_The Museum,[104] and Tomb of the Volumnii_
Having traced the first Etruscan walls and seen the tomb of the
Volumnii, a note of sombre and half melancholy interest will inevitably
have been struck upon our mind whilst trying to realise the lives of
those mysterious people who created these things and left these dumb
indications--dumb, because the language is so dead--upon the country
where they lived and died. This note is of course by no means confined
to the mind of the passing traveller. It is the people of the place
itself who feel it most, and in Perugia, thanks to their efforts, we
have, in the museum at the University, a very complete, if only a small
collection of the relics of Etruscan civilization as found in the
immediate neighbourhood. In a small book written by Signor Lupatelli
upon the growth of the museum, we read that the noble families of the
place have always loved to trace their earliest ancestors by carefully
collecting any sarcophagi or other relics which they found upon their
lands. In this way the Museum has been formed, and a crowd of tombs,
laid open by the plough or winter rains, have been preserved with all
their treasures in them.[105]
The study of the Etruscans is, after all, the study of the dead, and an
Etruscan Museum has about it all the mysterious atmosphere of the tomb.
What barrier greater, what ocean more profound, than that between
ourselves and this dead people! Their tombs, their busts, their
playthings and inscriptions seem to chill the very air around them.
Ordinary people, not students of archæology, must face this fact quite
boldly and come prepared to plunge head foremost into a very chilly
atmosphere if they wish to learn about the ancient Etruscans. The
present writers are bound to confess, that, on glad spring mornings,
they have turned from the sarcophagi and the bronzes and terra-cotta
vases in the cases to look with undisguised delight through the windows
of the museum and up beyond to the brown roofs of the wicked old
mediæval city opposite. The Duomo with all the blood upon its steps, the
Piazza with all its passionate and burning history, seemed to them more
real, more sympathetic, than the uneventful countenances, the harmless
funereal urns, of this quiet race of men, who lived and died over one
thousand years before our era.
"Les Tyrènes," says M. André Lefèvre, "durant leur longue
domination _sont restés des étrangers, c'est ce qui explique
pourquoi leur langue et leurs dieux ont disparu avec leur
puissance_, et pourquoi nous sommes réduits à fouiller leurs
tombeaux pour connaître leur vie. C'est de leurs demeures
funéraires que nous exhumons aujourd'hui leurs industries, leurs
arts, leurs festins, leurs danses, leurs jeux, leurs pompeuses
cérémonies triomphales, et leurs nuptiales, et aussi leur courte
philosophie faite de fatalisme et d'insouciance."
[Illustration: VIA DELLA PERA UNDER THE AQUEDUCT ON THE WAY TO THE
UNIVERSITY]
It is probable that when the Rasenae first arrived in central Italy,
they were still an almost barbarous nation, and that their arts and
civilization were developed later in their northern settlements, in
Tuscany and Umbria. They seem to have adopted little from the races who
preceded them in Italy, though some say that they learned the art of
statuary from these still more mysterious people; but, being, as we
know, themselves a sea-faring nation they may have taken their first
conceptions of art from the Carthaginians and Phoenicians, and in this
way they might easily have come in contact with the art of Egypt and of
Carthage. But by far the strongest influence was that of Greece. This
they perhaps felt first in Greece itself, and later through their
contact with Greek settlers in Italy.
* * * * *
The Etruscans were a receptive people; they easily grasped a new idea,
and carried it out with careful precision, though with rounded edges, so
to speak. The spirit of the inspiration of pure art is lacking in their
work. They were excellent craftsmen, and Rome is said to have learned
certain points in the uses of casting metal and in masonry from Etruscan
artisans. They were also an agricultural people, who did much towards
improving the soil wherever they settled. The Etruscans were a very
religious, or at least a superstitious race, full of faith in augury,
constantly consulting natural oracles, such as the flight of birds and
variations of the atmosphere, and, like the Greeks, they had their
household gods or _lares_. The Medusa's head is for ever recurring in
their monuments and on their house-doors. Having some strong belief in
the immortality of the human soul, they crowded their dead with gifts,
putting their most elaborate work upon the tombs, and giving to the
corpse all the necessaries for a long journey to a distant land, or for
a possible reawakening. They had different modes of burial. Usually the
body was burned, but sometimes--and we have admirable instances of this
in the Perugian Museum--it was simply buried in a stone sarcophagus.
