ETRUSKAN ART.
The first question that here suggests itself is, who were the
Etruskans? Their name Tuskan, from Tuisko, points at once to an Aryan
branch of Teutonic race. But ethnologists differ. Some say they were
Phœnicians, others assert they were Egyptians; some that they were
pure Teutons, and others that they were pure Kelts. Taking their old
pottery into consideration, as given in Lord Hamilton’s admirable
plates, or in the collection of the Museum at Clusium (Chiusi), we are
induced to pronounce the aborigines of Etruria to have been Turanians,
conquered by immigrant Aryans. This mixture of Aryans and Mongols under
the influence of a totally different aspect of nature, on a different
soil, under different social and religious conditions, produced a type
quite different from the Greek--a kind of transition link between the
Pelasgians and the Romans.
Two distinct immigrations of Aryans into Etruria are recorded. The
first about 1650 B.C., when Pelasgians and Thyrrenians settled amongst
the aborigines; and the second, 400 years before Herodotus, about the
times of Thales and Lykurgus. Of the first immigration we have scarcely
any relics; the second time the immigrants succeeded in forming an
organised social state; they brought with them Greek mythological
notions, and a kind of Greek writing. Their language and writing
died out after Augustus, and disappeared altogether before Julian,
fourth century A.D. Nature forced them to industry and enterprise.
The Etruskans had to cultivate their fields by individual exertion;
in spring they had to ward off the devastating waters of overflowing
rivers, and in summer they had to provide water for their parched
valleys. They consequently became masters in constructing aqueducts and
irrigating the land, at an early period.
Their mythology was composed of Assyrian, Persian, and Egyptian
notions, strongly tinged with gloomy superstitions. Petrifactions of
the most astonishing forms abound in the plains where they settled.
Near Cortona the bones of a whale have been found. The Arno valley
resembles a vast elephant burial-place; and the bones of the mastodon,
rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, are scattered broadcast all over old
Etruria, and are still used to fence in the fields. Besides the bones
of these huge monsters, those of hyænas, panthers, bears, and wolves
are found in such abundance, that the peasants to this very day believe
they grew like mushrooms over night, having been sown by invisible
spirits to give the poor the trouble of picking them up. The aspect
of nature and the remains of an antediluvian world gave the Etruskan
priesthood an irresistible sway over the minds of the people. Whilst in
Greece, under the influence of a happy aspect of nature, the Indian,
Assyrian, and Egyptian embodiments of the forces of nature lost their
fearful forms; in Etruria they gained even more gloomy and melancholy
figures in the presence of everlasting thunder and lightning, and
volcanic disturbances.
The Etruskans had two sets of gods.
_a._ The veiled gods, with ‘_Asar_’ at their head, representing the
cosmognical forces of nature; especially fire, water, earth, and ether,
like the divinities of India and Egypt.
_b._ Twelve lower divinities presiding over the order of existing
and visible things. Their gods have a great resemblance to those of
the Scandinavians, uniting in one distinct chain the Aryans on the
Ganges, those on the Nile, and those round the Delphic oracle, with the
Hyperboreans of the farthest north. They all believed in an ‘inferno,’
only with the Greeks this was an Elysium, a land of shadows, a land of
happiness. The divinities of the Etruskans were phantoms of horror.
The whole of their creed was devoid of a comforting union between gods
and men. This despairing faith impressed the people with a ferocious
character. Their art under such impressions never could reach the
beautiful. A tribe of whom it has been said that their priests
attacked the Romans with hissing serpents and burning torches--a tribe
that crouched in fear before invisible gods, and hated every other
tribe--could never take an interest in the gentler emotions produced by
poetry or art. They remembered the Greek expedition against Thebes, and
adorned their _burial_ urns with scenes from the battle at Marathon;
they commemorated the heroic deed of a ploughman, who, in the midst of
the battle, took up his plough and drove the Persians before him like
a flock of frightened sheep, whilst the Greeks remembered the deed in
mentioning _Echetlos_ in connection with Marathon, but possessed no
record of the fact on any of their monuments. The Etruscans, however,
delighted in such scenes. At their funerals they had no dances, but
sanguinary fights.
No less than twelve different thunderbolts were known to them. They
believed in a thunderbolt of prophecy, one of authority, one of law,
one of wish, one of admonition, one of approval, one of help, one of
prosperity, one of falsehood, one of plague, one of threats, and one
of murder. Every transaction in life, with the best or the worst of
mankind, might have been accompanied by an approving or disapproving
thunder-clap. They firmly believed the thunderbolts used by the Supreme
Deity were all manufactured in the fiery interior of Mount Ætna. They
possessed no ritual of the dead like the Egyptians, but a thunderbolt
ritual. Every day of the year that brought thunder had its special
signification. All the veiled gods, and _nine_ of the secondary gods,
had the power of thundering.
