Civilization primitive en Italie, ii. pl. 265; cf. See also:Petrie, Naukratis, i. pl. 20, fig. 15, and See also:Perrot-Chipiez, Histoire de fart, iii. See also:Palestrina,l the See also:Egyptian glazed vases and scarabs found on more than one site.2 All this goes to show that the Etruscans lacked in their earlier days skilful workers in the arts and crafts. Habits and Customs.—The lack of See also:literary remains of the Etruscans does not See also:cramp our knowledge of their habits as much as might be supposed, owing to the numerous paintings that are See also:left. These paintings are on the walls of the tombs at Veii, Corneto, See also:Chiusi (Clusium), and elsewhere,3 and give a varied picture of the See also:dress, utensils and habits of the people. The evidence of many See also:ancient authors cannot be questioned that as a race the Etruscans in historic times were much given to luxurious living. So much so in fact that See also:Virgil (Georg. ii. 193) speaks of the pinguis Tyrrhenus (a See also:trumpeter at the See also:altar) and See also:Catullus (xxxix. II) of the obesus Etruscus. Diodorus (v. 40) gives a succinct See also:account in which he says that " their country was sq fertile they derived therefrom not only sufficient for their needs but enough to See also:supply them with luxuries. Twice a See also:day they partook of elaborate repasts at which the tables were decked with embroidered cloths and vessels of gold and silver. The servants were numerous and noticeable for the richness of their attire. The houses, too, were large and commodious. In fact, giving themselves up to sensuous enjoyments they had naturally lost the glorious reputation their ancestors had won in war." This last remark shows that Diodorus recognized the important difference between the early Etruscans who built up the country and the later ones who merely enjoyed it. Naturally courtesans flourished in such a community. See also:Timaeus and See also:Theopompus tell hdw the See also:women lived and See also:ate and even exercised with the men (Athen. xii. 14; cf. iv. 38), habits which of course gave the Roman satirists many openings for attack (Plaut. See also:Cist. ii. 3. 563; cf. Herod. i. 98; Strabo xi. 14). In dress they differed but little from the See also:Romans, both wearing the toga and the See also:tunic. Hats too, often of pointed form, were common (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 683), as the paintings show, but it was their shoes for which they were particularly famous. One author (See also:Lydus, de Magistr. i. 17. 36) suggests that See also:Romulus borrowed from Etruria the type of See also:shoe he gave the senators, and this may well be true, though the form mentioned, the kampagus, is of See also:late origin. At any See also:rate vavba,Xea T vpprtvcxci are frequently mentioned. From the pictures and remains we know that they had wooden soles strengthened with bronze, and that the uppers were of See also:leather and See also:bound with thongs. Their occupations of trade and agriculture have been already mentioned. For their leisure See also:hours they had athletic See also:games including gladiatorial shows (Athen. iv. 153; cf. Livy ix. 40. 7; Strabo v. 250), See also:hunting, See also:music and dancing. All these are shown in the See also:tomb pictures, and all, with the exception of the hunting, developed first as a part of religious service, and their importance is shown by the strictness of the rules that governed them (Cicero, De harusp. See also:resp. ii. 23). Did a dancer lose step, or an attendant lift his hand from the See also:chariot, the games lost their value as a religious service. An idea of the splendour of the triumphs that accompanied victorious generals and of the parades at the games is given by See also:Appian (De reb. Punk. viii. 66) and Dionysius (vii. 92). The music that was an See also:accompaniment of all their occupations, even of hunting (See also:Aelian, De natur. anim. xii. 46), was mainly produced by the single or double See also:flute, the mastery of which by the Etruscans was known to all the world. They also had small harps and trumpets. For the regularization of all these duties and pleasures there was a See also:calendar and time-See also:division for the day. It is noteworthy that the beginning of the day was for them the moment when the See also:sun was at the See also:zenith (Serv. ad Aen. v. 738). In this they differed from the Greeks, who began their day with the sunset, and the Romans, who reckoned theirs from midnight. The See also:weeks were of eight days, the first being See also:market day and the day when the people could See also:appeal to the king, and the months were lunar. Monumenti dell' Inst. See also:Arch. Rom. x. pl. 31; Museo Etrusco Vatican, i. p1. 63-69; cf. Annali dell'Inst. Arch., 1896, p. 199 if. 2 See also:Vase with hieroglyphs found at See also:Santa Marinella, Boltettino deli' Inst. Arch., 1841, p. r I I ; Mon. antichi, viii. p. 88. 