Women were respected and held a high position in society. This fact is
clearly shown by their prominence upon the tombs, where they sit side by
side with their husbands, as they were probably in the habit of doing at
their feasts. The toilet was also respected, and the dead took as many
pots of balsam to the grave as they took tear-bottles. The richer bodies
have a wonderful array of dressing-table nicknacks at their head and
feet, and the loveliest and most careful work in the whole museum is
that upon the hand-mirrors (see Case 12, Room vi.), which were also
probably laid in the tomb of the beloved dead.
* * * * *
The chief interest in this museum of Perugia is the wealth of its
inscriptions. The passages are lined with them, and a catalogue or
dictionary has been made of them. The Etruscans lived side by side with
the Romans and the Greeks, and often we find inscriptions written in
both languages upon one tomb; yet, though the two latter peoples were
the greatest scholars of the world, the Etruscan language is dead to us
for all practical purposes; and the longest Etruscan inscription which
is known--the pride of the Perugian Museum--is little better than a
blank wall to all who look to it for purposes of study.[106]
The Etruscans lived luxurious lives, but their race ran long upon the
soil of Italy. As far as it can be traced, their rule, or at least their
occupation, lasted for about twelve centuries. By the beginning of the
Christian era they were already dying out.
M. André Lefèvre gives the following final summing up of the influence
of the Etruscans upon the greater nation which gradually took their
place:--
"Bien que, même aux temps de leur plus grande puissance ils n'aient
pu imposer ni leur langue ni leurs dieux à des peuples établis
depuis mille ans sur le sol Italien, leur part n'en a pas moins été
considérable dans la civilisation Latine. Leur influence a été
moindre sur les hommes que sur les choses, sur l'esprit que sur les
formes extérieures, cérémonielles et rituelles,--qui, à leur tour,
affectent les institutions et les moeurs. Ils ont appris aux
Romains à bâtir des maisons et des temples, à ordonner les festins,
les processions, les pompes triomphales et les jeux sanglants du
cirque. Les meubles, les sièges, les statues, les licteurs, le
costume, la bulle d'or des enfants patriciens, sont aussi d'origine
Étrusque. Enfin, ils ont ajouté aux superstitions déja si
nombreuses des Latins et des Sabins la science, si ce n'est pas
profaner un tel mot, la science augurale, élevée au rang
d'institution politique, perpétuant ainsi, au sein d'une
civilisation avancée, les plus niaises pratiques de la sauvagerie
la plus infinie."
As it would have been impossible in the slight scope of this small book
to give any detailed account of the different objects in the Perugian
museum, we have thought it wiser to offer the above sketch of the
Etruscans themselves, adding only some promiscuous notes about the
collections for those who care to read them as they pass through the
different rooms. The new Catalogue by Signor Donati, the profound works
of Count Conestabile and Signor Vermiglioli, and the delightful chapter
in Dennis' _Etruria_ contain all the information that a genuine student
will desire.
ROOM II.
CASE A.
No. 5. A Medusa's head in terra-cotta; exquisite and of unusually
careful workmanship. This head was probably one of those plaques or
tablets which were put up by the Etruscans over the lintel of their
house-doors to keep away the evil spirits. The Medusa is commonly
used in this way, and we find her constantly in tombs and other
places. Her face is usually calm, and often lovely, though in this
instance it is calculated to strike terror, as well as admiration,
into the mind of any witch or evil spirit. Beside it are two
tablets of the same sort, but much coarser in treatment and design,
and apparently worked under Egyptian influences.
* * * * *
No. 12. Some charming pieces of Etruscan glass; small tear and
balsam bottles; also some larger bottles, square in form. These
latter were probably used for medicines. Their chief interest lies
in the fact that they bear the stamp of their Etruscan makers.
* * * * *
No. 6. A row of terra-cotta _pateræ_, such as the dead hold in
their hands on tombs.
* * * * *
No. 9. A plateful of little glass balls, which shine like handfuls
of the most lustrous emeralds and opals in the dim light of the
Museum. These were used as counters by the Etruscans in their games
of dice, and it is thought that they were put into the graves of
habitual gamblers, so that the soul of the dead man, during its
passage to eternity, should not be denied the consolation of its
favourite diversion.
