Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/669

Rh E T R U 11 I A 643 vases, is reproduced with the difference that the attributes of Heracles (bow and club) are given to Peleus. In the FIG. A. Bronze Mirror: Msenad. From Gerhard, pi. 96. mirrors just mentioned the figures are rendered in low, flat relief, but this is very exceptional. In other cases also the groups appear to be taken from the centres of pediment sculptures on temples, the figures, diminishing in scale towards each side, being made to fit into the narrowing circle of the mirror. Artistically they may be arranged in three classes. The first is an archaic style, in which the subjects, drapery, and general treatment of the figures have much of a local Etruscan character, though still on the model of early Greek work ; the second a free style, where everything seems Greek of about the 4th century B.C., except the names of the persons inscribed in Etruscan. Mirrors of this style have been found in Latiurn at Praeneste, along with bronze cistae similarly decorated with engraved designs; occasionally both on the cistoe and the mirrors are inscriptions in early Latin. The finest example of theso utensils is that known as the Ficoroni cista, which, but for its bearing the name of a Latin artist, might be regarded as an excellent example of Greek art in the 4th century B.C., at which period it appears to have been largely spread in Latium as well as Etruria (Miiller, Denkmaler, No. 309, and Bronsted, Den Ficoroniske Cista, Copenhagen, 1847). Thethird is a late and barbarous native style. The range of subjects is wide. Still it will be noticed that the almost exclusive use of mirrors by women has rendered subjects otherwise familiar, such as scenes of war, inappropriate. The labours of Heracles were much admired, as were incidents in the story of Helen, yet neither of them occur so frequently as scenes between satyrs and maenads, or the common representation of ladies at their toilet. In great numbers, but always on small or poor ex amples, appear certain figures which have been identified as the Cabin, and in any case seem to have been household genii. A small number of circular mirror-cases have been found, ornamented with reliefs, of which both the subjects and the execution are in the majority of instances purely Greek, of a comparatively late period. Of skill in bronze casting there is little evidence among the Etruscan remains. In one specimen in the British Mu seum from Sessa on the Volturno (see COSTUME, voL vi. p. 455, fig. 6), a core of iron has been employed, which by ex panding has burst the figure down the side ; and again in another specimen in the national collection a female bust from the Polledrara tomb (Grotta of Isis) at Vulci, it will be seen that the art of casting was unknown when it was executed. It is made of a number of thin pieces of bronze plate beaten out into the form of parts of the bust, and all fastened together, sometimes with fine nails, but apparently also in places with some sort of solder. On the other hand, to judge from the vases found in this tomb, which are made of pieces rivetted together with nails, it would seem as if solder could hardly have been known. The same process of uniting parts together occurs in the very ancient silver relief from Perugia (Millingen, Uned. Man., pt. ii. pi. 14). The bust from Vulci, and the vases and other antiquities discovered with it, are engraved in Micali (Mon. Ined., pi. vi.-viii.) It will be seen from the porcelain vases and scarabs among them bear ing hieroglyphics, and from the ostrich eggs with designs resem bling those of the early Corin thian vases, that the origin of the contents of this tomb properly belongs, not only to a period of intercourse with Egypt, but to a period when that intercourse was conducted by the Phoeni cians, who alone knew how to adapt designs from the Greeks on the one hand, as well as from the Egyptians on the other. In deed, one of the scarabs bears the cartouche of Psammetichus, whose date is 6C6 B.C. ; and FIG. 4. Bronze Statuette. though it might have been made Brit. Mus. From Micali, considerably after this time, it P 1 - xiil&amp;gt; fi S- * obviously could not have come into existence before. On the whole, 600 B.C. may be set down as probably the date of these antiquities. As regards the mass of exist ing statuettes cast in the round, they bear generally, except in the matter of dress, distinct evidence of Greek origin, not only in the style and execution, but also in the subjects (see fig. 4). Still it is noticeable, especially among the later specimens, that a very marked spirit of realism is blended with the original idealism of the Greek prototypes. This realism of the Etruscans comes out very strikingly iu the portrait sculpture of their sarcophagi, and probably was a phase of artistic capacity which they shared with tho Romans. The purpose of these bronze statuettes was to surmount vases and candelabra, or to serve as handles of mirrors. Terra-cottas. The skilful modelling of terra-cotta, for which the Etruscans were celebrated, was, it appears, chiefly directed to the production of ornamental tiles, sarcophagi, and statues, rather than those small and mostly gracefu statuettes which are found in large numbers in Greek localities. The statues which were placed on the pediments of temples have naturally perished. Specimens of the tiles and a large number of sarcophagi, however, remain, t latter being for the most part of a late period, and execute under the influence of a completely developed Greek art Fortunately two sarcophagi of the greatest interest study of the early art of Etruria have been found at Caere. The one, now in the Louvre (engraved, Mon. d. Inst. Arch. Pom., vi. pi. 59 : cf. Annali, 1861, p. 402). has a male and Terra- ottas.