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ancient Etruscans on account of the numbers of gladiators among them; and this is the reason also, why these Scarabæi, besides their form, which made them suited to this destination, present, for the most part, the representation of some of these Greek heroes-Tydeus, Hercules, Theseus, Peleus, Achilles, types of valour, the image of whom became, for these braves by profession, at once a model and a preservative. In naming these heroes, I have mentioned many of the most celebrated Etruscan Scarabæi, and which present in the highest degree all the characteristics of the Etruscan style. The most important of all these is, perhaps, the famous Scarabæus representing five of the seven chiefs against Thebes, Polynices, Adrastus, Amphiaraus, Parthenopæus, and Tydeus, with the name of each of them in its Etruscan form, in the characters of that language. beautiful gem, with those of Tydeus, of Peleus, and Theseus, display the Etruscan style, with its most decided characteristics; namely, with those vigorous and robust forms, with the bones and muscles strongly marked, with those energetic movements, sometimes strained, with that science and display of drawing carried to excess, which belong to the Etruscan school of art, if not peculiarly, at least more particularly, than to the Greek school, where the same qualities do not seem to have been accompanied by the same faults, at least in the same degree; and where the imitation of nature, at first timid and simple, then learned and correct, never ceased to be true while it became scientific, and always knew how to link, by a privilege which belonged exclusively to it, simplicity with strength, and grace with everything. It now remains for me to speak of the Etruscan paintings, and especially of those which are on the vases in baked earth, which compose the most numerous and the most interesting class, perhaps, of all ancient_monuments, if we except medals. But here, at the outset, I must establish an important distinction. When, at the beginning of the last century, the first discoveries of these painted vases attracted the attention of the learned, the domain of antiquity was filled with the most false ideas, and the most exaggerated prepossessions concerning Etruscan art in general. Everything which, in monuments of every kind, presented the appearance of a primitive style, and of a rude workmanship, was without distinction considered Etruscan. Without taking into consideration the places where these vases mostly

came from, from Magna Græcia and Sicily, countries occupied at an early period, and civilised by the Greeks; without taking into consideration the Greek inscriptions which the vases frequently bear; they were classed under the denomination of Etruscan vases, and such is, in everything, the tenacity of popular prejudices, such the authority of habit, even when the most devoid of sense and reason, that, even at the present, this false and common denomination has continued to be used, and we ourselves, unfortunate antiquarians as we are, are reduced to employ, in order to make ourselves understood, this expression which is offensive and repugnant to us. No, gentlemen, on such a subject, I cannot raise my voice too high; no, the vases which are called Etruscan, are not Etruscan; they are Greek, solely and purely Greek, under whatever view they may be considered. For they have issued from a Greek manufactory, and finally, they bear Greek inscriptions.

Already had Winckelmann, that man who cast over the entire domain of antiquity so penetrating and so just a glance, that man whose sagacity cannot be sufficiently admired, his genius sufficiently praised, nor his name sufficiently made known, commenced in that sphere of ideas, as in all others, a revolution which it has fallen to the lot of our age to see finally accomplished.

From the sole collection of the vases of the Vatican, Winckelmann had pronounced that these vases must be Greek; he entertained doubts alone with regard to those which were painted with black figures on a yellow ground, and, with a certain meagreness of forms, a certain rigidity of attitude and arrangement, seemed to betray an Etruscan taste and origin. In this Winckelmann was still in error, but this remnant of weakness, which even the intellect of a great man cannot prevent him from having for the prejudices of his age, that kind of tribute paid to human imperfection, did not diminish aught from the merit of the general ideas of Winckelmann. He had had one of those revelations which belong to genius alone, that the entire domain of antiquity is Greek, whether we consider it with regard to the ground-work of its ideas, or with regard to execution and style. Constantly under the inspiration, I would almost say, under the charm of this great thought, he followed out its application in all the branches of the science, on all the monuments of art; he ranged, as a great conqueror, the vast domain of antiquity,

restoring everywhere to the Greeks, what had been attributed through caprice or through error to the Romans as well as to the Etruscans, dethroning usurped opinions, reinstating legitimate authorities, establishing, in fine, art in all its rights, and Greece in all its influence and dominion. To return to the painted vases, the luminous views of Winckelmann developed, enlarged, and examined by Heyne, Lanzi, Millin, without speaking of a crowd of other learned men, who still live and enjoy their fame, have completely re-established and fixed the general opinion on this point of antiquity: these vases are universally recognised at the present day to be Greek. But there resulted from this, one of those revolutions to which the peaceable domain of archæology ought to be less exposed than any other; opinion has passed, from the excess which attributed all to the Etruscans, into the opposite which refuses them all; and after having considered as Etruscan all the Greek vases without exception, at the present day they have almost come to the conclusion to consider as Greek those which bear the most unquestionably an Etruscan character. It is from facts alone that correct judgment can be formed on this.