* * * * *
No. 27. Some beautiful fragments of feet, heads, and arms. It has
been supposed that the Etruscans often made whole statues of wood
or of some such cheap material, only giving to the extremities the
careful work required by terra-cotta. Hence these apparently
disconnected relics.
CASES B. AND C.
Most of the objects in this case came from Chiusi and are made of
the black ware called _bucchero_. Some are Etruscan, some of an
even earlier origin. All along the top of the case are some quite
simple cinerary urns of a different form to the vases inside the
cases, which latter were designed more for decoration in rich men's
houses.
* * * * *
No. 5. Two beautiful trays or toilet tables belonging to the
Etruscan ladies. Looking at these one seems to understand the
elaborate wigs on the heads of those ladies who smile upon the tops
of their sarcophagi. Several objects in Case D. explain them
further.
No. 4. A lovely line of graceful vases, good illustrations of the
imitative power of the Etruscans. Not only the forms, but even the
shining texture of the Grecian bronze, is here copied in
_bucchero_.
* * * * *
No. 8. These vases are the work of those people who preceded the
Etruscans in Umbria. The forms are simple, the patterns purely
geometrical.
CASE D
Nos. 2, 3. Some quite common earthenware urns for the ashes of the
poor who could neither afford tombs nor inscriptions. On one or two
of these a name is scratched in rough black paint, probably with
the finger, and as a last token to the dead from someone who had
loved him.
* * * * *
No. 7. Some earthenware bottles corresponding to the beautiful
glass ones in Case A: those in earthenware were used for the tombs
of the poor.
ROOM III.
SARCOPHAGI.
This room has a selection of the most interesting Sarcophagi in the
museum. The corridors outside, and the staircase also, are filled
with other specimens of more or less interest.
There is always a certain monotony in a collection of Etruscan
tombs or sarcophagi, and the ordinary person wearies easily of the
recumbent figures which lie so stolidly in effigy upon the lids of
their own burial urns, with an expression of comfortable
contentment on their somewhat unexciting and uneventful
countenances. They seem, one and all of them, like persons who have
fallen asleep on peaceful days with easy consciences,--persons
whose hope of heaven is as slight as their fear of hell. They are,
most of them, middle-aged, the pathos of old age, the hope and the
passion of youth, is lacking in their faces. Their charm is to be
sought in their extreme repose.
There are several forms of tombs in the Perugian collection, that
with the recumbent figures on the lid being probably the one used
by the richer and more prosperous families. With few exceptions the
work on the sarcophagi is rather coarse--a singular and persistent
monotony of subject is displayed. The simpler forms have either a
rose or a Medusa on their front panels, the more elaborate are
ornamented with subjects from the Greek mythology, which seem to
clash at times with the conventional figures on their lids. The
story of Iphigenia is a favourite theme for the sarcophagi of
women.
On those of men, battles and boar-hunts figure largely, the labours
of Hercules too, and fights with the Amazons. It is probable that
these cases were kept in stock, and that when one was needed, the
order was simply given to add a face, a portrait face of man or
woman, to the figure, and sometimes an inscription. Most of the
figures hold the familiar _pateræ_ in their hand, others clasp
their long and heavy necklaces, some of them carry a flower--a
lotus, maybe, or a rose.
There was one quite different form of burial, when the whole body
was preserved in a stone sarcophagus. Sometimes the corpse must
have first undergone some kind of disintegration in the earth, as,
in one or two cases, we find the bones gathered together in a small
urn, into which the whole body could never have been pushed. At
other times it was stretched full length in its long stone case.
Infinitely pathetic is the figure of an Etruscan lady in the
corridor. There she lies just as they found her, exposed to the
most casual observer, with all the requisites for an exquisite
toilet upon the resurrection morning: her hot-water can, her
_strigil_, her looking-glass, her pins, the money to pay her
passage across the river to Eternity--nay, even the little metal
weights she wore to keep her long straight skirts in order--all
laid out carefully beside her, and nothing of the beauty left
beyond her white and shining teeth.
* * * * *
Faint traces of colour linger on some of these sarcophagi. Note No.
8. The hair of the Medusa is painted a delicate lilac hue, and the
acanthus leaves which encircle it are blue like the sky in spring
time.
