The large recent discoveries of Etruscan objects have not materially
altered the conclusions arrived at a generation ago. It is not so much
our appreciation of the broad lines of the manners and arts of the
Etruscans that has altered as our understanding of the geographic and
social causes which made them what they were. One great difficulty in
the study of the remains is that a very large portion of them have been
found by unofficial excavators who have been naturally unwilling to tell
whence they came, and that certain other excavations, such as those
carried out by Comm. Barnabei for the Villa Giulia museum, have been
carried out under conditions which help but little towards increasing
our knowledge.[1] The increase has, however, been steady, even if not
all one could wish.
_Ethnology_.--The origin of the Etruscans will most likely never be
absolutely fixed,[2] but their own tradition (Tacitus, _Ann._ iv. 55)
that they came out of Lydia seems not impossible. Herodotus (i. 94) and
Strabo (v. 220) tell of Lydians landing at the mouth of the Po and
crossing the Apennines into Etruria. Thus it seems certain that though
the earliest immigrants, known to the later Etruscans as the _Rasena_,
may have come down from the north, still they were joined by a migration
from the east before they had developed a civilization of their own, and
it is this double race that became the Etruscans as we know them in
tradition and by their works. To give a date to the migration of the
Rasena from the north, for which the only evidence is the fact that the
Etruscan language is found in various parts of north Italy,[3] is
impossible, but we can perhaps give an approximate one to the coming of
the Lydians or Tyrrhenians (Thuc. iv. 109; Herod. i. 57). We know that
there was a great wave of migration from Greece to Italy about 1000
B.C., and as the earliest imported Greek objects found in the tombs
cannot be dated many generations later than this, this year may be
considered as giving us roughly the time when the real Etruscan
civilization began.
It has been, and still is, a common mistake to speak of the Etruscans as
though they were closely confined to that part of Italy called Etruria
on the maps, but it is quite certain that in the early stages of their
development they were differentiated from the Umbrians on the north-east
and the Latins on the south in ways due rather to the locality than to
race or essential character.[4] To primitive peoples open seas or
deserts are a greater hindrance to intercourse than mountains or rivers,
and even these did not cut off Etruria from the neighbouring regions of
Italy. The Apennines that separated her from Umbria were not difficult
to cross, and the Tiber which formed the boundary between her and
Latium has been a far greater element of separation in the minds of
modern authors than it ever was in reality. Narrow, not particularly
swift, often shallow, such a stream can never have caused more than a
moment's delay to the hardy Etruscans. When Rome was founded, the river
of course could be used like a moat round a castle as a means of
defence, but that is very different from its being a permanent bar to
the spread of a given culture. The fact that the alphabets used in other
parts of Italy besides Etruria are derived from the Etruscan or from
similar Grecian sources, that Rome was ruled by Etruscan kings, that the
temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline was decorated by Etruscan artists
(Livy x. 23; Pliny, _H.N._ xxxv. 157), that the decorations of the
temple found by Signor Mazzoleni near Conca (_Notizie degli scavi_,
1896) are of the same kind as others found in Etruria, show that the
influences which grew to their clearest development in the region west
of the Tiber had a marked effect over a broader region than is usually
admitted. This too was the belief of the Greek historians, many of whom
considered Rome as a Tyrrhenian city.[5]
_Cities and Organization_.--The chief cities of Etruria proper were
Veii, Tarquinii, Falerii, Caere, Volci, Volsinii, Clusium, Arretium,
Cortona, Perusia, Volaterrae (Volterra), Rusellae, Populonium and
Faesulae. That the country was thickly settled is made plain by the
ruins that have been found. It was governed by kings who were elected
for life, but whose power depended largely on the leaders (_lucumones_)
of the separate states or regions and on the aristocracy (Censorinus,
_De die natali_, iv. 13). Later the office of king was abolished and
replaced by annual magistrates (Livy v. 1). Below the aristocracy came
the free people, who were divided into _curiae_ (Serv. _ad Aen._ x.
202), and then the slaves. There can be little doubt that the early
organization of the people at Rome was typical of Etruria (Niebuhr,
_Roem._ Gesch. 2nd ed. i. 389).
A league of twelve cities is mentioned by the ancients (Livy iv. 23),
whose delegates met at the temple of Voltumna, but we are not told which
cities formed the league, and there can be little doubt that the list
changed from time to time. A glance at the map makes clear some of the
general relations of these cities to one another and to the outer world.
They are well spread all over the country, and by no means only along
the coast. None of the important ones is among the mountains. This means
that the earliest inhabitants of the country were not roving traders
like the Mycenaean Greeks, and that the cities drew their wealth and
strength from agricultural pursuits, for which the country was well
suited, as the three rivers, Arnus, Umbro and Tiber, with their feeders
(not to mention several lesser streams), channel it in all directions.