3 G. See also:Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria.The years were kept numbered by the annual See also:driving of a See also:nail into the walls of the temple of Nortia at Volsinii (Livy vii. 3. 7), a See also:custom later adopted by the Romans, who used the Capitoline temple for the same purpose. In Rome this rite was performed on the Ides of See also:September, and it is likely that it took place in Etruria on the same date, the natural end of the year among an agricultural folk. A still longer measure of time was the saeculum, which was supposed to be the length of the longest life of all those See also:born in the year in which the preceding See also:oldest inhabitant died (Censorinus, De die natali, 17. 5; cf. See also:Zosimus According to later writers' the Etruscan race was to last ten saecula, and the See also:emperor See also:Augustus in his See also:memoirs (Serv. ad. Bucol. ix. 47) says that the See also:comet of the year 44 B.C. was said by the priests to betoken the beginning of the tenth saeculum. The earliest saecula had been, according to See also:Varro, roo years See also:long. The later ones varied in length from 105 to 123 years. The round number roo is obviously an ex See also:post facto approximation, and the accuracy of the others is probably more apparent than real, but if we reckon back some 900 years from the date given by Augustus we arrive at just about the time when the archaeological evidence leads us to believe that the Etruscans in Italy were beginning to recognize their individuality. See also:Religion.—To retrace the religious development of the Etruscans from its mystic beginnings is beyond our power, and it is unlikely that any future discoveries will help us much. We are, however, able to draw a clear, if not a detailed, picture of the See also:worship paid to the various divinities, partly from the See also:direct See also:information we have concerning them and partly from the analogies which may safely be drawn between them and the Romans. The frequency of sacrifice among them and their belief in the See also:short duration of the race 5 show clearly their belief in a See also:good and a See also:bad principle, and the latter seems to have been pre-dominant in their minds. Storms, earthquakes, the See also:birth of deformities, all gave evidence of evil See also:powers, which could be appeased sometimes only by human sacrifice. We See also:miss here the Greek joy in human life and the beauties of See also:earth. The gods (aesar) were divided into two main See also:groups, the Dii Consentes and a vaguer set of powers, the Dii Involuti (See also:Seneca, Quaest. Nat. ii. 41), to whom even Jupiter bowed. They all dwelt in various parts of the heavens (Martianus See also:Capella, De nupt. Phil. i. 41 ff.). Of the Dii Consentes the most important See also:group consisted of Jupiter (Tinia), See also:Juno (Uni) and See also:Minerva (Menrva). In some towns, such as Veii and Falerii, Juno was the chief deity, and at Perusia she was worshipped like the Greek See also:Aphrodite in See also:conjunction with See also:Vulcan (the Greek See also:Hephaestus). This shows that though in exterior form the Etruscan gods were influenced by the Greeks, still their character and powers betoken different beliefs. An interesting point to See also:note about Minerva (Menrva) is that she was the goddess of the music of flutes and horns. The myth of See also:Athena and See also:Marsyas probably originated in See also:Asia See also:Minor, and a Pelasgian Tyrrhenian founded in See also:Argos the temple of Athena Salpinx (Pans. ii. 21. 3). The evident connexion between Asia Minor and Etruria in these facts cannot be over-looked. Besides these deities there were See also:Venus (Turan), Bacchus (Fufluns), See also:Mercury (Turms), Vulcan (Sethlans). Of these, Sethlans is in a way the most important, for he shows a connexion in prehistoric times between Etruria and the East.° Other deities of Greek origin there were—Ares, See also:Apollo, Heracles, the Dioscuri; in fact, as the centuries passed, the Greek divinities were adopted almost without exception. Besides these there were also many gods of Latin or See also:Sabine origin, of whom little is known but their names; these may often be See also:local appellations for the same See also:god. Among these were Voltumna at Volsinii and See also:Vertumnus at Rome, See also:Janus, Nortia, goddess of See also:Fortuna, Feronia, whose temple was at a See also:town of the same name at the See also:foot of See also:Soracte,7 Mantus, See also:Pales, Vejovis, Eileithyia and See also:Ceres. ' Varro ap. Serv. ad Aen. viii. 526; see Helbig, See also:Bull. dell' Inst. Arch. (1876), 227. Censorinus, De Die Nat. 17. ° See See also:Preller, Rom. Myth. s.v. Volcanus." Opposed to this see Wissowa, Religion u. Kultus der Romer, who seems to misinterpret the evidence. 