Their conception of angry, jealous, persecuting, thundering, and
lightning divinities has much in common with the Jewish and Phœnician
ideals of the Supreme Deity. This peculiarity the Northerns shared in
their conception of Thor. The Etruskan belief, that aërolites were
thunderbolts sent by the angels against the Titans, has a great analogy
with the Persian legends assuming these to have been hurled by the
Fervers against the Devas.
Their superior divinities are, like the kings or priests of Persia,
Assyria, and Babylon, provided with wings. Jupiter, Diana, Minerva
(a kind of female Mercury with the Etruskans, who had wings not only
on her shoulders, but also on her feet) and Venus were all winged;
others, like Proserpina (Persephone), Amor (Eros), and the Furies, had
wings on their heads. White and black winged genii (angels and demons)
are plentiful in the subterranean tombs of the old Etruskan town,
Tarquinium. According to Dempster, their cars even are often provided
with wings. What was a metaphor with the Greeks was turned by the
Etruskans into matter-of-fact. Euripides in his ‘Orestes’ speaks of the
winged car of Phœbus, and on some Eleusian coins Ceres is seen sitting
in a winged car, drawn by two serpents.
From a gloomy contemplation of supernatural matters the Etruskans
turned their minds to extremely worldly and practical purposes.
They wished to secure their towns and to protect them against real
and imaginary monsters, and they constructed excellent walls and
most comfortable houses. The ‘_cavœdium_’ (‘cavum œdium’), with the
_impluvium_ and _compluvium_ (the one for collecting and the other for
preserving water), was altogether an Etruskan invention, and was called
by the Romans who adopted it, _Tuscanicum_. They constructed temples
differing only in some details from those of the Greeks. The cella was
generally _square_; sometimes they had more than one cella; one in the
Postica and one in the Antica (the rear and front of the temple). The
portico was often filled with columns. The architectural style was a
rough and primitive Doric. They never attained the majestic simplicity
which distinguished this order in Greece. The columns had a base, were
more slender (about fourteen moduli), stood more apart, and supported a
wooden roof with clumsily-protruding beams, an unwieldy cornice, and a
high pediment.
Cinerary chests they had in abundance with divinities on them, worked
in reliefs of a decidedly Egyptian type. They used brazen tablets
representing Osiris and Isis. Little clay figures were put into the
graves to protect the dead. Amongst these has been found a winged
Harpokrates or Horus, with the fore-finger of one hand on his lips, a
lotus on his head, and a cornucopia in his other hand.
Their ancient pottery is more in the Egyptian than the Greek style.
Their jars represent sphinxes and women; their drinking cups are in
the form of human legs, with human faces replacing the knee; some are
in the form of Mercury with a pointed, attached beard, like those
to be seen in Egyptian divinities. Some of the patterns of their
ornamentation, in general as well as in detail, are perfectly Mexican.
On one of their lamps we have a winged Kentaur holding a rabbit, whilst
four rabbits running after one another, form the spirited ornamentation
of the border, intermixed with triangles, rosettes, or solar circles.
With their religious notions, it is not surprising that the Etruskans
should have devoted the greatest care to their tombs and burial-places.
These tombs were:--
1. _Subterranean_; hewn into the tufa on plains. Steps led underground,
where a vestibulum, consisting of several chambers, sometimes provided
with columns, led into the vault. The ceiling of this was either
horizontal or pointed, in imitation of a wooden roof. Many such tombs
are found at Volci, Clusium, and Volaterra.
2. A second species of their subterranean tombs consisted of those
_provided with tumuli_ above-ground; simple graves as found in
Scandinavia and the north of the Western hemisphere, the corpses lying
on simple stone beds.
3. _Burial chambers_ (cucumella) with artificial hills above them, and
provided with a tower-like construction, or with conical columns. They
are found near Volci, Tarquinii, and Viterbo.
4. _Chambers, vertically hewn into the rocks_, with a simple or
decorated entrance near Tuskania.
5. Rock-hewn chambers _with façades screening the entrance_, as at
Aria, or with Doric fronts as at Orchia. Asia furnished patterns for
the decoration and construction of these tombs. The reliefs are full
of lively scenes, reminding us of Assyrian and Babylonian sculptures.
The figures are heavy, the legs short and thick; the upper part of the
statues is placed ‘en face,’ whilst the legs and feet are in profile.
The monstrous element predominates. Harpies, chimeras, winged lions,
sphinxes, and griffins abound; but they are void of any symmetrical
arrangement, and are dry, stiff, and as revolting as possible in their
coarse outlines.