We get a hint as to the government of the cities from the fact that many
of the Roman forms and apanages of office were derived from the
Etruscans (Dion. Hal. iii. 61); for instance, the diadem worn by those
honoured with a triumph, the ivory sceptre and the embroidered toga
(Tertull. _De Cor._ 13), and so too the golden bulla and the praetexta
(Festus, s.v. "Sardi"). Such things give us an idea as to the
aristocratic basis of the government. Of the actual laws we know
something also. Cicero (_Div._ ii. 23) tells the story of the miraculous
uncovering by a ploughboy of a child who had the wisdom of a sage, and
how the child's words were written down by the amazed folk, and became
their archives and the source of their law. Coming down to historic
times we find that their code, known as the libri _disciplinae
Etruscae_, consisted of various parts (Festus, s.v. "Ritualis"). There
were the _libri haruspicini_ (Cic. _Div._ i. 33, 72), which dealt with
the interpretation of the will of the gods by means of sacrifice; the
_libri fulgurales_, which explained the messages of the gods in the
thunder and lightning; and finally the _libri rituales_, which held the
rules for the conduct of daily life--how to found cities, where to place
the gates, how to take the census, and the general ordering of the
people both in peace and war.
_Natural Resources and Commerce_.--Such was the country and such the
laws. The people were a warrior stock with little commercial skill. Much
of their wealth was due to trade, but they were not the restless,
conquering blood that goes in search of new markets. They waited for the
buyers to come to them. That their wealth and consequent power were
gathered contemporaneously with that of Greece is shown by various
facts. One of these is that Dionysius of Phocaea settled in Sicily after
the Ionian revolt (in which his native city took part) had been quelled
by Darius, and thence harried the Etruscans (Herod. vi. 17). Their power
is also shown by the fact that they made an alliance with the
Carthaginians, with the result that they obtained control of Corsica
(Herod. i. 166), and this union continued for many generations.[6] That
this treaty was no exceptional one is shown by Aristotle (_Pol._ iii.
96, _Op._ ii. 261), who says that there were numerous treatises,
concerning their alliances and mutual rights, between the two peoples.
That the Greeks held the Etruscans in considerable dread is suggested by
the fact that Hesiod (_Theog._ 1011 foll.) names one of their leaders
Agrios, "the Wild Man," and by the fear they had of the straits of
Messina, where they imagined Scylla and Charybdis, which, unless the
whirlpools were of very different character then than now, were as
likely to be the pirate bands of Carthaginians and Etruscans who guarded
the channel. And this explanation is strengthened by Euripides (_Med._
1342, 1359), whose Medea compares herself to "Scylla, who dwells on the
Tyrrhenian shore." The wealth that was the source of this power of the
Etruscans must in the main have been drawn from agriculture and
forestry. The rich land with its many streams could scarcely be
surpassed for the raising of crops and cattle, and the hills were
heavily timbered. That it was such material as this, which leaves no
trace with the passing of time, that they sold cannot be doubted, for
there is plenty of evidence that their country was visited by foreign
traders of many lands, and that they bought largely of them, especially
of metals. Metals also suggest that another source of their wealth was
that of the middleman. Their towns were the centres of exchange, where
the north and west met the south and east. They had no mines of gold or
tin, but the carriers of tin, iron or amber[7] from the north met in the
markets of Etruria the Phoenician and Greek merchants bringing gold and
ivory and the other luxuries of the East. The quantities of gold, silver
and bronze found in Etruscan tombs prove this clearly. Of these metals
the only one found in unworked form, in what are practically pigs, is
bronze. This in the form of _aes rude_ has frequently been found in
considerable quantities, and the larger and better formed bits of metals
known as _aes signatum_ are not rare. Both forms are usually spoken of
as the earliest forms of money, but as the _aes rude_ generally bears no
marks of valuation or of any mint, and as the _aes signatum_ is far too
large and heavy for ordinary circulation, it is probable that these
shapes of metal are not to be considered strictly or alone as coins, but
as forms given to the alloy of tin and copper made and sold by the
Etruscans to the foreigners for purposes of manufacture. This of course
does not exclude their use as money. Where the copper for this bronze
came from is not certain, but probably a great part was from the mines
at Volaterrae. Still another proof that what the Etruscans sold was the
product of their fields or crude metals imported from the north, is the
fact that though in the museum at Carthage and elsewhere there are a few
vases and other objects which probably come from Etruria, still such
objects are extremely uncommon. On the other hand, articles obviously
imported from the East are by no means uncommon in Etruria. Such are the
ostrich shells from Volci,[8] the Phoenician cups from Palestrina,[9]
the Egyptian glazed vases and scarabs found on more than one site.[10]
All this goes to show that the Etruscans lacked in their earlier days
skilful workers in the arts and crafts.
_Habits and Customs_.--The lack of literary remains of the Etruscans
does not cramp our knowledge of their habits as much as might be
supposed, owing to the numerous paintings that are left. These paintings
are on the walls of the tombs at Veii, Corneto, Chiusi (Clusium), and
elsewhere,[11] and give a varied picture of the dress, utensils and
habits of the people. The evidence of many ancient authors cannot be
questioned that as a race the Etruscans in historic times were much
given to luxurious living. So much so in fact that Virgil (_Georg_. ii.