7 Strabo v. 2. 39; cf. Livy i. 30; Dion. Hal. iii. 32. Such were the leading gods; in addition there was the world of See also:spirits whom we know in Rome as the See also:Manes, See also:Lares and See also:Penates. The latter were of four classes, pertaining to Jove, See also:Neptune, the gods of the See also:lower world, and to men.' The Lares too were of various sorts (familiares, compitales, viales), and with them the souls of the dead, after the performance of due expiatory See also:rites, took their place as dii animales (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 168 and 302). The Manes are the vaguest group of all and were confined almost wholly to the lower world (Festus, s.v. " Mundus " ; See also:Apuleius, De deo Socratis). Over all these ruled Mantus and See also:Mania, the counterparts of See also:Pluto and Persephone in Greece. As a result of this See also:complete See also:hierarchy of divine powers the priesthood of Etruria was large, powerful, and of such fame that Etruscan See also:haruspices were sent for from distant places to interpret the sacrifices and the oracles (Livy v. i. 6, See also:xxvii. 37. 6). See also:Art.—The evidence drawn from tradition and custom which we have so far considered in relation to the origin and beliefs of the Etruscans has taken us into the prehistoric times much earlier than those when the handicrafts developed into true See also:fine arts. The contents of the earliest graves 2 show but few traces of any feeling for art either in See also:architecture or in the lesser forms of See also:household and See also:personal decoration. Gradually, however, as one comes down towards the more fixed historic periods, certain objects, obviously imported from the eastern Mediterranean, occur, and these are the first signs of an See also:interest in the beauty or curiosity of things, an interest that local workmen could not yet satisfy, but which stirred them to endeavour. It was probably during the 9th See also:century that this began, not long after the See also:period when foreign trade began to flourish. The history of Etruscan art has usually been wrongly estimated owing to the widespread delusion that objects found in Etruria were in the true sense products of native artists and indicative of native-grown culture. It is only recently, and not even yet completely, that the See also:term " Etruscan" has been given up as the name for the terra-See also:cotta vases (which were found in the 19th century by the earlier archaeologists of the modern scientific school in great quantities in the Etruscan tombs); these are now known to have been made by Greek potters. There are few books on the subject of Etruscan art. The best known is Jules Martha's L' Art etrusque (2nd ed., 1889), a See also:book which, though full of accurate data, shows See also:absolute lack of discrimination between those works that are of Etruscan fabric and those that were brought from other lands, particularly Greece and the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia and Sicily. These latter are too generally forgotten in the study both of Greek and of Etruscan art, and all works which show the Greek spirit are vaguely supposed to have been produced on the Greek mainland. As much of the following must be to some extent controversial in character, a See also:concrete See also:illustration may serve to prevent misconception as to this important distinction. The beautiful See also:throne in the Ludovisi collection representing the birth of Aphrodite is commonly spoken of as though made by some sculptor in Greece. It seems at least as likely that it comes from Sicily. Not only is the character of the modelling similar to what we find on Sicilian sculptures and coins, and not quite so See also:sharp as on most works from Greece, but there is a lyrical feeling for nature in the pose of the figures and in the pebbled See also:soil on which the main group stands, which seems to See also:answer to the Sicilian feeling as we know it in See also:poetry rather than to the Greek. The houses of the earliest times were, to See also:judge by the See also:burial urns known from their shape as hut-urns, small single-See also:room constructions of rectangular See also:plan similar to certain Arc6ltec- types of the capanne used by the shepherds to-day. tare. Probably the walls were wattled and the See also:roofs were certainly thatched, for the urns show plainly the long beams fastened together at the See also:top and See also:hanging from the See also:ridge down each See also:side. Tombs cut in the See also:rock offer other and later See also:models of ' Nigidius See also:Figulus ap. Arnob. adv. Nat. iii. 40; cf. Nig. Fig. reliquiae, ed. See also:Ant. Swoboda (1888), p. 83. 