* * * * *
No. 23. An exception to the usual design of Greek mythology. The
defence of a city--dare we say of Perugia--is here depicted. The
men are fighting beneath the walls; and in the towers above, a row
of valiant ladies are preparing to crush them with large and heavy
stones.
* * * * *
No. 30. These much smaller sarcophagi are made of terra cotta and
come from Chiusi. In many of them the dead are represented in a new
way; they have fallen asleep wrapped in long thin veils which cover
the entire figure.
ROOM IV.
CASE A.
No. 9. Some good specimens of Etruscan helmets, one of them with
flaps of iron to protect the ears of the warriors. We learn clearly
in this room that the Etruscans wore elaborate armour--helmets,
belts, greaves, and bronze and iron spear-heads being plentifully
represented.
CASE B.
No. 31. _Pempobolo_ or _graffio_--an instrument used for stirring
the bodies of the dead as they burned, and for raking in the ashes
afterwards.
* * * * *
No. 35. _Cottabu._ This strange looking implement was probably used
for a kind of game practised at Etruscan feasts. It is supposed
that at the end of a feast, when the guests grew merry, a toast was
proposed, and that a glass was put on the tray at the top of the
pole just under the little deity, and then carried round the room.
The broader plate below was put to catch the wine as it fell with
the swinging of this most ungainly instrument.
CASE D.
Nos. 10 to 33, 40 to 60. A collection of small metal images, Lari,
or household gods, most of them very Greek in treatment, some of
them archaic.
Nos. 34 to 40. A collection of lead missiles for slings. These are
inscribed with words of the most marked abuse designed for the
enemy. On one of them is written: (in Latin characters) "For thy
right eye"--the sort of naïve thing a schoolboy might design.
ROOM V.
"As beautiful pottery like that of Vulci and Tarquinii is very
rarely found at Perugia, it seems probable that it was not
manufactured on the spot," writes Dennis. And if one has seen the
various other local Etruscan Museums in Italy, one will feel
decidedly disappointed in the vase-room at Perugia. One or two
interesting points may however be noted. It is strange to mark the
difference between the two separate classes of vases, between the
genuine Greek work, which the Etruscans had the good taste to
prize, and that of their own imitations of it. Note Nos. 3, 5, 14,
all of which are probably Etruscan copies from real Greek vases.
They are like the imitative sketches of children, lacking in
understanding and in feeling, and pathetic in their clumsy failure.
Nos. 7, 8, 10, and 12, are all specimens probably of real Greek
work.
No. 22. A fine terra-cotta vase--probably genuine Etruscan
work--with four heads of Bacchus at the base.
ROOM VI.
The gems of the museum may be said to have been gathered together
in this room, and the object which at once attracts one on entering
is the large sarcophagus of an Etruscan gentleman and his evil
genius, or Fate, which stands by the east window. Dennis has an
admirable description of it: "An Etruscan of middle age," he says,
"is reclining in the usual costume and attitude of the banquet,
with a bossed phiala in his left hand, and his right resting on his
knee. At his feet squats a hideous old woman, stunted and deformed,
whose wings show her to be a demon. She seizes one of his toes with
her right hand and grasps his right wrist with her left. (Some
authorities say she is feeling the pulse of the dying man.) She
turns her head to look at him, yet he appears quite unconscious of
her presence. She doubtless represents the Moira or Fate, whose
touch deprives him of life. The monument is from Chiusi, and of the
fetid limestone of that district. Both heads are moveable, and the
bodies hollow, proving that this, which looks like the lid of a
sarcophagus, is itself a cinerary urn."
No. 18. An Etruscan helmet of the finest work.
No. 14. Two exquisite sarcophagi differing in every way from the
one described above. So flowery is the work upon them that one
scarcely realises to what dark ages they belong. The terra-cotta
seems just baked, the paint is sticking to it. The griffins and sea
horses, the portraits on the lids, all are most exquisitely
treated.
No. 12. The wonderful mirrors in this case have been admirably
described by Dennis (see page 428). The one with the story of Helen
engraved on it (No. 11) is quite one of the loveliest pieces of
work ever discovered in the soil of Etruria.