193) speaks of the _pinguis Tyrrhenus_ (a trumpeter at the altar) and
Catullus (xxxix. 11) of the _obesus Etruscus_. Diodorus (v. 40) gives a
succinct account in which he says that "their country was so fertile
they derived therefrom not only sufficient for their needs but enough to
supply them with luxuries. Twice a day they partook of elaborate repasts
at which the tables were decked with embroidered cloths and vessels of
gold and silver. The servants were numerous and noticeable for the
richness of their attire. The houses, too, were large and commodious. In
fact, giving themselves up to sensuous enjoyments they had naturally
lost the glorious reputation their ancestors had won in war." This last
remark shows that Diodorus recognized the important difference between
the early Etruscans who built up the country and the later ones who
merely enjoyed it. Naturally courtesans flourished in such a community.
Timaeus and Theopompus tell how the women lived and ate and even
exercised with the men (Athen. xii. 14; cf. iv. 38), habits which of
course gave the Roman satirists many openings for attack (Plaut. _Cist._
ii. 3. 563; cf. Herod, i. 98; Strabo xi. 14). In dress they differed but
little from the Romans, both wearing the toga and the tunic. Hats too,
often of pointed form, were common (Serv. _ad Aen._ ii. 683), as the
paintings show, but it was their shoes for which they were particularly
famous. One author (Lydus, _de Magistr._ i. 17. 36) suggests that
Romulus borrowed from Etruria the type of shoe he gave the senators, and
this may well be true, though the form mentioned, the _kampagus_, is of
late origin. At any rate [Greek: sandalia Turrenika] are frequently
mentioned. From the pictures and remains we know that they had wooden
soles strengthened with bronze, and that the uppers were of leather and
bound with thongs.
Their occupations of trade and agriculture have been already mentioned.
For their leisure hours they had athletic games including gladiatorial
shows (Athen. iv. 153; cf. Livy ix. 40. 7; Strabo v. 250), hunting,
music and dancing. All these are shown in the tomb pictures, and all,
with the exception of the hunting, developed first as a part of
religious service, and their importance is shown by the strictness of
the rules that governed them (Cicero, _De harusp. resp._ ii. 23). Did a
dancer lose step, or an attendant lift his hand from the chariot, the
games lost their value as a religious service. An idea of the splendour
of the triumphs that accompanied victorious generals and of the parades
at the games is given by Appian (_De reb. Punic._ viii. 66) and
Dionysius (vii. 92). The music that was an accompaniment of all their
occupations, even of hunting (Aelian, _De natur. anim._ xii. 46), was
mainly produced by the single or double flute, the mastery of which by
the Etruscans was known to all the world. They also had small harps and
trumpets.
For the regularization of all these duties and pleasures there was a
calendar and time-division for the day. It is noteworthy that the
beginning of the day was for them the moment when the sun was at the
zenith (Serv. _ad Aen._ v. 738). In this they differed from the Greeks,
who began their day with the sunset, and the Romans, who reckoned theirs
from midnight. The weeks were of eight days, the first being market day
and the day when the people could appeal to the king, and the months
were lunar. The years were kept numbered by the annual driving of a
nail into the walls of the temple of Nortia at Volsinii (Livy vii. 3.
7), a custom later adopted by the Romans, who used the Capitoline temple
for the same purpose. In Rome this rite was performed on the Ides of
September, and it is likely that it took place in Etruria on the same
date, the natural end of the year among an agricultural folk. A still
longer measure of time was the saeculum, which was supposed to be the
length of the longest life of all those born in the year in which the
preceding oldest inhabitant died (Censorinus, _De die natali_, 17. 5;
cf. Zosimus ii. 1). According to later writers[12] the Etruscan race was
to last ten _saecula_, and the emperor Augustus in his memoirs (Serv.
_ad. Bucol._ ix. 47) says that the comet of the year 44 B.C. was said by
the priests to betoken the beginning of the tenth _saeculum_. The
earliest _saecula_ had been, according to Varro, 100 years long. The
later ones varied in length from 105 to 123 years. The round number 100
is obviously an _ex post facto_ approximation, and the accuracy of the
others is probably more apparent than real, but if we reckon back some
900 years from the date given by Augustus we arrive at just about the
time when the archaeological evidence leads us to believe that the
Etruscans in Italy were beginning to recognize their individuality.
_Religion_.--To retrace the religious development of the Etruscans from
its mystic beginnings is beyond our power, and it is unlikely that any
future discoveries will help us much. We are, however, able to draw a
clear, if not a detailed, picture of the worship paid to the various
divinities, partly from the direct information we have concerning them
and partly from the analogies which may safely be drawn between them and
the Romans.
The frequency of sacrifice among them and their belief in the short
duration of the race[13] show clearly their belief in a good and a bad
principle, and the latter seems to have been predominant in their minds.