2 Montelius, Civ. See also:Prim. en Italie.See also:house construction, but give no See also:suggestion that the Etruscans had any See also:artistic sense in architecture. Such tombs are mostly later than the 5th century B.C., and show the most See also:simple form of See also:wood construction. Posts or columns hold up the walls and the sloping roofs, the latter made of beams with boards laid lengthwise, covered by others from ridge to eave, the intervening space forming a See also:coffer, sometimes decorated. Though the walls of such tombs are often covered with paintings, the relation of the various parts (and, let it be remembered, these tombs represent the houses of the living) shows but the coarsest sense of proportion. The elements of the decoration, such as capitals, See also:mouldings, rosettes, patterns, are borrowed from Greece, See also:Egypt or elsewhere, and are used redundantly and with no refinement'
The temples did not differ from those in Greece in any essential See also:principal of construction except that they were generally square, from the See also:desire to make them answer to the templum or quadripartite division of the heavens elaborated by the priests. In Roman times" Etruscan See also:style " was the term used for colonnades with wide intercolumniations, and this shows how the early builders used wood with its possibility of long See also:architrave beams rather than See also: Thus the See also:honour, not of discovering the arch, for it was known to the East, but of popularizing its use, does not belong to the Etruscans, though they did use it at a comparatively late time for city gates, as at Volterra .6 The false arch and See also:dome of the Mycenaeans seems to have been See also:familiar to them, though there are but few cases of its use on a large See also:scale. The best-known instances are the Tullianum or Mamertine See also:prison in Rome, the Regulini-Galassi tomb at Cervetri,7 one at Sesto Fiorentino near See also:Florence,8 at Cortona,9 at Chiusi, and also those in Latium 10 Although there was, therefore, but little development in the greater arts of literature and architecture among the Etruscans, it is evident enough that there was much desire to possess the products of the lesser arts, such as See also:sculpture, See also:jewelry and household ornaments. But here too the study has been made difficult by the failure to distinguish between native and imported products. Before studying the objects themselves it is well to recall the legendary character of Etruscan See also:chronology as ' For an illustration of the Corneto tomb see ARCHITECTURE, vol. ii. p. 559• 4 Appian viii. 66; See also:Tertullian, De spect. 5; See also:Plutarch, Qu. Rom. I07. ' Dion. Hal. vii. 72. ' Montelius, Civ. Prim. ii. pl. 172. 7 lb. pl. 333 ; cf. 343. 8 lb. pl. 166. 9 lb. pl. 173. 10 Monum. Ant. xv. p. 151; Bull. d. See also:Corn. Arch. di See also:Roma, 1898, p. III reckoned in saecula. Helbig 3 showed that we cannot consider any of the traditional dates as being accurate until about 644 B.C., the beginning, that is, of the fifth saeculum. This is probably about one See also:hundred years after the introduction of the Chalcidian (Ionic) See also:alphabet into the country. One of the earliest examples of the use of it is on _a vase found in the Regulini-Galassi tomb. In considering the trade of the country it has been pointed out that its chief See also:political connexions were with Carthage, but the artistic sense of Carthaginians or other Phoenicians was not more developed than that of the Etruscans. They were traders, and doubtless brought the Etruscans some of the Egyptian and Eastern objects which have been found in their tombs, articles that date from the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. But beside the Phoenicians the Ionian Greeks from the 9th century had been trading and colonizing in Sicily and Italy. Herodotus (i. 163) tells how the Phocaeans were the first of the Greeks to take long voyages, and that they discovered the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian seas and Iberia. See also:Thucydides (vi. 3. I) says that it wds Chalcidians from See also:Euboea who first settled in Sicily. Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxv. 12. 43) writes in the same sense, for he tells of See also:Demaratus who came from See also:Corinth with the artists Eucheir, Diopus, Eugrammus, about 65o B.C., and first started sculpture in Italy. These traditions of the See also:corning of Ionian Greeks to Italy are completely See also:borne out by the archaeological remains found in Ionian lands and in Etruria, and it is agreed that a great part of what has hitherto been considered Etruscan is no more Etruscan than the Moorish plates of the 15th century found in Italy are Florentine. The best works in most of the smaller arts are almost without exception Greek, the earlier Ionian, the later See also:Attic; the See also:remainder are made with the distinct intention of imitating Greek models, and so should be considered as Greek, inasmuch as they do not show a