No. 3. A sarcophagus with the most delightful procession depicted
upon its panels. There has been a good deal of discussion about the
subject represented. Some say it is a migration, or a colony going
forth to fulfil the vow of sacred spring; others that it is a
procession going to a sacrifice. Dennis suggests another
interpretation. "It seems to me," he says, "much more satisfactory
to suppose that it is a return from a successful foray. There are
captives bound, and made to carry their own property for the
benefit of their victors; their women behind, not bound, but
accompanying their lords, their faithful dog following them into
captivity, their beasts of burden laden with their gods; their
weapons and agricultural implements carried by one of the guards
and their cattle driven on by the rest." The sacrifice is the most
probable interpretation, for there is something solemn and sinister
about the composition. Not only criminals but also human victims
are being taken along by the fascinating but inexorable guards. The
treatment of the figures is very archaic, and yet it is realistic.
The long-eared goats, the horses and the mules step forward with an
engaging regularity. Their shepherds or their leaders turn, as such
people invariably do turn, to gesticulate and to explain among
themselves upon the way. The two side panels represent
banquet-scenes, banquets, we may imagine, which were given to
commemorate whatever event the procession itself was leading to.
The work on this Sarcophagus has been ascribed to the fifth century
before Christ.
No. 8. Under a glass shade, a strange little figure in bronze about
14 inches high, representing Hygiea, the Goddess of Health
(daughter of Æsculapius) or, as some say, the Genius of Long Life.
Smaller figure under same glass represents Telesphorus, the genius
of convalescence, seated, entirely enveloped in a cloak.
ROOM VII.
has a rather miscellaneous collection of later Roman and Etruscan
work, also some objects from Cyprus.
No. 36. A little tomb where the door is left half open, the key
hung up upon a peg, perhaps to show that the spirit is free to
wander in and out.
ROOMS VIII. AND IX.
contain the private collection of Count Guadabassi collected by him
throughout a life-time and from very different places, and left to
the town at his death with the request that their original
arrangement should be preserved. Thus the impression of the whole
is somewhat distracting to a student. One of the greatest treasures
of the Museum is in
ROOM VIII.
CASE H.
A very beautiful Etruscan mirror with Bacchus, or a Bacchante,
riding on a panther upon the cover. Two good mirrors in the same
case, and a fine Etruscan gold ornament, with figures delicately
traced upon it.
[Illustration: ETRUSCAN MIRROR IN GUADABASSI COLLECTION]
To the right of the door, a white marble _oscillum_ or slab, with
the figure of Archimenes on one side, and on the other the portrait
of a juggler taming snakes. This was probably put up outside the
house or booth of a juggler, and served as his sign.
CASE L.
Some good bits of Etruscan jewellery. One necklace with a large bit
of glass like an opal, set in gold and precious stones; also some
very delicate Etruscan earrings, with golden nets of filagree on a
gold ground.
CASE H.
Some specimens of Etruscan money. The pieces were valued according
to their weight, and form seemed quite a secondary consideration.
CASE P.
A collection of _strigils_, or brass scrapers, to be used after the
bath. Some of these were evidently used as ornaments (hung from an
elegant bracelet or ring), which leads one to imagine that the bath
was a rarity with the Etruscans, and the _strigil_ an object of
luxury and decoration rather than of frequent use.
ROOM IX.
CASE G.
A fine collection of gems. A little tomb, with pent-roof and tiles
in the shape of violet leaves (unnumbered).
* * * * *
The following rooms of the museum, from Room X., contain various
mediæval and renaissance works. The only point we would mention
here is the case which holds the bones of the mighty man of
Perugia: Braccio Fortebraccio di Montone.
There they lie, bare and grim before us. Poor bones, insulted by a
Pope, buried and then unburied, and now laid out for any man to
look at! There is a note of pathos in the sight, which the
inscription does not lessen.
HOSPES LEGE ET LUGE.
Perusiæ natum Montonium me exulem excepit.
Mars patriam Umbriam et Capuam mihi subegit.
Roma paruit Italia theatrum spectator orbis fuit.
At Aquila cadentem risit quem patria lugens brevi hac urna tegit.
Eheu! Mars extulit, Mors substulit.
Abi.
A portrait of Braccio hangs above his coffin--a strong pugnacious
countenance, differing quite from his other portrait in the
Confraternità di San Francesco. On the opposite wall is a picture
of Niccolò Piccinino.
