Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/664

Rh 640 E T R U R I A with the stater as its unit and the drachme as its half, and with apparently the same sign of the half as that used at Athens for the hemiobol (Mommsen, Rbmisches Miinzwesen, p. 218). Tuscan architecture, essentially Greek, approaches most closely to the early Ionic-Attic style. The general impression, however, has been that it was through Corinth rather than through Athens that Etruria came into contact with Greek art, and this not so much because of the legend just quoted as because both Corinth and Etruria enjoyed the same high reputation in antiquity for unrivalled skill of working in terra-cotta and in bronze. But doubtless there were many different sources of contact. As regards skill in the execution of artistic designs, it would seem as if all that the Etruscans* ever attained in this direction had been learnt from the Greeks, and, it will be fair to suppose, from Greeks resident among them. But when we come to the subjects of these designs, it is clear that there is a difference between the early and late works in this respect, that, while in the latter the subjects as well as the style are almost always Greek, in the former there are certain obviously Oriental features. Under the circum stances it could scarcely have been otherwise, since at least from the 4th century B.C. onwards the Greeks ruled supreme in matters of art, whereas in the early period of the 7th and 6th centuries, their artistic productions, though then also doubtless by far the best attainable, had yet to compete against those of the Phoenicians or their kinsmen the Carthaginians, who in fact had been longer in the market. The characteristic of Phoenician art was its mixture and blending of the two elements of design, originally peculiar to Assyria and Egypt, upon which was afterwards engrafted, when the Greek style had developed itself, a distinctly Greek element. That Phoenician productions of the earlier class were imported into Etruria is seen for example in the silver vases from the Regulini-Galassi tomb at Caere (J/s. Etrusco Vaticano, i., pi. 63-66), which, always suspected to have been Phoenician, were proved to be such from their identity of style with another silver vase found at Pneneste in 1875, and bearing a Phoenician inscription (Momtmenti dell Inst. Arch. Rom., x., pi. 32, fig. 1). This again is artistically identical with the silver paterse from Cyprus, descriptions of which are collected by Helbig in the Annali deli Inst. Arch., 1876, p. 199-204. Further evidence of Phoenician importations is to be found in the porcelain vases with hieroglyphics already mentioned, in the ostrich eggs ornamented with designs from a tomb at Vulci, and now in the British Museum, and in the richly engraved shell of the species Tridacna squamosa peculiar to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, also now in the British Museum. At the same time, even if this importation of works of art had been on a much greater scale than there is as yet reason to suppose it to have been, it is clear that all the artistic influence derivable in this way must have been small compared with that which would naturally have been exercised on the Etruscans by the Greek colonists of Italy, and still more by the Greek artists who had made Etruria their home, as may be inferred from the legend already quoted. (See Mommsen, History of Rome, Eng. TransL, i., p. 248, who says, &quot; The Italians may have bought from the Phoenicians; they learned only from the Greeks ; and again, p. 247, &quot; Italian art developed itself not under PhcenTcian but exclusively under Hellenic influence.&quot;) Besides, the Oriental features of which mention has been made in early Etruscan art were in point of fact common in a high degree to early Greek art also, and it may have been through this channel that they found their way, rather than by direct contact with the Phoenicians or Carthaginians. In dealing with the artistic remains of the Etruscans, it will be more convenient to take them in classes, according to their material or the purpose they served, than in groups of a historical sequence. Strictly speaking there appears to be no historical development in them. There are archaic works, there are very late works, and there are works of a middle stage, but there is no growth from one to the other. The process of change consists of a leap to the next new phase of art developed by the Greeks, who, so to speak, set the fashion. It happens also that certain classes of objects went out of use or came into use with particular periods of art, and with the aid of this circumstance it will be possible to observe something approaching a historical order. We begin with the scarabs. /Scarabs. These are gems consisting usually of carneliau Scai or banded agate, cut in the form of beetles (scarabtei), and having a flat face on which a design is engraved in intaglio. They are pierced transversely, and were attached by swivels to rings either to be worn on the finger or to be hung on a chain round the neck. The form of the scarab suggests an origin in Egypt, where, in fact, they have been found in great numbers. But excepting the form there is singularly little in common between tho scarabs of Etruria and of Egypt. This is the more remarkable since the Carthaginians, from whom or from the Phoenicians it is naturally supposed the Etruscans had obtained the notion of this form of ornament, have left in Sardinia (at Tharros, Sulcis, and Cagliari) con siderable numbers of scarabs, the designs of which are for the most part, though not purely Egyptian, yet obviously derived from that source. These Sardinian scarabs are cut in green jasper, the favourite material in Egypt, or occasionally in porcelain or glass, materials equally utilized in that country. Then also there is the fact that as yet only one or two scarabs have been found in Greece, and indeed very few engraved gems of any shape showing a fairly developed art comparable with that of the Etruscan scarabs, so that from both sides it would seem as if the Etruscans must have been dependent for models in this branch of their art on the Phoenicians or Carthaginians. On the other hand, there was a law of Solon s (Diog. Laert. i. 57) forbidding gem-engravers to keep casts or seals of rings engraved by them, and from this it is to be inferred that in his time the art was practised with the success then attending the other arts. This being admitted, the result obtained from an examination of the scarabs becomes clear. The designs, with few exceptions, are purely Greek, and as a rule they indicate the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. as the period of their origin ; that is to say, the work manship on them corresponds to the Greek workmanship of that period. So also the subjects represented. If, for instance, we take either the remains of Greek art or the existing descriptions of works executed at this time but now lost, e.g., the chest of Cypselus (Pausanias, v. 17), (he throne of Apollo at Amyclse (Pausanias, iii. 18), and the paintings of Polygnotus at Delphi (Pausanias, x. 25 31), it will be seen that the chief delight of artists was then in rendering the exploits of heroes, and that figures of deities occur in comparison very rarely. Nor is this remarkable, since it was in this period that the Greeks carried the worship of their heroic but legendary ancestors to its highest point. The same result will be found Jin the Etruscan scarabs, if we take as fairly representative the collection in the British Museum. Out of 197 specimens, excluding those which are of too rude workmanship to be of interest in the question, 167 have subjects drawn entirely from Greek legends of heroes ; of the remainder 10 represent Greek divinities, 18 such fabulous beings as centaurs, gorgons, satyrs, sirens, and harpies, all more or less connected with the heroic legends of Greece. Only two give native Etruscan deities or personifications. (See Contemporary Review, 1875, p. 729.) An entirely similar state of things will be found by reference to the lists of