natural, See also:original expression of feeling on the part of the Etruscan workman. The Etruscans were dull artists in all lines. They were skilful copyists, nothing more, as is absolutely proved by the simple fact that we know of no Etruscan artist byname. If one takes the articles which are of obviously local manufacture, such as the burial urns2 or the ordinary bronze mirrors, or the pottery, it would be hard to find a similar quantity of See also:work by any other race so lacking in originality of conception or high excellence of technique. In the study of the monuments a division must be made distinguishing between the obviously Greek works, the works done with a desire to copy Greek models and the work of native artists. To separate the objects in the way suggested required a very considerable familiarity with Greek art, and though in many cases the result may be doubtful, still so much must be taken from the Etruscans that they are shown to have little more artistic feeling than the Romans. In the earlier centuries a strong eastern See also:influence appears in the copying of sphinxes and similar eastern motives, but this soon gave way to the stronger Greek influence, as was natural, for the intercourse with the Phoenicians was spasmodic whereas that with the Greeks was See also:constant. But even with the Greeks to kindle their imaginations, the Etruscans produced no school of art; no steady progression is traceable. In various towns there were various fashions of pottery or jewelry, but good, bad and indifferent constantly occur together in a way possible only among a people who possessed no natural artistic capacities and had no wide-spread See also:standards of cultivated taste. • The See also:Ionians have been mentioned as having strongly affected the arts in Etruria, and, though in the later centuries See also:Athens undoubtedly exported heavy consignments to Italy, the taste of the Etruscans seems generally to have preferred the rather heavy loose style of the Ionians, even when direct contact with them was lost and its place taken by direct relations with Athens and her colonies. Pottery3 practised enormously by the Etruscans shows as clearly as possible their essential strength and weakness as 1 Annali dell' Inst. Arch., 1876, 230. 2 See also:Gerhard, Etruskische Spiegel; K6rte, Rilievi delle urne Etrusche. 3 See Pottier, See also:Catalogue See also:des vases antiques, II. L'E`See also:cole lonienne, Boehlau, Aus ionischen and italischen Nekropolen; Karo, De arte vascularia antiquissima; Endt, Ionische Vasenmalerei. See further See also:CERAMICS, § Etruscan.artists. Even the See also:black See also:ware called bucchero is now known to have been manufactured in other lands and not to be an exclusively Etruscan style. In the earlier tombs this pottery. ware is See also:present in greater See also:numbers than any other, and the vases exhibit considerable dexterity of manufacture so far as form goes. But it is evident from comparisons with early Ionian vases that the better proportioned of the shape are direct copies of the Ionian. The decoration of the bucchero is either engraved, in which See also:case it is almost always extremely rude, or formed by figures modelled or pressed by a See also:mould on to the See also:body of the vase. In these two last cases the figures are often suggestive of the farther East (Egyptian and See also:Mesopotamia), but still more frequently they are taken from Greek originals, and the natural tendency of the Etruscan artist to be a copyist is very marked. Whence the moulds for these vases came is not known, but See also:analogy with other classes of work makes it practically certain that some were imported and some made by the imitating workmen. There are other classes of vases which at first sight look as though they were imported from Greece, but by the nature of their See also:clay are recognized to be Etruscan imitations of Greek originals. The See also:imitation is often very skilful, for the Etruscan artist rivalled his Grecian See also:master in deftness of hand, if not in See also:imagination. Such, for instance, are the large amphoras decorated with bands of animals in the Corinthian style. Besides these native vases the tombs have yielded great quantities of others which used to be called Etruscan, but are now known to have been imported from Greece. Until the 6th century B.C. these vases are mostly Ionian, but at that time the trade of the Phocaeans was waning before that of Athens, and henceforward the Athenian ware is the commonest. Intercourse with Athens, however, came to an end about 480, when the Sicilian Greeks mastered the trade of the western Mediterranean, so that in the Etruscan tombs later than this date we find fewer and fewer imported vases, and more and more native imitations. It is generally taken for granted that these Attic vases were brought to Etruria by Greek traders, but considering