Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/237

 Etruscan Sculpture. 207 a group in terra-cotta, and surmounted by a quadriga (a chariot with four horses) of the same material. Many of the Etruscan bronze works still existing are very ancient. Amongst them, the famous Chimsera at Florence, and the She-Wolf in the Capitoline Museum, Rome,* are probably the earliest. The finest examples of large bronze statues are the Orator in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, the Boy with the Goose in the Museum of Leyden, and the statue of the Young Warrior, erroneously called Mars, found at Todi, and now in the Museum of the Vatican. The Museum of Florence also contains several small bronze Etruscan works of great value ; of these the Idolino, probably a Mercury, and a group of two warriors carrying a wounded comrade, are the chief. Many sarcophagi and urns, in alabaster, terra-cotta, or stone, belonging to a later period when Greek influence was sensibly felt in every part of Italy, are preserved in different museums. Figures of the deceased repose upon the lids, and the sides are adorned with high reliefs, representing the fate of the soul in the other world, or the festive scenes in which the departed figured in life. Some of these groups are of real artistic beauty, and may almost be called ideal conceptions. The exquisite symmetry of the shape of the Etruscan vetri antichi (antique glass objects) entitles them to notice. They consist of vases of every description — amphorae, flagons, goblets, chased and enamelled glasses, etc.f f Most of these glasses, having been buried for centuries, are stained with a thin film, the result of partial mineral decomposition of the surf ace, which produces the most beautiful variegated colours. The Italians call this coating patina.
 * A cast is in the South Kensington Museum.