Storms, earthquakes, the birth of deformities, all gave evidence of evil
powers, which could be appeased sometimes only by human sacrifice. We
miss here the Greek joy in human life and the beauties of earth. The
gods (_aesar_) were divided into two main groups, the _Dii Consentes_
and a vaguer set of powers, the _Dii Involuti_ (Seneca, _Quaest. Nat._
ii. 41), to whom even Jupiter bowed. They all dwelt in various parts of
the heavens (Martianus Capella, _De nupt. Phil._ i. 41 ff.). Of the _Dii
Consentes_ the most important group consisted of Jupiter (_Tinia_), Juno
(_Uni_) and Minerva (_Menrva_). In some towns, such as Veii and Falerii,
Juno was the chief deity, and at Perusia she was worshipped like the
Greek Aphrodite in conjunction with Vulcan (the Greek _Hephaestus_).
This shows that though in exterior form the Etruscan gods were
influenced by the Greeks, still their character and powers betoken
different beliefs. An interesting point to note about Minerva (_Menrva_)
is that she was the goddess of the music of flutes and horns. The myth
of Athena and Marsyas probably originated in Asia Minor, and a Pelasgian
Tyrrhenian founded in Argos the temple of Athena Salpinx (Paus. ii. 21.
3). The evident connexion between Asia Minor and Etruria in these facts
cannot be overlooked. Besides these deities there were Venus (_Turan_),
Bacchus (_Fufluns_), Mercury (_Turms_), Vulcan (_Sethlans_). Of these,
Sethlans is in a way the most important, for he shows a connexion in
prehistoric times between Etruria and the East.[14] Other deities of
Greek origin there were--Ares, Apollo, Heracles, the Dioscuri; in fact,
as the centuries passed, the Greek divinities were adopted almost
without exception. Besides these there were also many gods of Latin or
Sabine origin, of whom little is known but their names; these may often
be local appellations for the same god. Among these were Voltumna at
Volsinii and Vertumnus at Rome, Janus, Nortia, goddess of Fortuna,
Feronia, whose temple was at a town of the same name at the foot of
Soracte,[15] Mantus, Pales, Vejovis, Eileithyia and Ceres. Such were
the leading gods; in addition there was the world of spirits whom we
know in Rome as the Manes, Lares and Penates. The latter were of four
classes, pertaining to Jove, Neptune, the gods of the lower world, and
to men.[16] The Lares too were of various sorts (_familiares,
compitales, viales_), and with them the souls of the dead, after the
performance of due expiatory rites, took their place as _dii animales_
(Serv. _ad Aen._ iii. 168 and 302). The Manes are the vaguest group of
all and were confined almost wholly to the lower world (Festus, s.v.
"Mundus"; Apuleius, _De deo Socratis_). Over all these ruled Mantus and
Mania, the counterparts of Pluto and Persephone in Greece. As a result
of this complete hierarchy of divine powers the priesthood of Etruria
was large, powerful, and of such fame that Etruscan _haruspices_ were
sent for from distant places to interpret the sacrifices and the oracles
(Livy v. i. 6, xxvii. 37. 6).
_Art_.--The evidence drawn from tradition and custom which we have so
far considered in relation to the origin and beliefs of the Etruscans
has taken us into the prehistoric times much earlier than those when the
handicrafts developed into true fine arts. The contents of the earliest
graves[17] show but few traces of any feeling for art either in
architecture or in the lesser forms of household and personal
decoration. Gradually, however, as one comes down towards the more fixed
historic periods, certain objects, obviously imported from the eastern
Mediterranean, occur, and these are the first signs of an interest in
the beauty or curiosity of things, an interest that local workmen could
not yet satisfy, but which stirred them to endeavour. It was probably
during the 9th century that this began, not long after the period when
foreign trade began to flourish.
The history of Etruscan art has usually been wrongly estimated owing to
the widespread delusion that objects found in Etruria were in the true
sense products of native artists and indicative of native-grown culture.
It is only recently, and not even yet completely, that the term
"Etruscan" has been given up as the name for the terra-cotta vases
(which were found in the 19th century by the earlier archaeologists of
the modern scientific school in great quantities in the Etruscan tombs);
these are now known to have been made by Greek potters. There are few
books on the subject of Etruscan art. The best known is Jules Martha's
_L'Art etrusque_ (2nd ed., 1889), a book which, though full of accurate
data, shows absolute lack of discrimination between those works that are
of Etruscan fabric and those that were brought from other lands,
particularly Greece and the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia and Sicily.
These latter are too generally forgotten in the study both of Greek and
of Etruscan art, and all works which show the Greek spirit are vaguely
supposed to have been produced on the Greek mainland. As much of the
following must be to some extent controversial in character, a concrete
illustration may serve to prevent misconception as to this important
distinction. The beautiful throne in the Ludovisi collection
representing the birth of Aphrodite is commonly spoken of as though made
by some sculptor in Greece. It seems at least as likely that it comes
from Sicily. Not only is the character of the modelling similar to what
we find on Sicilian sculptures and coins, and not quite so sharp as on
most works from Greece, but there is a lyrical feeling for nature in the
pose of the figures and in the pebbled soil on which the main group
stands, which seems to answer to the Sicilian feeling as we know it in
poetry rather than to the Greek.