how little the Greek historians, even Herodotus, knew of that country, this is unlikely. Then, too, the chief products Etruria had to give Greece were metals, so it is more likely that it was the Etruscan traders who, having carried metal to Greece (where Etruscan bronze was famous4), brought back the vases. Though most collections make no distinction between Greek and Etruscan scarabs the See also:differences, though slight, are quite certain, and consist in the greater elaboration of the scarabs. See also:borders, edges and backs of the Etruscan examples. The commonest material for these gems is red See also:carnelian, and See also:agate frequently occurs. The See also:beetle shape is undoubtedly due to the Phoenicians, who familiarized the Etruscans with the Egyptian See also:scarab and with its signification as an See also:amulet; while in technique they are more Greek, in use they are more Egyptian, for they were used not only as See also:seals but as ornaments—as in the decoration of necklaces. 5 What we learn from them merely serves to strengthen what we learn from the pottery—that the Etruscans depended on the Greek world for their artistic conceptions. Though many Phoenician gems (in fact, scarcely any other kind) have been found See also:Sardinia, these are comparatively rare in Etruria, where the earliest gems occur about 65o B.c. Some of these earliest show the Ionian influence, which is also shown in certain gold rings, but most of them represent the Attic style as seen on the black-figured vases of Athens. To under-stand them one has but to know Attic sculpture, the complete history of which is repeated in these small and beautifully worked stones. At first one finds the single figures, awkward in form and modelling, but full of life in See also:composition-one finds the same mistakes in See also:anatomy (i.e. the muscles of the See also:stomach); and then come the figures beautifully worked and accurately observed, but with the slight hardness and rigidity that belongs to all pre-Raphaelite work; and finally one See also:sees the figures carved with the easy assurance of the master, 4 Athen. i. 28. 6 Martha, L'Art etrusque, pl. 1, 4; Bull. dell'Inst. (1839) p. 46. ART] sometimes single, sometimes in groups, but always Attic in their unrivalled See also:representation of the beauties of the human figure, and in the innumerable lovely scenes taken from everyday life. Not infrequently See also:inscriptions are cut in the See also:gem, but these are not as on Greek gems the name of the See also:carver or the owner, but the name of the Greek See also:hero represented. In regard to technique one point is specially noteworthy. Many of the gems are carved with the round See also:drill, and the disks made by this are not modelled into any real semblance of a figure. This is not a sign of the antiquity of the gem, for there are examples in which together with this method will be seen a figure finished with the greatest care; it is thus evident that the gem-cutter left the marks of his round drill because of their decorative value. This they undoubtedly possess, and it is one of the few cases in which the Etruscans showed any art sense. Bronze was used extensively. Weapons of course were fashioned of it, but these are simple in shape and decoration; Bronze. no such examples as those from See also:Mycenae occur. Objects of large See also:size, as the bronze doors of See also:Veil," the chariots of See also:Perugia in the New See also:York museum, or large tripods or See also:shields, show that the artisans had large quantities of the material at their disposal. As with the vases or gems, so in these metal objects the distinction must be drawn between pure Etruscan work and the work that was done by Greek workmen or by artisans copying the Greek style. As Etruscan art has been wrongly estimated through forgetfulness of the Greek influence, so Greek bronzes have possibly received See also:credit that does not belong to them. Etruscan candelabra and vases were famous among the Greeks (See also:Ath. 28. 6; xv. 700 c). The chariots above mentioned and the tripods in the Harvard museum are plainly Greek; the round shields with See also:ornament in bands are native. Antefixes of tombs were of bronze, and in some cases the eyes of the figures were inlaid with See also:glass See also:paste. The best-known articles of bronze are the mirrors,2 which are very dependent on Greece for their models, though the poor style in which the scenes that decorate them are in most cases carved shows that these articles of common use were produced, as was natural, mainly by ordinary workmen. In rare cases the figures are not engraved but are given in See also:low See also:relief. These mirrors seem to have been mainly intended for women, and the scenes on them in large numbers of cases are of such a character as to See also:bear out this idea; for instead of scenes of See also:battle