To close these notes on the museum we would mention another private
museum in Perugia full of extraordinary interest; that of Professore
Giuseppe Bellucci, in the Via Cavour.
* * * * *
Prof. Bellucci has made a special study of the people who preceded the
Etruscans in Umbria, and, after years of careful search and
indefatigable energy, has accumulated a grand collection of objects
belonging to the stone age, and to the earliest settlers on the hills.
Arrow heads, battleaxes from Trasimene, pottery and ornaments of
infinite variety, are carefully stored and arranged in the top rooms of
one of the most charming of the old Perugian palaces; also a surprising
collection of amulets against witches and the evil eye, of which Prof.
Bellucci has made a special study. This museum can be visited by anyone
who is interested in the subject, and its owner is always willing to
show it.[107]
THE TOMB OF THE VOLUMNII.
About three miles from Perugia, down at the foot of one of the last
hills which fall into the valley of the Tiber, a mysterious necropolis
of _Perusia Etrusca_ was discovered many years ago on the property of
Count Baglioni. It was a big necropolis full of innumerable urns of more
or less artistic interest, and the land about the hill seemed
honeycombed with small vaults holding their respective sarcophagi and
ashes.
Some time later--so tradition tells us--whilst a peasant was driving his
oxen over a field in this same place one of the oxen fell forward. When
the man came up to see what had happened, he found that the creature
had stumbled through the stones of a great arch which covered a
hitherto unsuspected subterranean passage.[108]
When the hole thus made was examined it was found to be in truth a steep
staircase cut in the tufa and covered over by a travertine vaulting. It
led steeply down to a huge door of travertine, and when this was opened,
the wonderful tomb, belonging to the private family of the Volumnii, was
disclosed. Unfortunately the ox was not the first person to open up this
extraordinary place. The earth and dust of centuries had, it is true,
fallen in upon it, but in the Roman times it had been already ransacked
for its possible treasures. Beautiful and extraordinary as the place is,
haunted by the silent grandeur and mystery of the dead, it is not quite
complete, and many of the urns are missing in its first compartments.
Still, as Dennis says, "it is one of the most remarkable in Etruria....
To enter the tomb," he continues was to him "like enchantment, not
reality, or rather it was the realization of the pictures of
subterranean palaces and spell-bound men, which youthful fancy had drawn
from the Arabian Nights, but which had long been cast aside into the
lumber room of the memory, now to be suddenly restored.... The
impressions received in this tomb first directed my attention to the
antiquities of Etruria," Dennis adds, and many people will echo his
words.
* * * * *
Leaving the dust and the sunlight, the green trees and the sunny banks
of the outside Umbrian world, we plunge down a narrow staircase and
through the tall doorway of travertine into the darkness of the
Etruscan sepulchre, and find ourselves in a dim, low vestibule with
stone seats round it, small chambers branching off to right and left,
and one large chamber at the end. Strange and fascinating heads look
down upon us from the ceiling, marvellous little deities, suspended by
many leaden chains, hang silent, as though they dreamed, above our
heads. Weird serpents' heads pierce through the walls and seem to hiss
at us; and in the dim light of the candles we realize a whole new world
of wonderful and deep set imagery, combining with that solid sense of
comfortable respectability peculiar to the race of men who lie here.
The tomb of the Volumnii has a strong and a convincing individuality. In
this fact consists its charm. The necropolis was built for one family.
The clear cut inscription on the door post at the entrance points to
this, the name repeated again and again upon the tomb proves it yet more
forcibly.[109]
To get a first and full impression of the place it is well to sit down
on one of the low stone seats which run round the walls of the
vestibule. These benches were probably used by members of the family in
the peculiar fashion of the Etruscans. We hear that in order to bring
themselves nearer to the dead and to communicate with the Spirit of
Death, they would come to the sepulchres at night-fall and sleep beside
the urns of their dead friends--their brothers, wives, their children or
their lovers--and there receive visions from the souls which always
hovered near the place where the body was buried. Members of the
Volumnii family who were courageous enough, or peaceful enough in their
own souls to do this thing, must have received strong and convincing
visions from surroundings so unearthly and mysterious.
A great round disk, the sun probably, guards the entrance door of the
vestibule. It seems to rise up out of the sea; two dolphins plunge head
foremost into the waves beneath it; and under these, above the left
lintel of the door, a great wing stretches, one knows not whence or
whither, into the darkness all around it.