We cannot see why the Etruscans, whose taste was formed in the school of the Greeks, who had borrowed from Greece the elements of their arts, the models and subjects of their monuments, and who had at hand materials suited for the production of similar objects, should have prohibited themselves from making and painting vases, with the same means, and for the same uses. Ancient Etruria possessed that beautiful and pure clay of Arezzo, of Urbino, and of Faenza, which has given to modern Tuscany those manufactures of majolica and faenza, which rivalled in facility, freedom, and elegance of design, the manufacture of Greek vases as long as they were under the influence of Raphael and his school. Even in ancient times, some Etruscan vases of red colour, ornamented with animals and figures in relief, were placed in public estimation on a par with similar vases which were made at Samos. Lastly, very recently, there have been discovered in an Etruscan territory, near Bologna, the ancient Felsina, vases painted with black figures on red ground, exactly in the same style as the Greek vases of the ancient style, and bearing inscriptions in the Etruscan language and character, which allows no further doubt that this kind of

manufacture, originally from Greece, was also known and cultivated with success among the Etrurians. I add, that; there is nothing more frequent than to find in Etruscan tombs, particularly in those of Corneto and Chiusi, painted vases with Greek subjects and in the Greek style, but unquestionably issuing from national manufactories. I myself possess one of these vases, which represents two facts in the history of Hercules, with black figures on a yellow ground. Other vases, not less curious, and hitherto still less known, are also to be frequently found in the Etruscan tombs of Corneto, Arezzo, and especially of Chiusi. These are vases of black clay, ornamented in their entire circumference with a frieze in bas-relief of figures of animals, or even of human figures, forming a kind of religious procession. On these bas-reliefs are figures, accessories, symbols, which seem to betray an Egyptian origin, which evince at least a great affinity of style and character between the Egyptian and Etruscan schools. For my part, I acknowledge that I consider them as directly produced under oriental influence, and belonging for the most part to that period, when the traditions of taste, style, creed, which the Etruscans had brought from Asia, were still maintained in all their primitive authority. The circumstance that these vases are found chiefly at Chiusi, which was, at the ancient period of the prosperity of the Etruscan nation, the centre of the power of that nation, seems to favour this conjecture which I now advance, and which can be confirmed only upon a careful examination and an attentive comparison of the objects in question.

Let us now speak of the paintings peculiarly Etruscan; I mean those compositions, painted in different colours, which ornament most of the tombs of the ancient Etruscans. These paintings would deserve for this reason alone to be ranked among the number of the most curious remains which have come down to us of the arts of antiquity. As ornaments of the last abode of the dead, they excite a still deeper interest; they show to what end, and with what intention, this serious and religious nation decorated their last asylum with consolatory representations, derived from the scenes of everyday life, or from religious creeds or public spectacles; the view they entertained of death, sometimes with all its terrors, sometimes with all its hopes; how the dogma of the immortality of the soul, that necessary and sublime dogma, was

written on all the ornaments of the tomb, as a kind of protest against death in the bosom of death itself. Nothing perhaps is more fitted to give us a high and touching idea of ancient civilisation, than to see with what care the tombs of this people were decorated, with how many sweet and smiling images, how many rare and precious objects they were filled. Those tombs which were not painted, those of Pæstum, Nola, Agrigentum, Syracuse, were adorned with beautiful Greek vases, which represent scenes of initiation or acts of heroism, or festivals, banquets, and domestic pleasures. To these were added instruments, jewels, arms, all that caused the happiness or the glory of a life, and which was thought could contribute to the amusement or to the consolation of another.

The tombs, which were painted, as the generality of Etruscan tombs were, according to a custom, also practised in Greece and at Rome, presented on all their sides representations of a similar kind, the passage of the soul to Elysium, funeral games, bacchic scenes, religious processions; only, in ancient Etruria, these kinds of representations bore the impress of the gloomy and stern genius of the people, while in Greece, the humane and brilliant character of refined civilisation was stamped on the very images of death, in order to soothe and soften them. These painted tombs have been discovered throughout all Etruria, and even in the Campagna of Rome, which was in ancient times an Etruscan territory. They have been found at Falari, Gubbio, Crotona, Perugia, Chiusi, Volterra, but especially in the environs of Corneto, a modern town near the ancient and celebrated Tarquinia. There the ancient tombs cover a space of about six miles long, by eight broad. They are not built on the surface, but cut in the rock itself, to the depth of twenty feet, sometimes with two stories. The plan of these sepulchral grottoes is generally square, surmounted with a pyramidal roof. Everything is painted in it, the sides as well as the roof. The subjects of these paintings, of those, at least, of which some copies have been preserved, or which can be still recognised on the spot,-for the greatest part has been damaged by time, but above all, by negligence and ignorance, present scenes of the passage of souls to the other life, images sometimes of a soothing character, the more frequently terrible and formidable, of the fate which awaits them, funeral games, combats of every kind, sometimes banquets. There are also to be seen larvæ, winged genii,

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