With regard to the construction of their walls it is remarkable that
they improved very early on the Kyklopean mode, and constructed the
very best regular freestone walls. They had arched gates, built with
wedge-shaped stones, which produced by their span a firmly-vaulted
construction. The Etruskans thus acquired a lasting merit in the
history of art by the new epoch which they inaugurated with the
introduction of this decidedly progressive element in the technical
construction of architectural works. As _potters_ and _metal-workers_
they distinguished themselves more than either as architects or
sculptors. As the Chinese are considered as the potters _par
excellence_ of the farthest East, the Etruskans may be called the
potters of the West. In burning, painting, and fashioning clay they
appear to have acquired a speciality, so that their trade in vases
extended all over the then known world, and even the Greeks furnished
their houses with Etruskan pottery in preference to their own. The
gloomy mythology of the Etruskans was far better suited to potters,
manufacturing black vases with red figures, or red vases with black
figures, or for casting dark bronze figures, than to sculptors handling
white marble. They also distinguished themselves in chiselling and
founding metal. Innumerable chests, candelabra, metal frames for
looking-glasses, and other utensils show their cleverness in working
gold, silver, and bronze. Some ivory carvings, described in a report
of the Archæological Society at Rome, 1862, are of great interest.
They were found at Præneste (Palestrina), where also silver vessels in
the purest Egyptian style, and an ivory tablet with Assyrian patterns,
were excavated. More important even than these discoveries are four
ivory tablets found at Corneto, showing traces of gilding and painting.
The carvings represent scenes of every-day life, mixed with mystic
figures. We see on the tablets a lady and gentleman sitting at dinner,
served by a little boy; a huntsman chasing game; a kind of sea-divinity
holding in each hand a fish; and a man in a biga driving winged horses.
These figures might have formed representations concerning the zodiac,
namely: the Twins, Sagittarius, Pisces, and the Sun (Phœbus or Horus).
The receding forehead of the driver and his manner of holding the whip
are types which we constantly meet in Egyptian sculptures and reliefs.
About 660 B.C. Eucheir, Diopos, Eugrammos and Demeratos were driven
from Korinthum into Etruria, and from that date we note a decided
improvement in the artistic productions. The Etruskans began to excel
in terra-cotta and bronze works. Their vases, amphoræ, statuettes,
cinerary and mystic chests, prove this. Their mystic chests (cistæ
mysticæ, corresponding to the quippa-chests of the Mexicans) were made
of embossed bronze. The lids were ornamented with mysterious animals,
and the legs formed of the claws or paws of mythical brutes. Foliage
and Greek frets in good arrangement were also used. Their candelabra
are of a superior design. Other works of art, such as ornamented backs
and handles for mystic mirrors, in gold, silver, or bronze, are of
excellent technical execution.
There was, however, too much of the aborigine Turanian element left in
the Etruskans. The noble and elevating rhythmus of Greek idealisation
is everywhere wanting. Cooking utensils, small pieces of furniture,
tables, chairs, and couches, aqueducts and viaducts, and even cloacas,
were made and constructed to perfection, but as soon as they attempted
the production of human forms, or of higher works in architecture,
they did not succeed. The heads of their figures are either too small
or too large. The legs are short; the drapery in stiff lines hangs
down with rope-like regularity. Animals are much better executed;
but the human form, in consequence of a scrupulous and constrained
conception, and an exaggerated attention to detail, had a cold,
lifeless appearance, void of all spiritual animation. Their imagination
was one-sidedly directed by nature and religion to take a gloomy and
distorted view of creation, and their products bear this spiritual
stamp. In everything they touched we recognise the Egyptian mythology
with its stifling breath, and the influence of the volcanic ground
on which the Aryans were thrown, amongst a number of superstitious
Turanians. The rumbling, fire-spitting Vesuvius and Ætna worked on the
brains of the new immigrants. The sudden, devastating bursts of fire
and water filled their minds with horror; they were forced to ponder
over the instability of human things. The beauty of the Italian sky,
the exuberant luxury of the vegetation, heightened in them a feeling of
dumb despair. The contrast between life and death was too striking, and
filled the souls of the artists with awe and dread, reflected in their
artistic compositions.
Their representations were often divided into two distinct
compartments. On one side were scenes from the lower regions. Mantus,
Mania, and furies pursuing the deceased with hammers. Mantus of the
Etruskans, probably a descendant of Radamanthus, was an infernal
divinity. Mania (whose name we have preserved in the words _mania_
and _maniac_) was the mother of the Lares and persecuted the dead.