Architecture.
The houses of the earliest times were, to judge by the burial urns known
from their shape as _hut-urns_, small single-room constructions of
rectangular plan similar to certain types of the _capanne_ used by the
shepherds to-day. Probably the walls were wattled and the roofs were
certainly thatched, for the urns show plainly the long beams fastened
together at the top and hanging from the ridge down each side. Tombs cut
in the rock offer other and later models of house construction, but
give no suggestion that the Etruscans had any artistic sense in
architecture. Such tombs are mostly later than the 5th century B.C., and
show the most simple form of wood construction. Posts or columns hold up
the walls and the sloping roofs, the latter made of beams with boards
laid lengthwise, covered by others from ridge to eave, the intervening
space forming a coffer, sometimes decorated. Though the walls of such
tombs are often covered with paintings, the relation of the various
parts (and, let it be remembered, these tombs represent the houses of
the living) shows but the coarsest sense of proportion. The elements of
the decoration, such as capitals, mouldings, rosettes, patterns, are
borrowed from Greece, Egypt or elsewhere, and are used redundantly and
with no refinement.[18]
The temples did not differ from those in Greece in any essential
principal of construction except that they were generally square, from
the desire to make them answer to the _templum_ or quadripartite
division of the heavens elaborated by the priests. In Roman times,
"Etruscan style" was the term used for colonnades with wide
intercolumniations, and this shows how the early builders used wood with
its possibility of long architrave beams rather than stone as in Greece.
The interior arrangements of the temple also varied from the Grecian
models, for owing to the fact that the gods of Etruria were often
worshipped in groups of three the cella was divided into three chambers.
The decoration--metopes, friezes, acroteria, &c.--was of terra-cotta
fastened by nails to the wooden walls.
Though we know that the Etruscans were famous for their games,[19] still
there are no remains of _circi_, and so too, though the _satyristae_
were well known,[20] no theatres are left. They were obviously a race of
no literary taste or culture. The theatre at Fiesole which is often
referred to as Etruscan unquestionably dates from Roman times.
Underground tombs have already been mentioned in their relation to
house-architecture, but there are the _tumuli_ such as that called _la
Cucumella_ at Volci, that of the Curiatii at Albano, or that of Porsena
at Clusium, which Pliny describes as one of the wonders of Italy (_H.N._
xxxvi. 19). These great walled-in mounds with their complex of interior
chambers are interesting as reminiscent of tombs in Lydia, but
architecturally they are barbaric and show no developed skill.
There remains one monument which has always been supposed to show a real
advance made by the Etruscans in the art of architecture--the _cloaca
maxima_ in Rome. This round-arched drain was supposed to have been built
by Etruscans, and it was only in 1903 that Commendatore Boni in
excavating the Forum proved that the drain was originally uncovered, and
that the arch was built at the end of the Republic. Thus the honour, not
of discovering the arch, for it was known to the East, but of
popularizing its use, does not belong to the Etruscans, though they did
use it at a comparatively late time for city gates, as at Volterra.[21]
The false arch and dome of the Mycenaeans seems to have been familiar to
them, though there are but few cases of its use on a large scale. The
best-known instances are the Tullianum or Mamertine prison in Rome, the
Regulini-Galassi tomb at Cervetri,[22] one at Sesto Fiorentino near
Florence,[23] at Cortona,[24] at Chiusi, and also those in Latium.[25]
Although there was, therefore, but little development in the greater
arts of literature and architecture among the Etruscans, it is evident
enough that there was much desire to possess the products of the lesser
arts, such as sculpture, jewelry and household ornaments. But here too
the study has been made difficult by the failure to distinguish between
native and imported products. Before studying the objects themselves it
is well to recall the legendary character of Etruscan chronology as
reckoned in _saecula_. Helbig[26] showed that we cannot consider any of
the traditional dates as being accurate until about 644 B.C., the
beginning, that is, of the fifth _saeculum_. This is probably about one
hundred years after the introduction of the Chalcidian (Ionic) alphabet
into the country. One of the earliest examples of the use of it is on a
vase found in the Regulini-Galassi tomb. In considering the trade of the
country it has been pointed out that its chief political connexions were
with Carthage, but the artistic sense of Carthaginians or other
Phoenicians was not more developed than that of the Etruscans. They were
traders, and doubtless brought the Etruscans some of the Egyptian and
Eastern objects which have been found in their tombs, articles that date
from the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. But beside the Phoenicians the
Ionian Greeks from the 9th century had been trading and colonizing in
Sicily and Italy. Herodotus (i. 163) tells how the Phocaeans were the
first of the Greeks to take long voyages, and that they discovered the
Adriatic and Tyrrhenian seas and Iberia. Thucydides (vi. 3. 1) says that
it was Chalcidians from Euboea who first settled in Sicily. Pliny
(_Hist. Nat._ xxxv. 12. 43) writes in the same sense, for he tells of
Demaratus who came from Corinth with the artists Eucheir, Diopus,
Eugrammus, about 650 B.C., and first started sculpture in Italy. These
traditions of the coming of Ionian Greeks to Italy are completely borne
out by the archaeological remains found in Ionian lands and in Etruria,
and it is agreed that a great part of what has hitherto been considered
Etruscan is no more Etruscan than the Moorish plates of the 15th century
found in Italy are Florentine. The best works in most of the smaller
arts are almost without exception Greek, the earlier Ionian, the later
Attic; the remainder are made with the distinct intention of imitating
Greek models, and so should be considered as Greek, inasmuch as they do
not show a natural, original expression of feeling on the part of the
Etruscan workman. The Etruscans were dull artists in all lines. They
were skilful copyists, nothing more, as is absolutely proved by the
simple fact that we know of no Etruscan artist by name. If one takes the
articles which are of obviously local manufacture, such as the burial
urns[27] or the ordinary bronze mirrors, or the pottery, it would be
hard to find a similar quantity of work by any other race so lacking in
originality of conception or high excellence of technique.
