Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/670

Rh 644 ETRURIA female figure of about life size reclining on the lid. The other (for engraving of which see Plate VIII.; is now in the British Museum, and while having a similar group of figures of about life size on the lid, is besides richly decorated with bas-reliefs round the four sides. In both sarcophagi colours are freely employed, which originally must have been slightly staring, and increase the effect of realism, which in the figures on the lids is all the more conspicuous by comparison with the reliefs, where the true early Greek spirit, as seen on the vases, is strictly maintained. The reason of this difference may partly lie in the fact ^that Greek models for the reliefs were easily enough obtained, while on the other hand Greek figures approaching in re semblance those on the lid here must at least have been very scarce. At the same time it is also to be remembered that owing to the impossibility of counting on the places where the terra-cotta might shrink, or to what extent this might go, no other treatment would be suitable except that of a bold, rough realism, the effect of which could not easily be destroyed. With the reliefs there was no such danger.. The type of face shown iu these figures is not to be taken as that of the early Etruscans, for this reason that their essential peculiarities, the sloping forehead, and eyes and the corners of the mouth turned upwards, are obviously mannered exaggerations of the early Greek style of render ing these features, for which undoubtedly there may have been some small grounds in the actual features of the people. Besides on the reliefs there is very little of this exaggeration. The attitude of the figures on the lid is that of a man and wife at a banquet scene, probably here intended to indicate the eternal banquet which appears to have been considered the lot of the happy in the next world. The sarcophagus, to judge from the inscription painted on it, was that of a lady named Thania Velai Matinai Unata. Another inscription painted along the lid reads Mi vela vesnas me vepe tursi kipa, which, according to the interpretation of Corssen (i. p. 784), is the dedication of the monument. From the character of the letters it has been thought that this sarco phagus need not be earlier than the end of the 6th century B.C., a period which would not be unsuitable to the work manship, if we allow that it may have retained many traditions from an earlier time, which in Greece generally had by then been abandoned. The relief on the front represents a combat of two armed men, of whom the one has received a mortal blow and is falling. From the wound his soul has escaped, and is seen in the shape of a winged figure bounding away on the extreme right. The soul of the victorious warrior comes tripping in on the extreme left. This manner of representing the soul recalls in some degree the sepulchral vases of the Athenians, where it appears as a small winged figure, and recalls also the psychostasia of very early times, in which the souls of two combatants were supposed to be placed in a balance and weighed against each other while the fight was pro ceeding. It will be seen also that the wounded warrior is already being devoured by the dog of the battle field, thus giving an instance of what is called prolepsis, and is not unfamiliar in early art. That is to say, the artist has attempted to realize two separate moments of the action, first the actual wounding, and secondly the consequence of it, viz., that the body of the vanquished is left to be devoured by dogs and kites, a fate which the heroes of the Iliad of ten promise their opponents inbattle. 1 That the com batants here are Achilles and Memnon is not improbable, and in this case the principal female figures will be respectively 1 A similar instance of prolepsis is when Perseus is figured cutting off the head of Medusa, and already holds at his side Pegasus, the winged horse, which did not spring from her until her head was entirely off. their mothers Thetis and Eos, each with an attendant; the male attendant on each side perhaps was attached to the warriors themselves. The stoiy begins on one of the ends of the sarcophagus with the two warriors parting for battle; in the front is the combat; on the other end the mourning, and on the back the eternal banquet. The feet are formed by four sirens in their capacity as daughters of the earth sent by Persephone to assist mourners to wail for the dead (Euri pides, Helena, 167). In other cases the sirens were thought of as carrying away the souls of the dead, as on the Harpy monument from Xanthus in Lycia. The later urns and sarcophagi will be found collected in Brunn s Rilievi delle Urne Etrusche, Home, 1870. Vase Painting. It has been proved that the great mass Vases, of painted vases found in Etruria, and familiarly called Etruscan, are productions of Greek workmen. The subjects, the style, and the inscriptions are all Greek. But side by side with them are certain undoubtedly Etruscan vases, the very small number of which would suggest that in this direction at least the Greek models defied imitation if in deed the attempts in question did not clearly show this. At the same time it must be admitted that between the early Corinthian vases of about the 7th century B.C., dis covered in Etruria, and the probably contemporary speci mens of native work there is no very great difference. It was the later development which the Etruscans could not follow. Specimens of early imitation found at Caere will be seen engraved in the Monumenti d. Inst. Arch. Eom., vi. pis. 14, 15, 33, 36 ; vi.-vii., pi. 73, the peculiarities of which, such as in costume, type of face, disproportion between figures of men and of animals, are pointed out iu detail by Helbig, Annali d. Inst. Arch. Horn., xxxv., p. 210, fol. The style of the originals, including the correct degree of subordination in the design to the vase which it adorns, is lost, and in its place stands out a certain gross reality in conflict with the form of the vase. It does not follow that these imitations were made contemporary with the originals (about the end of the 7th century B.C.), but a strong argument in favour of such a view might be found, in a vase from the Polledrara tomb at Vulci, the antiquities of which have been shown to belong to this period. The vase in question like the others has a design purely Greek in its subject and general treatment Theseus struggling with the Minotaur, while Ariadne holds the clue, a chorus, chariots, and centaurs with human forelegs. But it differs in this respect, that the outlines of the figures are drawn with a crude red colour upon the varnished surface of the vase, not as in other cases on spaces left unvarnished. From that circumstance, and from the general effect of these Cjeretan vases as compared with the reliefs on the large sarcophagus, just described, from the same locality, it will be seen that the skilled workman of Etruria turned more readily to modelling in terra-cotta than to the complicated and difficult process of vase-painting. As regards the few attempts made in late times it may be said that they also fail in the direction of grossness. See, for example, the vase in the British Museum with Ajax falling on his sword and Action defending himself from his hounds. Mention, however, should be made of one specimen in the Museum collection where all the technical skill of a Greel^potter is displayed, and its Etruscan origin revealed only by the subject and by certain details familiar in the mirrors. The composition of the scenes is in some respects like that of a picture with perspective, which, while it is not a feature of Greek vases, can neither be called Etruscan on the ground of any known analogy. Mural painting. The mural paintings of the Etruscans Mural are known only from their tombs, the inner walls of which r ailltir it was not unusual to decorate in this manner, the work being executed on a prepared ground of white stucco, and