On the opposite wall, and guarding the tomb, is another great disk
covered with scales, or as some say laurel leaves, and a splendid head
in its centre. The face is grandly moulded and belongs to the best
period of Etruscan art, when the souls of the artists were probably
steeped in the art of Greece. The expression is calm, pure, and full of
strength. It is probably meant to represent the God Numa, though some
imagine it to be Apollo himself. Below it are two busts which are
supposed to be portraits of Apollo in his two qualities of shepherd and
of poet; and guarding the disk, two great scimitars with birds perched
over them. (It is imagined that the Etruscans shared the Greek belief
about birds sympathising in the death of mortals. The flight and ways of
birds, certainly formed a large part of their religion, but in this
case nothing can be actually proved). Vermiglioli having studied
various other points in the necropolis, suggests that the Volumnii were
a race of warriors and that the scimitars were a symbol of their warlike
ways.
Passing through this second doorway one stands in the actual presence of
some members of the family of the Volumnii. There they sit together on
their beautiful stuccoed urns: "each on a snow-white couch" says Dennis,
"with garlanded brow, torque-decorated neck, and goblet in hand--_a
petrifaction of conviviality_--in solemn mockery of the pleasures to
which for ages on ages they have bidden adieu."[110]
They are surprisingly real, this family, and they sit there now, just
exactly as they were sitting two thousand years or more ago.[111] The
figures and the sarcophagi are made of terra-cotta covered by a dead
white stucco which gives them a singularly modern look. Each sarcophagus
has the head of a Medusa on it, but of a marvellously fair Medusa, a
creature to adore, a woman to attract, a creature incapable of inspiring
aught save admiration.[112]
The sarcophagus in the centre of the group appears to have belonged to
Aruns Volumnius the head of the family. It is the most heavily decorated
of the set. Aruns lies on a well-draped couch. Two mysterious
figures--Furies, but attractive Furies--guard his urn. They are a
splendid piece of work, and have naturally enough been compared with the
work of Michelangelo; there is something muscular about them, and their
pose
[Illustration: TOMB OF ARUNS VOLUMNIUS]
is tragic, like that which the sculptor of the Renaissance delighted to
give to his figures. Unfortunately the fresco, which was perfect when
the tomb was opened, has fallen to bits in the damp air which enters
through the open door. To Aruns' left his daughter sits on her urn, to
his right his son, and next to his son the beautiful young wife Veilia,
or Velia. One could write a romance about Veilia. The beauty of her
profile haunts one like a dream. Was she an Etruscan or some woodland
creature? Surely the dull and conventional gentleman to whom she was
early married bored her into a decline? Certain it is that she died
young, and that the sculptor who made this portrait of her, loved and
understood the beauty of her human face, and drew it in as faithfully as
he had drawn the dull one of her husband and his family. All the other
portraits have the usual respectable Etruscan stamp upon them. Veilia
alone has a touch of the divine.
One beautiful little sarcophagus in the group differs from all around
it. It is exquisite in all its detail and built in the form of a temple
with doors and Corinthian columns, pent roof, and exquisite tracery upon
its walls. (The inscriptions upon it are written both in Roman and
Etruscan characters; but although this sounds like a delightful
dictionary they do not appear to coincide.) Four exquisite sphinxes and
a little frieze of lions' heads guard the roof; heavy garlands of fruit
and flowers hang from the skulls of oxen on the panels; and birds and
butterflies--symbols of the immortality of the human soul--are
marvellously carved about them.
* * * * *
The remaining cells have each some beautiful and interesting thing in
them, but the main historical interest is passed after the chambers of
the Volumnii urns; and the most beautiful things to note are the heads
of the Gorgons or Medusas carved in the tufa of the ceilings. Some say
that these heads are portraits of the family. Their eyes and teeth are
painted white. They seem to stare at one with calm kind eyes which have
looked into the centuries and realised the futility of human things.
* * * * *
To the present writers the Medusa of the Etruscan people is its
greatest and its most attractive study. She is always grand, beautiful
and mysterious; the material and conventional aspects of the Etruscan
race vanish and fly before her steady gaze, and in the Volumnian tomb
she reigns supreme.