such as occur on the gems, scenes with See also:satyrs and See also:maenads are commoner, or the story of See also:Helen or the labours of See also:Hercules. So far as development goes they pass through the same stages as the gems, though owing to their larger See also:surface they are more generally decorated with groups of figures.3 An-other well-known class of work is the cistae or cylindrical bronze boxes found mostly at See also:Praeneste, where they seem to have been especially popular. The engraved figures on them are of the same character as those on the mirrors, and it is noteworthy that these figures are often better in style than the figures modelled in the round that serve as handles, or than the legs which also are modelled. This, taken together with the fact that the same figures are repeated in several cases on more than one gem or See also:mirror, makes it probable that the workmen, like the later potters of See also:Arezzo, had a stock of models brought from Greece, which they repeated and combined to suit their See also:fancy. The paintings and contents of the tombs have made it plain that the wealth of the Etruscans was very considerable, and that they spent much on jewelry, gold and silver.' Their extravagance in this regard was well known,5 and the rings, the necklaces, the diadems, the bracelets and the earrings show that there was a large class of well-to-do people. The eastern and Greek influences are clearly marked in the figures used in decoration, and in certain shapes of rings, but in 1 Plutarch, See also:Camillus, 12. 2 Gerhard, Etr. Spiegel (continued by Klugmann and Korte). 3 Mirrors of Greek style, Gerhard, III, 1I2, 116, 240, 305, 352; Klugmann-Korte, 107, 131, 160. ' See plates in Martha and in Monumenti dell' Inst., also Mon. Ant. iv. and Milani's Shale materiali. See also:Juvenal v. 164; See also:Ovid, Am. iii. 13. 25 if.859 'one technical See also:matter the Etruscans seem to have made a See also:discovery: it was in the use of granulated ornament, that is, ornament made by soldering on to the gold See also:object infinitely small globules of the same metal laid in various designs and patterns, each globule soldered by itself. Though this style of ornament occurs in Egypt, See also:Cyprus, See also:Rhodes and Magna Graecia, nowhere is it accomplished with such extraordinary minuteness as in Etruria. That they should do this was natural. The difficulty of it seems to have pleased them, for it is commoner than the earlier See also:filigree work made of See also:wire soldered on to the gold See also:base. Reference has been made to the scarabs set as ornament in the gold necklaces, and similarly we find amber used and, in the later work, See also:precious stones and pearls. As in Greece the Etruscans first carved their figures out of wood,6 but what these figures were like we can only imagine. The earliest known figures in the round are even less Sculpture. successful than the contemporary Greek work. An early See also:attempt at a See also:female bust.' is made not by casting but by riveting plates of bronze together. A See also:half life size bust in the Tyszkiewicz collection8 made probably about 600 rs.c. is See also:cast solid. Later they learned the art of hollow-casting, but their attempts to reproduce figures in the round are generally lacking in skill. One See also:reason for this was the lack of good See also:marble, the quarries at See also:Carrara not having been used till Roman times. Terra-cotta was the material most commonly used, and their skill in modelling and colouring this was great. The earlier statues of large size have perished; but there are three famous sarcophagi which show the work of Ionian Etruscan artists; 9 one is in the See also:British Museum, one in the Louvre and one in the Villa di Papa Giulio at Rome. The elaborate detail and careful work, the types of the figures and the style of their dress all point to the same Ionic origin as that of the bronze chariots already mentioned. The type of See also:sarcophagus illustrated by these examples became very common, and in the figures that decorate the covers can be traced the various influences that affected the whole of Etruscan art. In an example from Volci10 the later Attic influence is strongly marked. Such work shows little power of origination, but much of the interest taken by careful workmen by copying carefully, and the tendency that such workmen almost invariably display of overloading the subject with too much ornament and detail. The small ash-urns, either of stone or terra-cotta, are in certain ways more interesting than the more elaborate sarcophagi, for on these urns the heads of the figures reclining on one See also:elbow which form the usual decoration of the covers are often obvious attempts at See also:portraiture. Single busts" show this same desire for accurate likeness of the See also:person represented, and in this one