In the study of the monuments a division must be made distinguishing
between the obviously Greek works, the works done with a desire to copy
Greek models and the work of native artists. To separate the objects in
the way suggested required a very considerable familiarity with Greek
art, and though in many cases the result may be doubtful, still so much
must be taken from the Etruscans that they are shown to have little more
artistic feeling than the Romans. In the earlier centuries a strong
eastern influence appears in the copying of sphinxes and similar eastern
motives, but this soon gave way to the stronger Greek influence, as was
natural, for the intercourse with the Phoenicians was spasmodic whereas
that with the Greeks was constant. But even with the Greeks to kindle
their imaginations, the Etruscans produced no school of art; no steady
progression is traceable. In various towns there were various fashions
of pottery or jewelry, but good, bad and indifferent constantly occur
together in a way possible only among a people who possessed no natural
artistic capacities and had no widespread standards of cultivated taste.
The Ionians have been mentioned as having strongly affected the arts in
Etruria, and, though in the later centuries Athens undoubtedly exported
heavy consignments to Italy, the taste of the Etruscans seems generally
to have preferred the rather heavy loose style of the Ionians, even when
direct contact with them was lost and its place taken by direct
relations with Athens and her colonies.
Pottery.
Pottery[28] practised enormously by the Etruscans shows as clearly as
possible their essential strength and weakness as artists. Even the
black ware called _bucchero_ is now known to have been manufactured in
other lands and not to be an exclusively Etruscan style. In the earlier
tombs this ware is present in greater numbers than any other, and the
vases exhibit considerable dexterity of manufacture so far as form goes.
But it is evident from comparisons with early Ionian vases that the
better proportioned of the shapes are direct copies of the Ionian. The
decoration of the _bucchero_ is either engraved, in which case it is
almost always extremely rude, or formed by figures modelled or pressed
by a mould on to the body of the vase. In these two last cases the
figures are often suggestive of the farther East (Egyptian and
Mesopotamia), but still more frequently they are taken from Greek
originals, and the natural tendency of the Etruscan artist to be a
copyist is very marked. Whence the moulds for these vases came is not
known, but analogy with other classes of work makes it practically
certain that some were imported and some made by the imitating workmen.
There are other classes of vases which at first sight look as though
they were imported from Greece, but by the nature of their clay are
recognized to be Etruscan imitations of Greek originals. The imitation
is often very skilful, for the Etruscan artist rivalled his Grecian
master in deftness of hand, if not in imagination. Such, for instance,
are the large amphoras decorated with bands of animals in the Corinthian
style. Besides these native Vases the tombs have yielded great
quantities of others which used to be called Etruscan, but are now known
to have been imported from Greece. Until the 6th century B.C. these
vases are mostly Ionian, but at that time the trade of the Phocaeans was
waning before that of Athens, and henceforward the Athenian ware is the
commonest. Intercourse with Athens, however, came to an end about 480,
when the Sicilian Greeks mastered the trade of the western
Mediterranean, so that in the Etruscan tombs later than this date we
find fewer and fewer imported vases, and more and more native
imitations. It is generally taken for granted that these Attic vases
were brought to Etruria by Greek traders, but considering how little the
Greek historians, even Herodotus, knew of that country, this is
unlikely. Then, too, the chief products Etruria had to give Greece were
metals, so it is more likely that it was the Etruscan traders who,
having carried metal to Greece (where Etruscan bronze was famous[29]),
brought back the vases.
Scarabs.