Our readers must begin to see whence many of the horrifying scenes
of the middle ages took their origin. On the other side were scenes
from life in the upper regions--joyous, triumphal processions and
festivities. Drunkenness and licentiousness are always twin-sisters of
superstition and bigotry. These arrangements recall the same custom of
dividing subjects in antithetical groups observed in Assyria, where
we find on the slabs hunts in the upper compartments, and joyous
festivities in the row below. The subjects chosen with the Assyrians
were undoubtedly much healthier. Hard work first, and joy and happiness
afterwards. The Etruskans kept to the old Egyptian customs, reminding
man continually of the short duration of his life. The mummy placed
in Egyptian banqueting halls, with the inscription: ‘Eat and drink;
such a one wilt thou be,’ had a pernicious ethical effect; instead of
sobering man down, it drove him to reckless and despairing gaiety and
extravagance. The Etruskans, though filling their imaginations with
horrors, could never master art in life. They had the savage fondness
for adorning their persons with innumerable trinkets. The desire to
shine conspicuously for the short and uncertain time of their existence
absorbed their artistic endeavours, and this fashion prevails amongst
the peasants in Italy at the present day. The patterns are now filigree
Moresque; in ancient times they were in a clumsy Greek style. To wear a
ring was considered essential to man’s and woman’s existence.
This led them very early to cultivate glyptics, or the art of
stone-cutting. The subjects were partly mythological, partly heroic;
the artists delighted in strong muscles, attitudinizing groups, and
theatrical postures.
In the paintings and mosaics, with which they adorned their burial
chambers, we may distinguish, in reference to their treatment:
a. An Archaic style;
b. An Etruskan style.
A. In the _Archaic Style_ they exhibit a thorough acquaintance with
Greek mythology and classical poetry. Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and Pindar
furnish the scenes, but the dead play the most conspicuous part.
We have, in another world, festivities in vine bowers and blooming
gardens; processions, gymnastic games and races amongst the departed.
The grouping is spirited so far as variety is concerned, but the
execution is rough, and bare of all higher artistic feeling.
B. In the _Etruskan Style_, stern simplicity and roughness yield to
a freer treatment of the human form. The thick-set, short figures
are replaced by better drawn and lighter forms; the subjects are
exclusively taken from Etruskan mythology. White and black spirits
(angels and devils), armed with big hammers, are represented as
fighting for the souls of the departed. In one of the graves (see
Dempster and Agincourt) we have a soul hanged, and tormented with iron
instruments, roasting over a brisk fire. In these products, in spite
of the intervention of the Roman period of history, we find the direct
connecting link between the old Assyrian, Egyptian, Etruskan, and early
Christian arts.
The Etruskans indulged in fantastic conceptions, and rejoiced in forced
and cruel scenes, and in bizarre compositions. Art with them was
exclusively technical. We may arrange their works into the following
five groups:--
1. The original _Tuscanica_ (as Strabo has it) or Etruskan works. Heavy
in form and details; dresses very stiff; figures without beards. Of
this group we have many bronze figures, very few sculptures in stone,
some gems, and some very old wall-paintings.
2. The Oriental group. Imitations of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylonian
patterns. Tapestry, for floor and wall-decorations, was much used. The
imitations were good, but without any effort at originality. Remains
plentiful.
3. Caricatures distinguished by grotesque quaintness. This style
predominates at periods, when nations look upon art as superfluous;
not as one of the most important factors of civilization. Taste
degenerates, and the higher aspirations of art are crippled by
distorted products. The quaint is preferred to the beautiful, and the
dynamic force of the artistic element, driven into this direction,
loses itself in a broad grin at everything sacred and elevated in
State, religion, and science, fostering a deplorable spirit of vulgar
egotism, which looks down upon the sublime exertions of artists, as the
mere vagaries of simpletons or madmen.
4. Works in the best Greek style, but only in bronze, as frames and
handles of mirrors. Whenever the higher spirit of art is neglected,
the power of the artist is directed to small matters; he serves trade
and nothing but trade. We have in these ‘Articles of Etruria’ the
prototypes of our ‘Articles de Paris.’
5. Mechanical products, such as helmets, weapons, swords, shields,
hatchets, clubs, wall-breakers, cooking utensils, pots, pans, and
saucers, were of exquisite workmanship, but without any attempt at
artistic forms. The utilitarian incubus is as bad as the hierarchical
canon; both expel all higher aspirations from the realm of art.
The Etruskans thought, with many of us, that if the house were only
built of dry bricks, the carpet thick, the furniture solid and heavy,
and the knife sharp, it was unnecessary to care for anything else.
Whilst such ideas exist, art, in a higher sense, will remain as little
possible, as it was with the Etruskans.