See also:line of art the Etruscans showed a new feeling, one that found its finest expression in the hands of the later Roman portraitists. The main difference between such portraits and the Greek ones is that the Greek artist thought of his subject as illustrating character that showed itself in ways of repose and thought—the essential, lasting individuality. The Etruscan and Roman portraitist thought, on the other hand, of his subject as illustrating character in ways of See also:action; hence pure Etruscan and Roman portraits are much more tense in line, and the expression of the See also:eye is not dreamy but distinctly focussed. They are different, but, as art, one is as fine as the other. The scenes on the sides of these urns are, as in the case of the gems and mirrors, very frequently taken from Greek story, and often are scenes of battle 12 Work in relief for the friezes and the other decorations of temples was very common, and shows remarkable skill in the See also:mere processes of modelling and See also:baking the slabs of terra-cotta that were fastened by nails to the beams. So far as the figures themselves are concerned, they seem to have but little meaning in connexion with the See also:building they decorate. 6 Pliny, H.N. xiv. 9; xvi. 216. 7 From the Polledrara tomb at Vulci, Martha fig. 335. 8 See also:Coll. Tyszkiewicz, pl. 13. 9 Mon. dell' Inst. vi. pl. 59, cf. Annali (1861), p. 402; Mon. Ant. viii. pl. xiii.-xiv. 10 Mon. dell' Inst. viii. p1. 20; Martha p. 347. " Martha pp. 333, 348. 12 See Korte, Rilievi delle urne Etrusche. Gold and silver. Satyrs and maenads, chariot-races and such scenes taken over from Greek models are perhaps the commonest. In none of the obviously native work is there any more instinctive feeling for the greater qualities of sculpture than in the gems. Little is original, almost everything dependent on earlier masters. There is no absorption of the artist by his work which produces great work, great because the beholder thinks rather of the work produced than of the artist who produces it. For this reason such figures as the bronze See also:chimaera or the bronze Athena in the Florence museum are presumably not Etruscan but Greek.
There is no evidence that the Etruscans had easel-paintings like the Greeks, but their skill in See also:painting is well illustrated
by the pictures with which they frequently covered p°i°°g the inner walls of their tombs. The See also:wall was prepared with a coating of fine See also: Arms and See also:Armour.—In the early periods the chief weapons (besides bows and arrows which See also:bore See also:flint or bronze heads) were few and simple, and were of bronze. Iron ones have been found, and their rarity is doubtless partly due to their.having rusted away. Spears of, very various weights were common and also swords and daggers. These latter had straight two-edged See also:blades with the handle either of the same piece or of some other material fastened on with rivets. The blades of the daggers are generally engraved with lines and zigzags. Shields were of circular and See also:oval shape. These two were of bronze, the round ones decorated in Homeric See also:fashion with concentric circles of ornament, the motives being geometric patterns or an See also:animal repeated endlessly. Breastplates with overlapping See also:shoulder-straps and belts, broader in front than behind, with decoration of the same kind as the bucchero vases, are not uncommon. See also:Greaves and helmets completed their equipment. The former seem to have been less ornate than those the Greeks wore; the latter were of various shapes, the commonest being round caps with a knob on the top, or a deeper shape with a See also:crest from front to back. Some are shown with side-pieces raised like wings, but these are perhaps merely cheek-pieces raised on hinges. In later times they had trumpets and axes, and their arms became practically the same as the Roman, as one sees from the representations in the tombs. (R. N.) LANGUAGE r. By " Etruscan " is meant the language spoken by the people called Etrusci (more commonly Tusci) by the Romans, Turskum numen (i.e. Tuscum nomen) by their neighbours the Umbrians of See also:Iguvium (q.v.), and Tvpoiivoi (later, e.g. in Strabo's time, Tvpp-gvot) by the Greeks. Their own name for themselves was Rasenna (or Rasena), according to Dionysius Halic. (i. 30), but it seems now to be fairly probable that this was no more than the name of a leading house (represented later on in Pisa and elsewhere) dominant at some fairly early date in some one 1 See Mon. dell' Inst. i. pl. 32-33, v. 16, 17, 33, 34, Vi. 30-32, 79, viii. 36, ix. 13-15; Micali, Mon. hied. pl. 58. Cf. Helbig, Annali (1863) p. 336, (1870) pp. 5-74; See also:Brunn, ib. (1866), p. 442. 2 See also:Mommsen, Rom. Munzwesen; G. F. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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