Though most collections make no distinction between Greek and Etruscan
scarabs the differences, though slight, are quite certain, and consist
in the greater elaboration of the borders, edges and backs of the
Etruscan examples. The commonest material for these gems is red
carnelian, and agate frequently occurs. The beetle shape is undoubtedly
due to the Phoenicians, who familiarized the Etruscans with the Egyptian
scarab and with its signification as an amulet; while in technique they
are more Greek, in use they are more Egyptian, for they were used not
only as seals but as ornaments--as in the decoration of necklaces.[30]
What we learn from them merely serves to strengthen what we learn from
the pottery--that the Etruscans depended on the Greek world for their
artistic conceptions. Though many Phoenician gems (in fact, scarcely any
other kind) have been found in Sardinia, these are comparatively rare in
Etruria, where the earliest gems occur about 650 B.C. Some of these
earliest show the Ionian influence, which is also shown in certain gold
rings, but most of them represent the Attic style as seen on the
black-figured vases of Athens. To understand them one has but to know
Attic sculpture, the complete history of which is repeated in these
small and beautifully worked stones. At first one finds the single
figures, awkward in form and modelling, but full of life in
composition--one finds the same mistakes in anatomy (i.e. the muscles of
the stomach); and then come the figures beautifully worked and
accurately observed, but with the slight hardness and rigidity that
belongs to all pre-Raphaelite work; and finally one sees the figures
carved with the easy assurance of the master, sometimes single,
sometimes in groups, but always Attic in their unrivalled representation
of the beauties of the human figure, and in the innumerable lovely
scenes taken from everyday life. Not infrequently inscriptions are cut
in the gem, but these are not as on Greek gems the name of the carver or
the owner, but the name of the Greek hero represented. In regard to
technique one point is specially noteworthy. Many of the gems are carved
with the round drill, and the disks made by this are not modelled into
any real semblance of a figure. This is not a sign of the antiquity of
the gem, for there are examples in which together with this method will
be seen a figure finished with the greatest care; it is thus evident
that the gem-cutter left the marks of his round drill because of their
decorative value. This they undoubtedly possess, and it is one of the
few cases in which the Etruscans showed any art sense.
Bronze.
Bronze was used extensively. Weapons of course were fashioned of it, but
these are simple in shape and decoration; no such examples as those from
Mycenae occur. Objects of large size, as the bronze doors of Veii,[31]
the chariots of Perugia in the New York museum, or large tripods or
shields, show that the artisans had large quantities of the material at
their disposal. As with the vases or gems, so in these metal objects the
distinction must be drawn between pure Etruscan work and the work that
was done by Greek workmen or by artisans copying the Greek style. As
Etruscan art has been wrongly estimated through forgetfulness of the
Greek influence, so Greek bronzes have possibly received credit that
does not belong to them. Etruscan candelabra and vases were famous among
the Greeks (Ath. i. 28. 6; xv. 700 c). The chariots above mentioned and
the tripods in the Harvard museum are plainly Greek; the round shields
with ornament in bands are native. Antefixes of tombs were of bronze,
and in some cases the eyes of the figures were inlaid with glass paste.
The best-known articles of bronze are the mirrors,[32] which are very
dependent on Greece for their models, though the poor style in which the
scenes that decorate them are in most cases carved shows that these
articles of common use were produced, as was natural, mainly by ordinary
workmen. In rare cases the figures are not engraved but are given in low
relief. These mirrors seem to have been mainly intended for women, and
the scenes on them in large numbers of cases are of such a character as
to bear out this idea; for instead of scenes of battle such as occur on
the gems, scenes with satyrs and maenads are commoner, or the story of
Helen or the labours of Hercules. So far as development goes they pass
through the same stages as the gems, though owing to their larger
surface they are more generally decorated with groups of figures.[33]
Another well-known class of work is the _cistae_ or cylindrical bronze
boxes found mostly at Praeneste, where they seem to have been especially
popular. The engraved figures on them are of the same character as those
on the mirrors, and it is noteworthy that these figures are often better
in style than the figures modelled in the round that serve as handles,
or than the legs which also are modelled. This, taken together with the
fact that the same figures are repeated in several cases on more than
one gem or mirror, makes it probable that the workmen, like the later
potters of Arezzo, had a stock of models brought from Greece, which they
repeated and combined to suit their fancy.
Gold and silver.
The paintings and contents of the tombs have made it plain that the
wealth of the Etruscans was very considerable, and that they spent much
on jewelry, gold and silver.[34] Their extravagance in this regard was
well known,[35] and the rings, the necklaces, the diadems, the bracelets
and the earrings show that there was a large class of well-to-do people.
The eastern and Greek influences are clearly marked in the figures used
in decoration, and in certain shapes of rings, but in one technical
matter the Etruscans seem to have made a discovery: it was in the use of
granulated ornament, that is, ornament made by soldering on to the gold
object infinitely small globules of the same metal laid in various
designs and patterns, each globule soldered by itself. Though this style
of ornament occurs in Egypt, Cyprus, Rhodes and Magna Graecia, nowhere
is it accomplished with such extraordinary minuteness as in Etruria.
That they should do this was natural. The difficulty of it seems to have
pleased them, for it is commoner than the earlier filigree work made of
wire soldered on to the gold base. Reference has been made to the
scarabs set as ornament in the gold necklaces, and similarly we find
amber used and, in the later work, precious stones and pearls.
Sculpture.
As in Greece the Etruscans first carved their figures out of wood,[36]
but what these figures were like we can only imagine. The earliest known
figures in the round are even less successful than the contemporary
Greek work. An early attempt at a female bust[37] is made not by casting
but by riveting plates of bronze together. A half life size bust in the
Tyszkiewicz collection[38] made probably about 600 B.C. is cast solid.
Later they learned the art of hollow-casting, but their attempts to
reproduce figures in the round are generally lacking in skill. One
reason for this was the lack of good marble, the quarries at Carrara not
having been used till Roman times. Terra-cotta was the material most
commonly used, and their skill in modelling and colouring this was
great. The earlier statues of large size have perished; but there are
three famous sarcophagi which show the work of Ionian Etruscan
artists;[39] one is in the British Museum, one in the Louvre and one in
the Villa di Papa Giulio at Rome. The elaborate detail and careful work,
the types of the figures and the style of their dress all point to the
same Ionic origin as that of the bronze chariots already mentioned. The
type of sarcophagus illustrated by these examples became very common,
and in the figures that decorate the covers can be traced the various
influences that affected the whole of Etruscan art. In an example from
Volci[40] the later Attic influence is strongly marked. Such work shows
little power of origination, but much of the interest taken by careful
workmen by copying carefully, and the tendency that such workmen almost
invariably display of overloading the subject with too much ornament and
detail. The small ash-urns, either of stone or terra-cotta, are in
certain ways more interesting than the more elaborate sarcophagi, for on
these urns the heads of the figures reclining on one elbow which form
the usual decoration of the covers are often obvious attempts at
portraiture. Single busts[41] show this same desire for accurate
likeness of the person represented, and in this one line of art the
Etruscans showed a new feeling, one that found its finest expression in
the hands of the later Roman portraitists. The main difference between
such portraits and the Greek ones is that the Greek artist thought of
his subject as illustrating character that showed itself in ways of
repose and thought--the essential, lasting individuality. The Etruscan
and Roman portraitist thought, on the other hand, of his subject as
illustrating character in ways of action; hence pure Etruscan and Roman
portraits are much more tense in line, and the expression of the eye is
not dreamy but distinctly focussed. They are different, but, as art, one
is as fine as the other. The scenes on the sides of these urns are, as
in the case of the gems and mirrors, very frequently taken from Greek
story, and often are scenes of battle.[42] Work in relief for the
friezes and the other decorations of temples was very common, and shows
remarkable skill in the mere processes of modelling and baking the slabs
of terra-cotta that were fastened by nails to the beams. So far as the
figures themselves are concerned, they seem to have but little meaning
in connexion with the building they decorate. Satyrs and maenads,
chariot-races and such scenes taken over from Greek models are perhaps
the commonest. In none of the obviously native work is there any more
instinctive feeling for the greater qualities of sculpture than in the
gems. Little is original, almost everything dependent on earlier
masters. There is no absorption of the artist by his work which produces
great work, great because the beholder thinks rather of the work
produced than of the artist who produces it. For this reason such
figures as the bronze chimaera or the bronze Athena in the Florence
museum are presumably not Etruscan but Greek.
Painting.
There is no evidence that the Etruscans had easel-paintings like the
Greeks, but their skill in painting is well illustrated by the pictures
with which they frequently covered the inner walls of their tombs. The
wall was prepared with a coating of fine white stucco on which the
figures were painted with a large variety of tints. The best of them
have been found at Tarquinii, Chiusi, Volci, Caere, Veii.[43] The
paintings exhibit the usual Greek influences. They show a certain
ponderous realism, but as works of art they are of little value. As
pictures of the life and customs of the people they are of great
importance.
Coins.
As works of art their coins[44] are the worst efforts of the Etruscans.
Gold, silver and bronze were used, but no examples can be dated earlier
than the beginning of the 5th century B.C. The coins are struck
according to four different standards of weight, due perhaps to
different trade-connexions. The bronze coinage shows a distinct scale of
reduction in weight due to the increasing use of the precious metals.
Many examples show a design only on one side. The designs of the
majority of the types are taken from Greek models, but strangely enough
the die-cutters show no such skill as that of the makers of gems.
_Arms and Armour_.--In the early periods the chief weapons (besides bows
and arrows which bore flint or bronze heads) were few and simple, and
were of bronze. Iron ones have been found, and their rarity is doubtless
partly due to their having rusted away. Spears of very various weights
were common and also swords and daggers. These latter had straight
two-edged blades with the handle either of the same piece or of some
other material fastened on with rivets. The blades of the daggers are
generally engraved with lines and zigzags. Shields were of circular and
oval shape. These two were of bronze, the round ones decorated in
Homeric fashion with concentric circles of ornament, the motives being
geometric patterns or an animal repeated endlessly. Breastplates with
overlapping shoulder-straps and belts, broader in front than behind,
with decoration of the same kind as the bucchero vases, are not
uncommon. Greaves and helmets completed their equipment. The former seem
to have been less ornate than those the Greeks wore; the latter were of
various shapes, the commonest being round caps with a knob on the top,
or a deeper shape with a crest from front to back. Some are shown with
side-pieces raised like wings, but these are perhaps merely cheek-pieces
raised on hinges. In later times they had trumpets and axes, and their
arms became practically the same as the Roman, as one sees from the
representations in the tombs. (R. N.)